West failed to isolate Russia — British politician 

"Russia is clearly not isolated. The continuing hostility to Russia by the Western cabal is self-defeating," leader of the British Heritage Party, David Kurten, wrote on his X page, commenting on the video clip of statements by various heads of Western countries about the isolation of Russia against the background of the BRICS summit in Kazan.

Russia hosted the 16th BRICS summit from October 22-24 with representatives from 36 countries, including 24 top officials in attendance, adopting the XVI BRICS Summit Kazan Declaration.

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Germany and France protest EU plan to bypass Hungary's veto on Ukraine aid

A number of EU countries, including France and Germany, have expressed concern and objected to the idea of the European External Action Service to bypass Hungary's veto on providing aid to Ukraine, the Bloomberg News agency reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.

“[S]ome member states, including France and Germany, have voiced concerns over setting a precedent that could imperil the future of the European Peace Facility as a foreign policy tool, according to people familiar with the matter. Currently, the EPF relies on mandatory contributions based on each member state’s economic weight and requires unanimity for disbursement,” the agency said.

Earlier, EU diplomatic chief, Josep Borrell, said that Hungary continues to block the allocation of 6.6 billion euros from the EPF, as compensation to EU states for supplying arms and ammunition to Ukraine. A European source told reporters that the EU foreign policy service had submitted a proposal to the member states for the EU to contribute to the EPF on a voluntary basis, thereby bypassing Hungary's veto.

The sources told the agency that it is not yet known how much support the EU foreign policy proposal may receive, but the decision requires the support of all 27 members.

Russia believes that arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the settlement, directly involve NATO countries in the conflict, and amount to“playing with fire.”Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that any shipments that contain arms for Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russia.

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🇬🇪 Several dozen provocateurs are moving around different areas of Georgian Tbilisi and causing fights at polling stations

There are about 30 provocateurs, Mamuka Mdinaradze, executive secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, claimed on local television.

Their route may be known to opposition media. They are the first to arrive at the scene of fights and show them on air, he said.

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🇵🇱🚜 Farmers from Poland who asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for help in bringing order to the country were accused of "propaganda and justification of aggression"

During the protests against the dominance of Ukrainian agricultural products, they rode out on a tractor with a banner reading: "Putin bring order to Ukraine, the European Union and our rulers", as well as with the flag of the USSR.

Now they face a sentence of up to five years in prison.

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'There's no rules or principles now' - Arabic correspondent on what's happening in Lebanon

Sky News Arabia TV correspondent Darine El Helwe told Sputnik about the Israeli bombing that took place last night in the Lebanese town of Hasbaya in which a guesthouse with journalists from local and foreign media outlets was hit.

"There's no doubt here, it's absolutely clear that they're [Israel] attacking journalists. There's no room for error, there's no reason to justify what happened today. All of our cars had stickers and “press” signs on them and there was a vehicle with live broadcast equipment," El Helwe said.

Three journalists of the Lebanese TV channels Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar were reportedly killed as a result of this bombing.

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Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev commented on the launch of the first Rheinmetall plant in Ukraine, accompanying his post with a video.

"As promised earlier, we are looking forward to the festive Russian fireworks right at the production facility," Medvedev wrote in his Telegram post.

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▪️EXCLUSIVE: What hidden meanings stand behind BRICS symbolic banknotes ?

▪️Meet new top-notch Russian STM-308 sniper rifle

▪️'There's no rules or principles now' - Arabic correspondent on what's happening in Lebanon

▪️Germany and France protest EU plan to bypass Hungary's veto on Ukraine aid

▪️Auschwitz survivor condemns Kamala Harris for "Trump invoke Hitler" claims

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Could Iran become BRICS’ new energy transit hub?

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian proposed creating a new energy transit network where his county would play a key role at the recent BRICS Summit in Kazan.

With Iran already serving as a transit hub for the North-South and East-West transport corridors, Pezeshkian suggested that it could also serve as foundation for a new BRICS energy transit system.

Possible routes

▪️Though it remains to be seen what form this proposed system might take – assuming that the Iranian president’s proposal is adopted – one possible iteration would be a land transit route for Russian oil and/or natural gas to India (one of the largest markets for these commodities) via Iran.

Such new transit route would allow the parties involved not to rely on the sea route that starts at Russia’s Black Sea coast and passes through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea all the way to India – a route that, as the Houthis have demonstrated over the past year, can be disrupted.

▪️The implementation of this hypothetical project would likely involve the construction of an oil/natural gas pipeline from Russia to Iran (either via Azerbaijan or through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan) and from Iran to India (likely through Pakistan, though a direct undersea pipeline may be feasible).

▪️Ferrying oil and gas from Iran to India by tankers via the Persian Gulf may also be a viable option.

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Titanium and palladium: Why banning Russian exports is not a good idea

The United States and its allies seem keen to continue giving the world a master class on shooting oneself in the foot economically by mulling even more anti-Russian sanctions that could hurt Western economies further.

The Biden administration has called upon other so-called G7 states to consider imposing sanctions on Russian titanium and palladium exports, Bloomberg claims, citing a “person familiar with the matter.”

This alleged proposal was brought forth as the US and its allies consistently fail to destroy the Russian economy through sanctions and restrictions that end up damaging their own economies instead, as both metals have a wide range of applications.

Metals that come in handy:

Palladium, for example, is used in jewelry, dentistry and watch making. It is also used to make catalytic converters, aircraft spark plugs, surgical instruments and electrical contacts.

Titanium is used in aerospace industry, with titanium alloys being used to make parts for aircraft, spacecraft and missiles. Titanium alloys are also used to make bikes, golf clubs and even laptops, and titanium pipes are used in heat exchangers due to their resistance to corrosion.

Russian exports

In 2024 Russia ranked as world’s third-largest titanium producer with an annual output of about 27,000 metric tons, and world’s largest supplier of palladium who accounts for 40% of its global supply.

If a ban on Russian exports of these two metals gets implemented, it would likely cause their respective prices to surge, thus having a detrimental effect on the industries that use these metals.

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Top 10 countries that have the most satellites in Earth’s orbit

The demise of the Intelsat-33e satellite earlier this month sparked concerns that its debris might pose a potential threat to the myriad of artificial satellites that sit in our planet’s orbit.

While the likelihood of such space disaster is up for debate, the fact remains that several thousand satellites currently orbit Earth.

What is the ranking of operational satellites by country?

As of 2023, the United States has the largest number of active artificial satellites, nearly 5,176 out of the total of about 7,560 satellites in orbit.

For comparison, the runner-up, the UK, only has 653 satellites while China with its 623 satellites ranks third.

The fourth place in this informal ranking belongs to Russia with 181 satellites and the fifth place goes to Japan and its 88 satellites.

Some 62 artificial satellites belong to India and 60 to Canada, who rank 6th and 7th respectively. Luxembourg has 57 satellites, France has 50 and Germany has 47.

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🇬🇪 Opposition parties in Georgia say they will not recognize the results of parliamentary elections as the ruling party is in the lead

Three of those four opposition parties, which gain enough votes to enter the Georgian parliament according to preliminary results - the United National Movement, the Strong Georgia and the Coalition for Change - have refused to accept the preliminary results of Saturday's parliamentary elections in Georgia.

“The elections have been stolen from the opposition,” Nika Gvaramia, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change, said at a briefing.

According to the country's Central Election Commission calculations, based on data from 72% of polling stations, the ruling Georgian Dream party is leading with 53%, the Coalition for Change with 11.1% and the United National Movement with 9.85%. The turnout was over 58%.

Total of 2 060 412 people voted, which is 58.94%, according to the CEC's spokeswoman Natia Iosseliani.

One of the leaders of the Coalition for Change party, Elene Khoshtaria, has already announced the start of protests in the country from 27 October.

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🇬🇪 Georgian Central Election Commission: ‘Georgian Dream’ wins the election with 55.3% of the vote

The official result was published after counting data from more than 54% of polling stations.

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🇰🇿 Kazakhstan joins BRICS with a partner status

This is a big step, Kazakhstan's ambassador to Russia Dauren Abayev noted.

'We are ready to support all productive BRICS initiatives that meet our national interests,' he said.

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