Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a session of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday, where he delivered a keynote speech and took questions from the audience.
During the event, which lasted for nearly four hours, Putin shared his thoughts on a wide array of issues, including the Ukraine conflict, the recent flare-up in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the role of the West in the origins of current tensions.
Putin also outlined his vision for a more fair and equitable model of international relations, and provided an update on Russiaβs nuclear arsenal.
At least 48 people have been killed in a Russian artillery strike that hit a grocery store near Kupiansk Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Shortly after 1pm local time, Russian forces shelled a cafe and shop in the village of Grozna in the Kupiansk district, according to Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration.
“Rescuers continue to work at the site. As of now, the bodies of 48 dead people, including a 6-year-old boy, have been removed from the rubble,” he added. “6 people, including 1 child, were injured. Doctors are providing them with the necessary assistance. Rescue operations at the site are ongoing.”
The world as we know it is βcollapsingβ amid rapidly accelerating climate change and inaction by global leaders, Pope Francis has warned. He singled out developed Western nations as the main culprits behind the crisis.
In his Apostolic Exhortation entitled Laudate Deum and published on Wednesday, the head of the Roman Catholic Church lamented that little progress has been made since he released the Encyclical Letter Laudato Siβ on the topic back in 2015.
βThe world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point,β with the current climate crisis threatening the very βdignity of human life,β the Pontiff insisted. He went on to stress that its consequences are becoming increasingly harder to ignore, manifesting themselves in βextreme weather phenomena, frequent periods of unusual heat, drought.β
Japan will begin releasing the second batch of radioactive water into the ocean from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant on Thursday.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, ( Tepco ) the plantβs operator, began discharging some of the 1.34 million tonnes of treated wastewater in August despite outcries at home and in the region. China banned all seafood from Japan over concerns of radioactive contamination.Β
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that the treated wastewater would have a negligibleΒ radiological impactΒ on people and the environment.
Iranβs advanced drone program has proven a key pillar of deterrence against both Washington and Tehranβs regional adversaries, with the Islamic Republic developing and fielding dozens of varieties of sophisticated, home-grown reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the past four decades.
Iranian media has shown off footage of a long-range, high endurance reconnaissance and strike drone keeping track of a US warship sailing in international waters in the northern Indian Ocean.
The footage, shot by the Ababil-5 UAVβs onboard day and nighttime cameras, shows the drone loitering near the US warship β which appears to be an Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyer, as it traverses local waters.
The Ababil-5 reportedly took off for its mission from an Iranian military base situated at Jask, a small port town in Hormozgan province, southeastern Iran. According to local media, the drone managed to keep tabs on the American vessel over a period of roughly 24 hours.
On October 3, the Earth will pass by a large near-Earth asteroid. It has no verbal name, only the number 349507 (2008 QY). The minimum distance to the asteroid will be 6.3 million kilometers, which could classify it as potentially hazardous to the Earth.
The asteroid was discovered in 2008. But before that, the asteroid appeared in space images in 1989. Astronomers did not notice it then, but were able to detect it in archival images after calculating its trajectory in the past.
In addition to optical observations, astronomers conducted a series of radar experiments with the asteroid in 2012, which allowed them to determine its speed and distance from the Earth. In total, astronomershave made more than 500 observations of this body to date.
Its diameter can range from 0.5 to 1.1 km, scientists say.
On October 3, the distance between the Earth and 349507 will shrink to a minimum of 6.3 million km, or 0.04 astronomical units (a.u.), equal to the radius of the Earth’s orbit. This is 16 times the distance to the Moon, but allows the asteroid to be considered dangerous by NASA’s criteria. The agency, however, has assured that the Earth is not at risk of severe asteroid impacts for the next century.
A US State Department report that accuses the Chinese government of expanding disinformation efforts is βin itself disinformation,β Beijingβs Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed Saturday.
The ministry shot back after the State Department issued a striking report this week in which it accused the Chinese government of expanding efforts to control information and to disseminate propaganda and disinformation that promotes βdigital authoritarianismβ in China and around the world.
The US report, issued by the Global Engagement Center on Thursday, alleged that China spends billions of dollars a year on foreign information manipulation and warned that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had βsignificantly expandedβ efforts to βshape the global information environment.β
