China vows "countermeasures" after US $2bln arms sale to Taiwan 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has condemned and opposed the sale of weapons to Taiwan, in addition to lodging solemn representations with the US. Beijing has called on Washington to stop dangerous actions that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

"China will take resolute countermeasures and take all measures necessary to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. 

The US arms sales to Taiwan severely violate the one-China principle, and infringe upon the country's sovereignty and security interests. It also harms China-US relations and sends a gravely erroneous message to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, the ministry added.

Earlier this week, the US State Department approved 1.988 billion US dollars in arms sales to Taiwan, including the "National Advanced Surface-to-air Missile Systems" and radar systems.

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❗️Putin hopes West heard his signals on deep strikes into Russia

It's not whether they will allow it or not, Ukraine cannot use these weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, commenting on speculations of Ukraine striking deep inside Russia using Western long-range weapons.

Speaking of the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces, Putin said that everything that's happening now is committed by the hands of NATO officers.

The Russian Defense Ministry has thought about the responses to long-range strikes on the territory of Russia, and will offer various options, the president concluded.

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Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the opposition's non-recognition of the election results a "hopeless attempt to justify itself."

Kobakhidze said that the government of Georgia would be approved, despite the actions of the opposition. 

"The opposition does not have the resources to interfere with the work of the first session of the Parliament of the new convocation of Georgia," the prime minister added.

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🔸Georgia’s ruling party wins parliamentary elections

🔸‘Georgian Dream’ wins despite meddling attempts – Hungarian FM

🔸Iran reserves right to respond to Israeli attacks

🔸Kazakhstan joins BRICS as a partner

🔸Could Iran become BRICS’ new energy transit hub?

🔸What will happen if West bans export of Russian titanium and palladium?

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⚡️The Georgian Dream party gets 90 mandates out of 150, after counting more than 99% of votes from polling stations, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament announced.

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Ruined houses in Beirut's Dahieh district after Israeli strikes on Lebanon

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces said they eliminated 70 members of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, and struck over 120 Hezbollah targets.

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⚡️Russian troops have liberated the settlement of Izmailovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry announced

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❗️For the first time, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the destruction of the Israeli-made ieMHR tactical radar complex, and two Swedish-made Viking armored personnel carriers in the special military operation zone.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

◻️Russian forces defeated the Ukrainian infrastructure of military airfields, drone assembly and storage sites, and a temporary deployment point;

◻️Ukrainian losses amounted to 500 soldiers in the area of responsibility of the Russian Zapad combat group;

◻️Ukrainian troops lost up to 60 militants in the area of responsibility of the Russian Sever Battlegroup in the Kharkov region.

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Iran's Supreme Leader: Israeli strikes 'should neither be magnified nor downplayed'

In his first public comments since Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the Israeli regime is making miscalculations with regard to Iran, as Israel "should understand the strength, will and initiative of the Iranian nation."

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces announced strikes on military installations in Iran as a response to attacks on the Jewish state on October 1.

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Israeli strikes damaged Iran's defense and missile production capabilities — Israeli Prime Minister

"On Saturday morning, the Israeli Air Force launched strikes against Iran. We have launched powerful strikes on Iran's defense and production capabilities, where missiles aimed at us were produced," Netanyahu said at a state ceremony on the commemoration of victims of the October 7 attack by the Palestinian Hamas movement.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had struck military targets in Iran on Saturday, in response to the attacks on the Jewish state on October 1. 

The CBS News broadcaster, citing sources, reported that the Israeli attack on Iran had been limited to military targets without involving nuclear or oil facilities.

The Tasnim news agency, for its part, stated that the military centers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, elite units of the Armed Forces), located in the west and southwest of the Iranian capital, were not damaged.

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Iranian officials will determine the form of response to the Israeli attack, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

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Trump vs Harris: What’s for Ukraine after US presidential election?

The two US presidential candidates offer seemingly different approaches to the Ukraine conflict, Ian Proud, a former British diplomat who served as economic counsellor at the British Embassy in Moscow, tells Sputnik.

“Kamala Harris offers very much more of the same in terms of what the Biden administration has offered to this conflict. Which is unflinching support for the government in Kiev, no change in terms of their posture towards negotiations with Russia, which basically means no talks with Moscow,” Proud points out.

He suggests that if Harris wins the election, “she will find it much more difficult to provide the level of financial support to Kiev that has been possible under the Biden administration when over $100 billion in support is being provided," something that Proud says would “make her job harder.”

“She'll continue to support whatever Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants to do. But what she might not be able to do is provide him with the amount of money and the amount of weapons that he seeks. Then this causes the scope for friction between her government and the Ukrainian government,” the ex-UK diplomat says.

As for Donald Trump, he has repeatedly underscored that “the war should really end” and that it is “far better to kind of cut a deal with Russia, put an end to the conflict and then start a kind of long-term peace process,” Proud recalls.

“That is a very significant difference from what Harris would offer, [and] whether he's able to deliver that - let's see,” the analyst says, pointing to Trump’s public statements that “he would not want to provide the unending financial resources to prop up the government in Kiev, which is gradually losing the war.”

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Watch Russian 'fire-breathing metal dragon' wipe out minefields and Ukrainian positions

The UR-77 Meteorit is a tracked mine clearing vehicle that operates by firing a nearly 100-meter-long line charge that, upon extending through the target area, detonates and thus destroys or disables nearby mines and explosive ordnance.

The vehicle is often referred by troops as “Zmey Gorynych,” a reference to a three-headed fire-breathing wyrm from Russian folk tales.

Mine clearing aside, the UR-77 has proven to be an effective offensive weapon as well, with its line charge sometimes being used to obliterate enemy strongpoints.

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2024 BRICS Summit showed collapsing Western hegemony – experts

The recent BRICS Summit in Russia’s Kazan showed that the group “has transformed from a limited bloc into a force with international political and financial clout,” Zakaria Hammoudan, the head of the Lebanese National Institute for Research and Statistics, tells Sputnik.

"BRICS is important because it creates a new multipolar world order, helping to weaken the hegemony of Western countries and traditional financial institutions such as the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank," he points out.

In a separate interview with Sputnik, Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies with the Moscow-based National Research University Higher School of Economics, said that the BRICS Summit in Kazan received “unusually extensive” international media coverage.

He noted that all Western media outlets had covered the summit, which Suslov said is a “serious” factor. “They came to realize the fact that they gradually lose ground because a new system is being formed that is beyond their control. The fact that the summit was attended by delegations from so many countries, with many of them seeking to join BRICS, means that Western hegemony is collapsing," Suslov stressed.

He was echoed by Argentina's Christian Lamesa, an analyst and ambassador of the Russian society "Knowledge", who told Sputnik that the BRICS Summit showed that the US and Europe had failed to isolate Russia.

“Despite attempts by America and Europe to isolate Russia through sanctions and other restrictive measures, the BRICS Summit in Kazan proved that Russia is not only not isolated, but is a real world leader along with China and other countries that form BRICS,” Lamesa emphasized.

He added that BRICS’ strength and potential show how the US and Europe fear to lose hegemony and the belief that "the White House can rule the rest of the world without any objections."

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