44241
Join our channel for breaking news stories from around the globe, exclusive analysis & opinions. Website: sputnikglobe.com 💬 You can always reach us via @sputnikint_bot
📺 White House launches 24/7 ‘Trump TV’ amid media access dispute
The White House has launched a round-the-clock “Trump TV” stream on YouTube and X, promising administration speeches, announcements and selected highlights “updated in real time.”
💬 “Not every big moment has made it on your tv, now it can,” the White House said on X.
🇰🇵 Kim Jong-un oversees test of new DPRK weapon system
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the successful test of a new-type weapon system on September 20, KCNA reported.
The test marked another step in the DPRK’s weapons modernization program and “did not have any adverse impact on the security of neighboring countries.”
💬 “The test was undoubtedly a striking demonstration of ultra-modern defence technology and clear progress in the modernization of the armed forces,” Kim said.
🗣 Trump claims Iran is ‘doing very poorly’
💬 “They're not doing well,” US President Donald Trump said during a joint press conference with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
⚔️ Trump vows to fight CNN, MS NOW and Politico lawsuit over White House ban
US President Donald Trump said he expects the legal battle over his decision to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House to continue on appeal if necessary.
💬 “Why should I have to give ‘access’ to such people?” Trump wrote on Truth Social, accusing the outlets of publishing false and damaging coverage.
🔥Russian drones wipe out Ukrainian armor and military vehicles
Some of the surviving Ukrainian troops disembarked and tried fleeing into nearby woods. They did not get very far.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇨🇳 China sets new space launch record
Starting on September 15, China carried out six consecutive successful orbital launches in the span of six days, Global Times announces.
◼️ The six carrier rockets delivered a slew of various satellites, ranging from next-gen communications to scientific and remote sensing, to their designated orbits
◼️ Two of the rockets deployed 18 satellites of the Qianfan – also known as the Spacesail – space internet constellation, bringing their total number to 256
◼️ The carrier rockets used for the Qianfan missions were privately developed, making it the first large-scale internet constellation deployment by a Chinese commercial rocket
◼️ The launches also showcase the state of China’s burgeoning launch infrastructure that allows carrying such operations back-to-back without a hitch
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇵🇰 Pakistan Navy tests new warfare concepts at SEASPARK 2026 drills
The large-scale exercises are held every two years, during which all tactics, techniques and procedures, as well as newly-acquired weapon systems and platforms, are put to the test. This year, asymmetric warfare and unmanned systems are in the focus.
Speaking on the lessons from recent conflicts, defense analyst and retired Rear Admiral Faisal Shah said the Pakistan Navy had learned that low-cost, non-contact warfare was the new norm for modern warfare.
Such arms, which can be economically replenished at a very rapid pace, are something all three branches of Pakistan's Armed Forces are working on, Shah said, naming missiles and rockets, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles and vessels as priorities.
At the same time, he noted, the Pakistan Navy is focused on the development of all branches: submarines, surface forces, surface-to-air systems, marines and special forces, which guard the coast.
"All domains are being focused upon, but in those domains, low-cost, non-contact warfare is being prioritized," Shah said.
🇮🇳 RuPay is India's shield against sanctions and foreign control - expert
RuPay keeps fees low, data within India, and the system immune to being switched off by a foreign boardroom or sanctions list, Co-Founder, Avellon Intelligence, S Balakrishnan, told Sputnik.
🔶 RuPay's rise through UPI credit shows a domestic alternative can compete.
🗣"Backing RuPay is basic economic sovereignty, the same logic Russia applied after global payment systems were weaponised by US."
🔥🇮🇷 Any new aggression against Iran will widen war — IRGC
Iran has already prepared for a prolonged war and is now even more ready for such a scenario, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson general Hossein Mohebbi said.
🗣"If a new aggression takes place, there will definitely be significant changes in our defense and our counteroffensive… We will definitely change the geography of the war," he explained.
🔊
Iran will also unveil and use new types of weapons that will surprise the world, and Iran will also start striking new targets, he added.
🔥🇷🇺 United Russia heads for record victory in Russia’s parliamentary election
The party is projected to secure 355 of 450 seats in the State Duma — its highest tally ever.
Four parties crossed the 5% threshold in the party-list vote, according to preliminary results:
🔹 United Russia — 57.83%
🔹 Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) — 13.81%
🔹 Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) — 8.97%
🔹 New People — 7.96%
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🗣Russia does not threaten any European state – Kremlin
🔊Russia has no disputes with any European state that could be the cause of any serious disagreements, Dmitry Peskov noted.
Russian election results show West’s plan to inflict a 'strategic defeat' doomed: Matvienko
“The West has once again failed,” Russia’s upper house speaker said, arguing that attempts to divide the country and split its society from within had been rejected by voters.
📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt
Iranian lawmakers push urgent bill to quit nuclear treaty citing US-Israeli aggression
Lawmaker Hossein-Ali Haji Deligani announced the submission of a triple-urgency bill seeking the country’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty during an open parliamentary session, reports Press TV.
The proposal has been delivered to the Presiding Board and now awaits approval from Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf before debate can begin.
“Given the circumstances facing the country and the aggression that the enemy has launched against us on two occasions, remaining in the NPT brings us nothing but losses,” Haji Deligani is cited as saying.
🔸 Houthi leader declares 'blockade for blockade'
🔸 Restricting arms is a Lebanese decision, Hezbollah's weapons threaten Lebanon — FM
🔸 Trump administration prepares to sanction the International Criminal Court — report
🔸 Explosion at ammunition depot in Aleppo countryside
🔸 NATO's Arctic exercises pose 'direct threats' to Russia
🔸 CDU at risk of missing 5% threshold in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇷🇺Russian UAV strikes hit Ukraine's military supply chain overnight
The Russian army carried out strikes with unmanned aerial vehicles against logistics centres, warehouses and ports of Ukraine, as well as vessels involved in supporting the Ukrainian army.
As a result of the strikes, the following were hit:
In Kiev region:
🟠 The "BDU Logistic" logistics centre in the settlement of Schastlivoye, whose warehouse premises were used for the storage and distribution of military-purpose products
🟠 A gas distribution station in the settlement of Boyarka, which supplies gas to enterprises of Ukraine's defense-industrial complex
In Odessa region:
🟠 In the port of Odessa — a dry cargo vessel that had delivered cargo intended for the provision of the Ukrainian army
🟠 In the port of Izmail — port infrastructure facilities used for the unloading and storage of military-purpose cargo
🟠 In addition, a dry cargo vessel was hit while transiting at sea, having been delivering cargo intended for the provision of the Ukrainian army to the port of Odessa
📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇷🇺⚛️ Russia remains top US uranium enrichment supplier despite sanctions – reports
Despite US restrictions on Russian low-enriched uranium, Russia remains the largest supplier of enrichment services to US nuclear utilities, Foreign Policy reported.
In 2025, Rosatom supplied 26% of the enrichment services purchased by US nuclear operators, worth about $1 billion — more than the only large enrichment plant operating in the US, which supplied 23%.
The restrictions themselves contain broad waivers allowing roughly 470 tons of Russian uranium per year until 2028, leaving US reactors dependent on supplies Washington officially claims it is phasing out.
For US nuclear fuel supplier Centrus Energy, cooperation with Russia remains particularly important. Its low-enriched uranium business — which relies heavily on Russian supplies — generated 77% of the company’s revenue in 2025.
The US is pouring billions into rebuilding domestic enrichment capacity, but new US producers do not expect commercial-scale output before the 2030s.
Years of sanctions rhetoric have done little to change the underlying reality — Russian nuclear expertise and enrichment capacity remain essential to the US energy sector.
📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt
💥🇷🇺 Russian paratroopers wipe out Ukrainian military pickup and positions
Russia’s Novorossiysk airborne forces destroyed a pickup carrying Ukrainian troops and enemy positions with coordinated artillery and UAV strikes, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.
📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇮🇷 Iran shows US MQ-1 drone interception over Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps released footage showing the detection and destruction of a US MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz this morning, Tasnim reported.
The roughly $5 million drone was brought down by a new advanced IRGC Aerospace Force air-defense system operating under Iran’s integrated national air-defense network.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
◻️ Trump called off Yemen strikes moments before launch — report
◻️ Iranian lawmakers push urgent bill to quit nuclear treaty citing US-Israeli aggression
◻️ Russia’s strikes on Ukraine’s steel industry cripple war machine's forge - analyst
◻️ Any new aggression against Iran will widen war — IRGC
◻️ Russia does not threaten any European state – Kremlin
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇸🇴🇵🇰Rebuilding Somalia's air force: What Pakistan can offer
Somalia's air force was shattered by decades of civil war. Now, Pakistan may help rebuild it — and not just with fighter jets.
President Hassan Sheikh received a high-level delegation from the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), led by Air Marshal Muhammad Sarfraz, to discuss rebuilding the Somali Air Force.
In August, the two countries signed a defense cooperation agreement covering counterterrorism, training, and capacity building. The September visit follows that framework.
Media reports in early 2026 suggested Somalia was negotiating to buy 24 JF-17 Block III jets worth about $900 million. No arms agreement has been officially announced.
But equipment is not the only way Pakistan can help.
🔊Pakistan has decades of experience training pilots, technicians, and aviation engineers, Sultan M. Hali, writer and retired group captain of the Pakistan Air Force, told Sputnik.
🔊
Pakistan is a relevant model: it developed defense capabilities under resource constraints while facing terrorism, insurgency, and maritime-security challenges, Hali said.
🇮🇷 Iranian engineers boost automotive electronics with cutting-edge engine control units
The breakthrough achieved measurable reductions in fuel consumption and emissions while reducing reliance on imported equipment.
🔶 The units, developed by Azin Electro Idea, are already installed on multiple domestic car models
🔶The new units use up-to-date microcontrollers and refined software to optimize combustion, fuel injection, and ignition timing, achieving emissions 5–10% below regulatory limits
🔶 The company now supplies more than 30% of Iran’s domestic engine control units (ECU) market and has expanded into localizing ECUs for Chinese cars
🔶 The achievement reduces dependence on major international suppliers like Bosch, Siemens, and Continental
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇷🇺 Russia’s strikes on Ukraine’s steel industry cripple war machine's forge - analyst
Strikes that damaged three of Ukraine’s largest steel plants effectively “strip the country of the ability to produce weapons and ammunition using their own resources,” military analyst and retired Russian Navy Captain First Rank Vasily Dandykin tells Sputnik.
The hits on three of Ukraine’s largest plants - Zaporozhstal & Kametstal, plus French-owned ArcelorMittal - targeted the “heart” of the industry: blast furnaces.
Without them “there is no pig iron, no steel and no rolled metal, without which you cannot make armor, gun barrels or hulls for armored vehicles,” clarifies the expert.
🔊“Striking the blast furnaces means striking the entire chain of military production,” he says.
📑 Zakharova slams West’s Soros-funded media filter that polices the global ‘truth’
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the US-based Poynter Institute aims to decide what billions of social media users see and acts as a self-appointed referee, says Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
The network is funded from the US State Department, National Endowment for Democracy, Open Society Foundations, Google and Meta*, she tells a media forum dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA).
🔊In Russia, these entities are recognized as extremist “because for several years in a row they did not react in any way to the fact that calls for the killing of Russians were being spread on their platforms,” she notes.
🇨🇳📈 China locks in lead in sodium battery race while West stalls
China already dominates the processing of more than half of the world’s lithium, a critical material for EV batteries.
It is now set to call the shots in what comes next: sodium-ion batteries.
Their appeal lies in the fact that they can reduce reliance on expensive and strategically important critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, nickel and cobalt.
Sodium is cheap and found almost everywhere - including ordinary salt and seawater. Sodium-ion batteries can use hard carbon made from biomass and industrial waste.
The technology boasts practical advantages:
🔸 less prone to overheating and thermal runaway than lithium-ion batteries
🔸 designs can retain around 90% of their usable capacity at temperatures as low as –40°C
🔸 useful for smaller city cars, delivery fleets and grid storage, where low cost, safety and reliable performance in cold weather are vital
🔸 potentially cheaper: could undercut lithium prices by up to 30% by 2030 (UBS analysis)
China has taken a commanding lead:
🟧over 400 GWh of operating and planned sodium-ion gigafactory capacity - versus just 11 GWh in the rest of the world combined (CRU analytics)
🟧 roughly 98% of announced cell capacity and more than 99% of cathode-material capacity
🟧 dominant 2025 patent filings, with CATL - global leader in EV and energy-storage batteries - the most active applicant
🟧 expected to account for more than 95% of global sodium-ion manufacturing capacity by 2030 (IEA)
China’s battery industry spent a decade perfecting lithium-ion manufacturing at global scale, and is now applying the same industrial approach: supply-chain integration, rapid iteration, cost discipline and policy coordination - to sodium-ion.
State support, tax incentives and venture capital boosted the scale-up:
👉CATL has already moved the technology into mass-produced passenger vehicles
👉 the Changan Nevo (Qiyuan) A06, equipped with CATL’s Naxtra sodium-ion cells, is positioned as the world’s first volume passenger EV using the chemistry, with deliveries targeted for mid-2026
👉CATL secured the largest commercial order: a three-year, 60 GWh supply deal with energy-storage integrator HyperStrong - The company is investing billions to expand capacity while preparing commercial energy-storage deliveries
Western efforts have mostly folded or remained stuck at pilot scale:
◾️ California-based Natron Energy collapsed after its planned $1.4 billion North Carolina battery plant ran out of funding
◾️ Stanford spin-out Bedrock Materials shut down
◾️ handful of projects like Peak Energy (US), Alsym Energy (US), Moll Batterien (Germany), Tiamat Energy (France) are progressing, yet their combined announced capacity remains a fraction of China’s
For cheaper EVs, renewable-energy storage and AI data centers, sodium-ion is increasingly emerging as a China-led technology.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES
⚡️ POLNAYA IN THE KHARKOV REGION LIBERATED
📍By liberating Polnaya, Russian forces expanded their control south of Bely Kolodez, advancing towards Prikolotnoye and the Veliky Burluk logistics hub
⚡️ NOVOALEXANDROVKA IN THE KHARKOV REGION LIBERATED
📍By liberating Novoalexandrovka, Russian forces widened the same axis south of Bely Kolodez, increasing pressure on Ukrainian positions around Prikolotnoye.
