⚡ The European Commission approved additional import duties on Chinese electric vehicles of up to 35.3%, the decision will come into effect on October 30.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹🗳 Another voter suppression tactic?

A video circulating on social media shows the lines in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, allegedly being shut down 2.5 hours early. This move came as a direct contradiction of guarantees previously made by Pennsylvania officials.

“If you are in line at a county elections office by 5 P.M., counties must give you an opportunity to apply for your mail ballot,” Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro wrote in his X account.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 A 10-story hotel in Argentina has collapsed and a rescue operation is underway at the site. The cause of the disaster and the exact number of people trapped under the rubble are unknown, Efe reports.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Bryansk merc incursion attempt had all the markings of a NATO probing action – experts

“The infiltration attempt in Bryansk region can be considered an intelligence operation on the part of NATO, since the saboteurs who took part in it came from alliance countries,” political scientist and Russia expert Abbas Hbeish told Sputnik, commenting on the dramatic events in Bryansk region earlier this week.

“From the very start of the special military operation, Russia said that it was fighting not with Ukraine, but with the West,” he said, referencing senior Russian officials’ characterization of the conflict as a NATO proxy war against Moscow.

The observer does not rule out that the infiltrators’ goal “was to prepare the ground for a further, larger-scale attempt, including by NATO forces, to penetrate this Russian region” amid the increasingly dire political and military situation of the bloc’s client regime.

“Russia has every opportunity to resist Western provocations, fully understanding who is waging war against it in Ukraine and why. It is no longer a secret that mercenaries of all stripes are present in Ukraine, and that military decisions, both tactical and strategic, belong to NATO,” Hbeish stressed.

Lebanese international affairs expert Riyadh Najm concurs with Hbeish’s assessment, saying there’s no doubt “that what is happening in Ukraine is a NATO war against Russia.”

“The alliance is financing this war, training the Ukrainian army, providing it with various modern weapons and teaching them how to use them,” Najm said.

He characterized the Bryansk provocation as a sign of NATO’s growing desperation amid their inability to achieve their goals, “forcing them to resort to new methods in their confrontation with Moscow, including using mercenaries and saboteurs.”

At the same time, the observer said, “it is the Ukrainian people who are paying for this war, and in the future will be mired in debt, while the West will receive Ukraine’s property and assets in exchange for its military and financial support.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡ A Ukrainian UAV strike in Chechnya hit Ukrainian prisoners - Ramzan Kadyrov

Head of the Chechen Republic reiterated that there were no casualties among citizens.

“There are up to 10 Ukrainian prisoners at each strategic site in the republic, including on the territory [of the university]. Kiev, trying to harm us, destroyed its own soldiers today. Henceforth, Ukraine should realize that by such attacks it is first of all harming its own citizens,” he said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🌪 A hurricane in the Spanish regions of Valencia and Catalonia has flooded streets and damaged infrastructure, causing major problems for local residents.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚠️ Ukraine's mass desertion exposed

🪖 More than 100,000 Ukrainian military personnel have deserted from the Ukrainian army or left the unit unauthorized, Verkhovna Rada deputy Anna Skorokhod has said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

When rap meets Russian opera: How ‘Prince Igor’ took over Europe

“Prince Igor” was a song that stormed the European charts back in 1997.

Inspired by the Polovtsian Dances - the ballet fragment of Russian composer Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor – it was released as a lead single from the concept album “Hip Hop Meets Classic - The Rapsody: Overture.”

In the song, soprano sensation Kyrkjebø Sissel from Norway teams up with American rapper Warren G, with the instrumental background provided by The Rapsody.

Warren G fell back on the same rap lyrics as in his song "Reality" from the album Take a Look Over Your Shoulder.

Prince Igor was a major success, reaching number one in both Iceland and Norway. It was a Top 10 hit in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden. On the Eurochart Hot 100, the song peaked at number six in January 1998.

What do you think, has the song retained its fresh and inspired appeal?

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

"Hope the cars are insured": Dents and shattered windows – in the Spanish town of El Ejido, hail the size of hens’ eggs has fallen. Hundreds of vehicles are damaged, and windows around the town have been broken.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

SCOTUS kept Kennedy Jr.'s name on the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan

Despite independent US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump's candidacy, the Supreme Court rejected requests to remove his name from the ballots in those swing states.

“It is a purely political move in the hope that folks who would have otherwise voted for Trump will throw away their vote by voting for me instead. Don't let them undermine this election,” he wrote in his X account.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🏛❌ Canada's opposition starts talks to oust Trudeau's government

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said he will join other parties whenever there's another non-confidence vote.

“Depending on what the [New Democratic Party] will do, we can say the government's days are numbered,” Blanchet told CBC.

The mandate for Trudeau's government expires in late October 2025, and media reports openly predict the Liberals' defeat at the next general election.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Biden called Trump supporters 'garbage'

In a virtual event in support of Kamala Harris, Joe Biden called over 74 million (that's how many Americans voted for Donald Trump in the last election) 'garbage'.

President later wrote in his X account that he was referring to the rhetoric of Trump supporters at his Madison Square Garden rally:

"[This] is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That's all I meant to say."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🌍🌍🌍 summit 'a complete success' - Chinese Foreign Minister

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has highly appreciated the recent BRICS summit.

💬 "The BRICS summit was held in Kazan under the chairmanship of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and was a complete success … this summit will not only help maintain the momentum of the development of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, but also strengthen the unity of the countries of the Global South so that they can play their important and constructive role in stabilizing the current international situation," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko.

At the same time, the Chinese foreign minister added that Russia and China "should maintain strategic interaction at all levels and in all areas."

💬 "Under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese-Russian relations have maintained a healthy and stable development momentum, which not only meets the common interests of China and Russia and the peoples of the two countries, but is also our joint contribution to maintaining the stability of international relations, protecting international law and the UN Charter," Wang noted.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖 Russian air defense forces down 23 Ukrainian drones overnight

Among them, seven drones were destroyed over the territory of the Rostov region, five over the territory of the Kursk region, four over the territory of the Smolensk region, three each over the territory of the Orel and Bryansk regions, and one over the territory of the Belgorod region, the Defense Ministry said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt