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Russia said on Sunday that the Crimean attack drones used the "safe zone" designated for the export of grain, while Ukraine said that the Russian embargo made the export of grain "impossible."
What Happened After The Attack? Following Ukraine’s ever first drone attack on the Crimean peninsula, Moscow announced its withdrawal from deal that made exporting gran possible after months of suspension that led to record high grain prices.
Moscow said that the drones carrying out the Crimean attack may have been launched from a "civilian ship," stressing that the drones carrying out the attack included "Canadian-made navigation units."
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had recovered and analyzed the wreckage of drones used to attack the Black Sea Fleet yesterday in Crimea.
The ministry added that its analysis showed that the drones were equipped with Canadian-made navigation units, in an attack it said was carried out by Ukrainian forces under the guidance of British specialists, something that Britain denies.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that its experts "examined the Canadian-made navigation units installed on the marine drones."
Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov confirmed that Russia's suspension of an agreement allowing the export of grain from Ukrainian ports makes it "impossible" to leave tankers loaded with these products.
"A bulk tanker loaded with 40 tons of grain was supposed to leave the Ukrainian port today. This food was meant for Ethiopians who are on the verge of starvation. But as a result of Russia's closure of the 'grain corridor', export is impossible," he wrote on Twitter.
The hackers gained access to top private messages and communications with other nation's leaders, in addition to private messages between Truss and her close friend Kwasi Kwarteng, who later became finance minister, the report said.
Levelling-up secretary Michael Gove said that "he could not discuss any possible security breaches while insisting there were "robust protocols" in place over such issues, the Guardian reported. Home Scretary Suella Braverman's resigned after admiting "mistake" that breached government security rules, which Rishi Sunak later restored as Home Secretary.
"The messages are believed to have included discussions with senior international foreign ministers about the war in Ukraine, including details about arms shipments, Daily Mail wrote. Up to a year's worth of messages were downloaded, the Mail said, citing unnamed sources.
"The Government has robust systems in place to protect against cyber threats. That includes regular security briefings for Ministers, and advice on protecting their personal data and mitigating cyber threats," quoting a British government spokesperson Reuters wrote.
The hack was uncovered during the Conservative Party leadership campaign that led to Truss becoming prime minister, the Mail reported.
Truss left office last week as prime minister and was succeeded by Rishi Sunak.
Last night, in Erbil's Khabat district, some armed men tried to break into the house of a man who escaped to his mother's home next door, and the attackers opened fire on the man, killing her mother and injuring the son, according to witnesses.
Yesterday night at 1:30 midnight, the Erbil Police Directorate was alerted of a shooting in Khabat district, Erbil police added.
"After we [police] arrived at the scene, it was revealed that several gunmen broke into the house of a man who fled to his father's house next door, as he flees away the gunmen open fire on him and injur her mother who later died in hospital," the police explained in a statement.
The shooters are still on the loose. "An investigation has been opened into the incident and police are investigating to find out the true cause of the incident and arrest the criminals," Erbil Police noted.
Lavrov added: "We will always be ready to listen to the proposals of our Western partners aimed at de-escalation, so if realistic proposals are directed to us, based on the principles of equality and respect for each other's interests, with the aim of finding compromises and balancing the interests of all countries, of course, we will be However, as we have always been in the past."
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the willingness of the United States to listen to the concerns of the Russian Federation could open the way for dialogue between the two countries leaderships.
Russian-funded Sputnik news agency reported that Russia's concerns, including those related to security, "could become a starting point for dialogue between President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Joe Biden."
The talks between Moscow and Kyiv collapsed since the last Turkish-brokered round of negotiations in early 2022 in Istanbul, as Ukraine has repeatedly refused talks until they recapture every territory occupied by Russia, as Ukraine is now on the offensive in East and Southern Ukraine.
Iraqi President Dr. Latif Rashid released a statement on the tanker explosion in Baghdad's Binuki neighborhood and instructed authorities to look into the matter thoroughly, which killed 9 and injured over 20 bystanders.
The president also hoped citizens would cooperate with the police and civil defense and emphasize the relevant authorities to investigate the incident and hold negligent persons accountable, and wished the injured a speedy recovery.
Last night a gas tanker truck exploded in Baghdad’s Binuki neighborhood, a chunk of the tanker’s iron cover blew into the sky, landing 300 meters away in a football stadium, where hundreds of audiences watched a game, as the iron chunk smacked the stadium and hit the onlookers, KurdSat’s reporter in Baghdad said.
Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Sair Makhif, said, "after the significant decline in domestic agricultural production harms farmers and consumers."
"The committee is working to make agriculture and water scarcity a priority in its agenda with the Ministry of Agriculture and wants to access to water to farmers through a new irrigation program and subsidize farmers in every way to increase production levels Fill in the barley," the chairman noted.
He added that "food security has been of great importance to the lives of citizens and has helped to sign contracts with several producing countries to strengthen grain reserves, but efforts should be intensified to guarantee emergency solutions.
The Director of the General Company for Grain Trade at the Iraqi Ministry of Trade, Muhammad Hanoun, said that Iraq would only produce about two million tons of wheat this season. "This season's decrease would be 50% compared to what was marketed last season," Hannoun told Iraq's Al-Sabah newspaper.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that the world is at risk of yet another year of record starvation as the global food crisis continues to drive more people yet into worsening levels of acute food insecurity warn.
This year Iraq has made it to WFP and FAO's list of countries at risk of facing hunger.
Last night in Sulaimani’s bustling Salim Street, an armed man shot his father-in-law over familial issue, according to witnesses. Sources said that the man was shot in his car while with his family.
KurdSat’s reporter said a man shot and wounded his father-in-law aged over 50, near Nali Park in Sulaimani’s Salim Street yesterday evening.
The wounded man was shot in the leg and is currently receiving treatment at a city hospital, the reporter added.
The authorities confirmed that the Russian forces managed to bring down all the drones that attacked the port of Sevastopol for hours on end.
"Since 04:40 a.m. and for several hours, the city's various air defense systems repelled attacks with booby-trapped drones," the city's governor Mikhail Razvogaev, said on Telegram.
The Moscow-appointed man explained, "the Russian Navy shot down all the drones in the Gulf of Sevastopol", the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet of Moscow, according to AFP.
Local officials said ferries and boats had temporarily stopped crossing the Gulf of Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Earlier this week, Razvogaev reported that a drone had attacked a thermal power plant near Sevastopol.
These attempts to target the peninsula come at a time when Ukrainian forces have pressured the Russians by launching a counter-attack in the south and northeast of the country since last month.
During the last period, the Russian army gained territories in several towns to the south and east, which prompted Moscow to change its tactics and plans by targeting electrical stations and infrastructure in all Ukrainian lands.
Drones have become the main feature of the Ukraine War amid the latest escalation. Earlier analysts warned of the dangers of escalation as it would "necessarily" mean the use of nuclear weapons, but the scenarios have unfolded differently.
The bodies of 1,459 Iraqis killed in the eight-year war between Iraq and Iran have been buried in Basra province.
The bodies of 1,459 unidentified Iraqis killed in the eight-year war with Iran have been buried in the Burjsiya cemetery in Basra province, the Defense Ministry said.
The ministry added that the bodies were found while searching for missing persons from the 1980-1988 war in the battlefields along the border between the two neighboring countries.
Often, remains of fallen soldiers of the war are found in both Iraq and Iran.
There are official figures on the number of missing soldiers in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. It is estimated that around one million were killed on both sides. The war was also the 20th century’s most prolonged conflict, more protracted than WWI and WWII.
An elderly Iranian woman prays at the graves of unknown soldiers who were killed during 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery just outside Tehran, Iran
Iranian Kurdistan top judge Sayyid Hussein Husseini said, following instructions of the supreme leader, and the head of the judiciary to confront the organizers of the demonstrations, 110 people have been arrested and sentenced after preliminary investigations on charges of disrupting public security, attacking police and aiding opposition groups.
Husseini also said 83 per cent of those arrested during the demonstrations were released on bail.
Today, Iranian Kurds held a hundred thousand strong march on the 40th-day memorial service in Zhina Amini's Saqqez hometown.
Fincanci was arrested after she made a statement about the allegations of the Turkish military using chemical weapons in its military operations carried out against the PKK in northern Iraq.
Turkish Doctors were investigated on charges of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" and "insulting the Turkish nation, the State of the Republic of Turkey, the institutions and organs of the state," Turkish papers reported.
In comments to media outlets, Fincanci said she inspected a video ostensibly showing chemical weapons deployment and called for an "effective investigation."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Fincanci of slandering Turkey's armed forces and insulting Turkey "by speaking the language of the terrorist organization [a reference to the PKK]." Erdogan also threatened to change TMA's name and its chief.
Turkish National Public Broadcaster (TRT) reported police finding a "bullet" in Fincanci's home, a remark that led to fiery reactions. The TMA called the "accusation" a silly way to implicate Fincanci, as police found no evidence.
In a televised press conference today, the TMA senior members said, we support Fincanci and ask for necessary procedures to release her.
As a forensic expert, Fincanci has spent much of her career documenting torture and ill-treatment in the region and is a leading human rights activist in the Republic of Turkey. She has served as president of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey.
Last week, the PKK military wing People's Defence Force (HPG) reported that 17 of its members were killed in Turkish chemical attacks. Reported from the Kurdistan region and some Turkish papers mirrored the PKK statement. Turkish officials called them "propaganda" and a move by those who want to cast a shadow on the Turkish army's accomplishments in its fight against the PKK.
The earliest known reports of Ankara's chemical use in the Kurdistan region in its fight against the PKK date to 2019. In February 2021, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced recovering bodies of 13 Turkish nationals in the Kurdistan region's Gara area in a military operation code-named Operation Claw Eagle-2. The PKK arrested the captives six years ago, Turkey reported. Later PKK press office cited the operation's use of chemical weapons as the reason behind the captives' death.
Last night, Hengaw published a video showing most main roads and squares of Iranian Kurdistan cities blocked by security forces. Despite the security forces' strict measures and the squares' siege, hundreds of thousands of people of Saqqez marched to the Aichi cemetery on the 40th-day memorial service in Zhina Amini's Saqqez hometown.
The main roads between Kurdish cities were filled with marchers, chanting "Jin, Jiyan, Azadi," while most other strikes went one streek. Empty streets and bazaars were seen in the Iranian Kurdish cities.
Iranian media reported the family of Zhina Amini saying they would not hold the funeral ceremony for their daughter due to the security situation.
The Cooperation Center for Iranian Kurdistan's Political parties (CCIKPP) called on the people of Rojhelat and Iran to hold a ceremony on the graves of the casualties of protests today and take to the streets in the afternoon to demand the release of the detainees.
Forty days ago, the 22-year-old Zhina Amini Kurdish woman from Saqiz, known as Mahsa Amini in Persian and Arabic media outlets, died in a hospital in Tehran on May 16 after three days in the custody of Iran's morality. Her death has sparked the longest-lasting and bloodiest protest in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. At least 234 people, including 29 children, have been killed and thousands arrested since the unrest began.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed today, Wednesday, that Russia used close to 400 Iranian drones in its attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
On October 10, the Ukrainian army announced that a series of Russian attacks on dozens of cities, including Kyiv, were carried out by Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, launched from Belarus and the Crimea. Moscow has repeatedly denied their deployment, to guard its image as a giant weapons manufacturer after reports on Russia falling short of its weapons demands to fight its “special military operation” in Ukraine. For its part, the once not taken very seriously Iran denied providing Russia with drones in Ukraine.
United States, Britain and the European Union imposed fresh sanctions on Iranian officials and entities, despite Tehran and Moscow’s denials.
"It is at this conference that we need to take a decision on helping to cover Ukraine's budget deficit next year," the Ukrainian president said during a video intervention at the international conference held on Tuesday in Berlin. For his country, he added, "this is a very large sum, it is a deficit of $38 billion."
The European Union is drawing up plans to provide Ukraine with 1.5 billion euros ($1.46 billion) in monthly economic aid over the next year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced after a summit of the 27 nations.
"The total number of that will be 18 billion for next year, which is a stable and reliable forecast," von der Leyen said at a conference in Brussels. "We have instructed the finance ministers to develop the appropriate mechanism."
It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy announced that the country's economy shrank by about 30% in the first three quarters of 2022, compared to the same period in 2021, due to the Russian attack.
According to a statement issued by the October demonstrators, they hold demonstrations in Baghdad and ten other southern and central Iraqi provinces, chanting slogans, including rejecting the government of Mohammed Shia Sudani, that is yet to form.
A significant presence of security forces were seen marching in the streets of Baghdad and other major Iraqi cities.
Security sources said most streets near Tahrir Square, including the Sink Bridge and the Republic Bridge, were closed. The security forces shut Republic Street leading to Khalani Square and the gate of the Green Zone towards the Supreme Judicial Council.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kazemi issued ten orders to the security forces to protect the lives of demonstrators and government institutions, calling against using plastic bullets against demonstrators.
The demonstration coincides with the third anniversary of the October 25, 2019, protests, also known as the Tishreen Movement Protests. Official figures put the number of the dead at around 500 people, while local sources talk of a thousand. The protest weakened after over 500 people were killed and close to 8 thousand people injured. Also, Covid quarantine measures played a role.
A year after general parliamentary elections, the Iraqi House of Representatives elected President Rashid as Iraq’s new president. He immediately designated Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani as prime minister in charge of forming a cabinet.
Arrests: The Iraqi interior ministry announced on Monday the arrest of an official involved in the 2.5 billion US Dollar embezzlement at the Baghdad International Airport while attempting to board a private jet to leave corruption-ridden Iraq. See the moment of the official's arrest at Baghdad International Airport.
Fraud Of the Century: The discharged minister's internal investigation body concluded that 3.7 trillion Iraqi dinars, about $2.5bn USD, were lavishly paid to five firms. The funds were allegedly stolen from the Tax Authority's account at the state-run Rafidain Bank. The money was paid through 247 cheques between September 9, 2021, and August 11, 2022, from the commission's account at Rafidain Bank. Many of those involved in the scheme are yet to be discovered.
Trading companies and people dealing with the government must deposit a specific amount of cash, from which taxes will be deducted later.
Not much is known about the arrested official, whose given name is Nour Zurhair Jasim, besides the fact that he holds Iraqi citizenship and was not a household name until his arrest.
Nour Zuhari Jasim in a cell in Baghdad after his arrest
A 21-year-old Involved: According to a leaked Ministry of Interior document directed to the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) that warrants the arrest of three people, a 21-year-old Hussein Brifkani. The paper also names Nour Zuhair Jasim. Brifkani is an Erbil resident, according to local media.
The UN Special Representative for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, has called on authorities to recover $2.5 billion embezzled from the General Commission of Taxes in the latest corruption scandal to rock the country.
Prime minister-designate Mohammed Shia al-Sundani promised to stop laundering money of Iraqi people; he works to build his cabinet.
Who Revealed It? Oil Minister and former acting finance minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar brought the matter to public attention on October 16 and ordered an investigation into it, although he lost the House of Representatives' confidence and was removed from the chief of the finance ministry on October 11.
Reactions: The Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement that a Baghdad court had been investigating the case since August and called the involved an "organized network linked to influential figures."
Although Iraq ranks better compared to previous years, it still ranks at the top of the world's most corrupt countries, per Transparency International's corruption perceptions index.
Corruption Ranking: The scale of the corruption reveals Iraq's rampant and dangerous corruption that is a threat to its record low public approval and its stability and security.
On Tuesday, the Raparin Security Forces arrested two drug traffickers in Raparin province in coordination with the Hajiawa district security forces, the Raparin security directorate said in a statement.
The security directorate added that the traffickers are held per Kurdistan region anti-drug laws.
Drug trafficking has increased in the Kurdistan region. On October 9, Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG) seized a record 85 kilos of crystal meth in the Raparin district.