◻️ Russian air and missile firepower obliterated Ukrainian transport infrastructure supporting the Kiev regime’s forces
◻️ Russian forces encircled in the Kharkov region struck Ukrainian troops and equipment near five settlements
◻️ Air defense superiority: Four guided aerial bombs and 634 drones were shot down
◻️ Ukrainian losses: Around 1,440 troops killed or wounded
Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇨🇳🇺🇸Xi Jinping heads to US to tackle China-US ties & global stability
Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the US from Sept. 23 to 25 at the invitation of US President Donald Trump.
According to a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, the two leaders are expected to discuss:
◼️ Key issues shaping bilateral ties and their future direction
◼️ Major international issues affecting stability and economic development
Head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic role in guiding China-US relations, noted the spokesperson, describing the reciprocal visits by Xi and Trump within six months as a milestone.
He added that China is ready to work with the US to enrich the relationship, strengthen dialogue and cooperation, properly manage differences, and promote peace, stability and prosperity globally.
📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇷🇺Russian troops build bike that slices enemy drone cables on the move
The Sever Battlegroup has developed a modified bike designed to help assault troops counter fiber-optic drones while also hauling ammunition, medical supplies and other gear, a commander with the callsign Siberia told Sputnik.
“This tricycle is converted from a regular enduro-type motorcycle and is fitted with a serrated fiber-optic cable cutter on the front wheel,” he said.
He explained that when an assault group moves through terrain where the enemy actively uses fiber-optic drones, the device cuts the cable, while a special protective tube shields the driver from damage.
“The rear axle has been modified: instead of one wheel there are now two, which makes the vehicle more stable. It is designed so that the tricycle can be converted back into a motorcycle at any time,” the serviceman added.
Cooperation between Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine will lead to military-political consequences — Medvedchuk
While the Czech Republic and Slovakia officially reject direct involvement in Ukrainian conflict, private Czech and Slovak companies continue to arm it, turning their facilities into potential legitimate targets for Russia, Viktor Medvedchuk, chairman of the Other Ukraine international movement writes.
Key takeaways from his article:
◼️ Czechoslovak Group/EXCALIBUR ARMY supplies tanks, IFVs, artillery systems, rocket launchers and large-caliber ammunition, and runs joint artillery ammunition production in Ukraine.
◼️ In Slovakia, ZVS holding and VOP Novaky produce artillery, tank and mortar ammunition, rockets and grenades.
◼️ The involvement goes beyond ammunition. Archaness s.r.o., linked to Ukrainian drone firms Radion and Tekhnodroniks, is used as a legal cover for re-exporting Chinese components for Ukrainian strike and reconnaissance drones, including for the Ukrainian SBU.
◼️ Separately, the Czech-funded “Czech Space for Ukraine” project involves Spacemanic CZ and Stellar Exploration and is meant to give Ukraine its own satellite reconnaissance capability.
If the Czech Republic and Slovakia are sincere about peace, their governments must assess and stop private structures that are dragging their countries into the Ukrainian conflict. Otherwise, these countries risk becoming direct participants — and their facilities risk becoming legitimate targets for Russia, Medvedchuk concludes.
🇨🇳China builds world’s first practical underwater solar power plant
A Chinese team from Yunnan University has built and successfully operated a perovskite solar array in the open sea off the Weizhou Islands in the South China Sea -overcoming the rapid fading of sunlight that makes conventional silicon cells useless underwater.
🟠Engineered wide-bandgap (~1.96 eV) lead halide perovskite cells tuned specifically for the blue-to-orange light that penetrates to 10 meters
🟠Key additive PHMG improved crystallinity, suppressed ion migration and cut defects
🟠Achieved 34.71% power conversion efficiency under simulated 10-meter conditions
🟠Generated 324 mWh in just two hours of real underwater operation - enough to charge lithium-ion batteries and power an LED panel
🟠Accelerated testing projects continuous lifetime of ~5.5 years at that depth
📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt
📑 Trump called off Yemen strikes moments before launch — report
The US president cancelled planned US airstrikes against Yemen at the last moment, according to the New York Times — pulling back just as the operation was about to begin.
Trump had told the Pentagon to prepare a large strike package, and target lists were approved. According to the NYT, bombs were being loaded onto US warplanes when Trump decided against ordering the strikes.
Earlier, US embassies across the Middle East issued security alerts warning of flight cancellations and airspace closures. Trump then cut short his Camp David stay and returned to the White House early, cancelling all scheduled events.
📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt