> Western officials believe they have evidence that Chinese companies have secretly supplied weapons to Russia in what could amount to a significant escalation of Beijing’s involvement in the Ukraine war. > > A new report obtained by allies points to a Chinese company sending a range of purpose-built military drones to Russia for testing, with the ultimate destination being Ukraine, The Times understands. > > The deal occurred last year, according to a western official, who was unable to disclose the name of the company. However, they said there was “clear evidence now that Chinese companies are supplying Russia with deadly weapons for use in Ukraine”. > > “While the Chinese government might not admit it, they are going to struggle to keep their increasing support under wraps,” added the official, appearing to accuse Beijing of being involved or aware of the delivery. > > They also confirmed a Reuters report from earlier in the week that Russia is believed to have established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine.

> Open-source seismic recordings published on Wednesday and Thursday, among them by the Norwegian seismic monitoring group NORSAR, picked up 13 explosions around Toropets taking place during or in the hours after the Ukrainian attack. Each “seismic event” registered at between 2.0-2.8 magnitude, with energy comparable to a small earthquake, news reports said. > > Outlying homes in three villages located a half kilometer or less from the north fence of the facility were damaged, according to news reports. Some local social media reported the village Tsikarevo, less than 300 meters from Toropets’ northeastern security fence, was completely destroyed. The local television news platform RBC-TV reported fires had surrounded and consumed several villages and towns, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes. > > Social media recorded smoke and fires burning throughout the day, and explosions continuing for hours as individual munitions cooked off. Some video showed people identifying themselves as residents of Tsikarevo and stating they had no way to escape the conflagration but by boat via a nearby lake, because explosions at Toropets had flattened nearby forests and made all roads impassable.

In this review of the Audiolab 8000CDM CD transport, which produces only a digital signal from the digital data on a CD, the guy compares it to other transports and says:

> High end Japanese designs such as the Esoteric P30 – admittedly three or four times the £850 price of the Audiolab – had a slightly more powerful bass and a whisker more detail and depth

sremoved**

I stopped reading at that point :-)

> Japan's Defense Ministry reported that it scrambled fighter jets after two Russian patrol aircraft were detected flying in circles around the country. > > Although the Russian planes did not enter Japanese airspace, their proximity raised significant concerns. This incident marks the first such military activity around Japan since 2019, when Russian bombers breached Japanese airspace. > > The Russian Tu-142 aircraft were tracked traveling from the sea between Japan and South Korea towards the southern Okinawa region, according to Digi24. > > They then proceeded north over the Pacific Ocean, reaching the northern island of Hokkaido. In response, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force launched an urgent interception of the Russian planes. > > The Russian aircraft also flew over the disputed Kuril Islands, known as the "Northern Territories" in Japan.

> On September 12, Russian forces continued their counterattacks across the Ukrainian bulge in the Kursk region but achieved only minor successes. The limited progress is likely due to ongoing Ukrainian offensive operations and defensive counterattacks in the area, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

> The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave his strongest hint yet that the White House is about to lift its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons supplied by the west on key military targets inside Russia, with a decision understood to have already been made in private. > > Speaking in Kyiv alongside the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, Blinken said the US had “from day one” been willing to adapt its policy as the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine changed. “We will continue to do this,” he emphasised. > > Blinken said he and Lammy would report back to their “bosses” – Joe Biden and Keir Starmer – after their talks on Wednesday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. > > The foreign secretary suggested Iran’s dispatch of ballistic missiles to Moscow – revealed this week – had changed strategic thinking in London and Washington. It was a “significant and dangerous escalation”, he said. > > He added: “The escalator here is Putin. Putin has escalated with the shipment of missiles from Iran. We see a new axis of Russia, Iran and North Korea.” Lammy urged China “not to throw in its lot” with what he called “a group of renegades”. > > British government sources indicated that a decision had already been made to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow cruise missiles on targets inside Russia, although it is not expected to be publicly announced on Friday when Starmer meets Biden in Washington DC. > > The two leaders are planning to discuss the war in Ukraine, and how it could be ended, as part of a wide-ranging foreign policy discussion, though they will avoid an intense focus on any individual weapons system, as the aim of the conversation is strategic.

> The United States is unlikely to stop supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, regardless of the presidential election, Admiral Rob Bauer, Chair of the NATO Military Committee, said at a conference in Seoul, according to Bloomberg. > > He also noted that Donald Trump made it clear in his debate with Kamala Harris that he wants the war to end. Furthermore, both the Democratic and Republican parties advocate for continued assistance, the admiral said. > > "I think it’s unlikely in that light that the US as a country will stop supporting Ukraine," Bauer said.

> The situation on the left flank of the Ukrainian grouping in Russia’s Kursk Oblast has deteriorated, as Russian forces have begun active assault operations. > > Source: the DeepState analytical project > > Details: Russian troops have launched active assaults by initially moving armoured vehicles across the Seym River, followed by crossings over smaller rivers. > > DeepState experts also recorded the movement of a Russian armoured convoy from Korenovo toward Snagost, with ongoing intense fighting there.

> The United States will soon officially notify Ukraine of its permission to use ATACMS short-range ballistic missiles inside Russia. > > The War Zone reported on this with reference to the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman. > > Currently, the U.S. government is expected to officially announce the decision, which will allow Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles inside Russia. > > “I talked to Blinken two days ago, and he is traveling with his counterpart from the UK to Kyiv to basically tell them that they will allow them to hit Russia with ATACMS,” Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, stated.

> Ukraine struck the Moscow region on Tuesday in its biggest drone attack so far on the Russian capital, killing at least one woman, wrecking dozens of homes and forcing around 50 flights to be diverted from airports around Moscow. > > Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power, said it destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian attack drones as they swarmed over the Moscow region, which has a population of more than 21 million, and 124 more over eight other regions. > > At least one person was killed near Moscow, Russian authorities said. Three of Moscow’s four airports were closed for more than six hours and almost 50 flights were diverted.

> Sumy Regional Administration has announced mandatory evacuation from three settlements in the Shostka district – Hlukhiv, Svesa, and Esman. > > As of September 7, 242 people, including 50 children, had already been evacuated from these settlements. > > About a week ago, a police unit called "White Angels" was formed in the region. They will provide evacuation assistance using three armored vehicles, reported Volodymyr Artiukh, head of the regional military administration. > > He also mentioned that an evacuation railcar will continue to operate from Shostka to Kyiv. > > Each of these settlements is located approximately 10 km from the Russian-Ukrainian border. > > On August 20, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko reported that 45,000 people would need to be evacuated from the Sumy Oblast in the future, noting that this is not an urgent evacuation.

> Russian prisoners of war (POWs) held in Ukrainian camps are no longer allowed to make phone calls to their relatives, Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced on national television on Sept. 7. > > Lubinets said that the ban does not violate the Geneva Conventions, as Russian POWs can still send written letters to their families.

...

> Earlier in March, the petition calling to ban phone calls for Russian POWs received the needed 25,000 signatures. However, the Ukrainian parliament rejected the proposal back then, saying that phone calls "serve an important informative function, providing objective information to Russians that they should not be afraid to surrender." > > Russian soldiers who have surrendered or have been captured in Ukraine are kept in four POW camps. Conditions there adhere to international laws, particularly the Geneva Conventions, according to Lubinets. > > Multiple reports and witnesses show that Ukrainian POWs in Russia are most often kept in horrible conditions, subject to torture, beatings, and starvation. > > However, Lubinets latest address comes amid the recent increasing number of Russia’s violating the rights of Ukrainian POWs.

> Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to act as a mediator in negotiations with the United States regarding the supply of Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, reports Messaggero, citing informed sources. > > According to the report, Zelenskyy plans to involve Rome in a mediating role. Sources familiar with the matter say he wants Meloni, as the G7 leader until the end of the year, to influence Washington to transfer a significant number of Patriot systems before the US presidential elections.

> A Russian drone that flew into Latvia’s airspace from Belarus has crashed in Latvia. > > The Latvian Ministry of Defense reported on this. > > It is reported that the drone crashed on September 7 in the Rēzekne district. The incident’s circumstances are still under investigation, but according to preliminary findings, it is a Russian drone.

> "It is crucial that all the weapons from the already announced support packages finally reach the combat brigades. We also need strong long-range decisions from our partners to bring closer the just peace we are striving for," he wrote. > > Zelenskyy will meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. Separate talks will be held with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. > > Following this, the president will travel to Italy to attend the international economic forum Ambrosetti, where meetings with Italian business representatives and talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are planned. > > On Thursday, Der Spiegel, citing informed sources, reported that Zelenskyy plans to "convey the full seriousness of the situation" to partners at Ramstein.

> Sybiha served as Ukraine's Ambassador to Turkey from 2016 to 2021. In May 2021, he was appointed Deputy Head of the President's Office of Ukraine, where he handled foreign policy issues and the development of strategic partnerships. > > In April 2024, he was appointed First Deputy Foreign Minister by government decision.

>Now there is evidence from the USA: the Russian leadership has used considerable resources to try to stir up social conflict in Germany and worsen relations with other countries. The US Department of Justice has succeeded in striking a blow against the operation, known as the ‘Doppelganger’ campaign, which has been running for a good two years. > >The campaign, along with masses of centrally controlled fake accounts on social media, has been spreading texts in the Kremlin's favour almost continuously since spring 2022. US authorities have now paralysed fake pages on the network - and presented evidence that shows The trail to the huge influence campaign leads all the way to the top of the Kremlin. And: the campaign also aims to support the AfD. > >This emerges from documents from the US Department of Justice, which are available to t-online. They include various original documents from the alleged masterminds. Current US investigations into Russian influence peddling involve right-wing influencers such as Tim Pool and Lauren Southern, who produced pro-Russian videos for money from Russia. Ten million US dollars are said to have been paid for this. > >The US public is paying somewhat less attention to equally explosive findings that concern Europe and Germany in particular. The files shed light on the so-called ‘doppelganger’ campaign that t-online uncovered before Facebook's parent company Meta finally confirmed the operation. > >For this operation, numerous websites of international media were recreated under very similar-looking URLs and provided with pro-Russian fake news. t-online was also affected. According to the documents, the FBI identified four online profiles that were used to generate internet addresses for fake t-online or ‘Spiegel’ pages. > >The content was then distributed there by automated profiles via social media. The German Foreign Ministry provided an impressive figure on the extent of this campaign in January: In the period from 20 December 2023 to 20 January 2024 alone, more than one million German-language tweets were posted. The campaign was aimed at Ukraine, the USA and Nato. > >There were already clues about the people behind the mysterious bot waves: several companies with close ties to the Kremlin have been identified since 2022 as being involved in the propaganda with mass dissemination of fake news: the Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura) and Ano Dialog. t-online has also identified people involved in Russian state media who were looking for agreeable interview partners in the West for articles. > >The US authorities are now certain: the dubious companies were acting on direct instructions from Putin's presidential administration - under the supervision of chief propagandist Sergey Kiriyenko. He is a former prime minister and now a close member of Putin's presidential staff. > >The documents also confirm that the campaign was clearly designed to fuel social tensions in order to strengthen Russia's position in the war in Ukraine. Germany was therefore the primary target of the endeavours because it was ‘more dependent than France’, according to a protocol from the circle of Kremlin propagandists. A person in charge drew up eight minutes of meetings in which Kiriyenko and a close associate were also named. They show that Putin's confidant set the broad lines. > >With a clear goal: ‘First and foremost, we need to discredit the US, the UK and NATO’, then pro-Russian narratives need to be spread and the Germans need to be convinced of the ‘ineffectiveness’ of the Russia sanctions, according to the protocols. According to one of the documents, three narratives are central to this: ‘Ukrainians’ and derogatory portrayals of them; ‘the difference between Ukraine and Germany’ and: ‘The USA is behind everything’. > >The documents show how those involved apparently almost enjoyed it. For example, the alleged original concept for the doppelganger campaign states: ‘If we can do this, we need our own department for fakes - a factory!’ Numerous propaganda ideas are being considered. For example, a rape by a US soldier could be invented. ‘That would be great!’ they said. > >The idea was never realised. Instead, fictitious stories about crimes committed by Ukrainians in Germany emerged in the summer of 2022. Such ideas can also be found in the concepts. > >One of the most revealing passages in the documents can be found in the ‘instigating international conflicts’ project, which is aimed at Germany and France. In order to fuel such conflicts and even ‘artificially create’ them, Kremlin officials are said to pull out all the stops: Comments on social media, analytical articles, fake news sites, fake news - even ‘fake videos, documents and recorded telephone conversations’. Both bots and influencers sympathetic to Russia are to be used for dissemination. The target: 30,000 comments per month in Germany. > >The propagandists apparently had the AfD in mind, which they see as being in line with Russian interests. ‘We support the party by all means,’ reads the description of the project. The aim was to create ‘the image of martyrs who suffered for democracy and Germany's national interests’. > >In July 2022, the first fake accounts that t-online was able to find had also shared a Facebook post by Stefan Keuter, an AfD member of the Bundestag who is known to be particularly close to Russia. He had shared a text from the ‘Deutschlandkurier’ newspaper that was fully in line with the Russian agenda: it suggested in question form that Zelenskyy's secret service had spied on the OSCE, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. > >In addition, AfD politicians repeatedly gave interviews to a website (‘Reliable Recent News’) that was central to the campaign. This site is now no longer accessible. The FBI has confiscated it, as can be read on the site. Some German-language addresses operated by the network have also been switched off since Tuesday. A total of 32 addresses were seized that had been used by the Russian government or actors paid by it. The judiciary is speaking of an offence against money laundering and trademark protection laws. > >In order to conduct interviews for articles on the website, a former RT Deutsch employee apparently contacted potential contacts and was able to draw on existing contacts in some cases. Mr Kiriyenko, a Putin confidant, had apparently agreed to involve ‘our influencers outside’, according to the minutes. In a meeting of the ‘doppelganger’ participants, it was stated that SVK - Kiriyenko's abbreviation - was not against their involvement. Interviewees included the MPs Steffen Kotré and René Springer, both on the AfD Brandenburg board. > >The role of possible support for the AfD from Russian networks came up again after the European elections. Troll armies on X had massively stirred up support for the AfD during the election. This was the result of a study conducted by the private research institute Trollrensics on behalf of the Dutch Social Democrats: Thousands of centrally controlled accounts were found to have spread adverts for the AfD alongside Russian propaganda and misinformation. To a lesser extent also for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance. > >Shortly before the election, allegations had already emerged that AfD member of parliament Petr Bystron in the Czech Republic had received money from the circle of oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, who is loyal to Putin. He was apparently also documented by investigators when small parcels were handed over. The immunity of the second-placed candidate on the AfD list for the European elections was lifted and his home was searched. The investigation is still ongoing.

> The Moscow Times reports that Russia’s Ministry of Health has pressed research institutes to provide immediate updates on their efforts to combat aging, cognitive decline, and osteoporosis, as well as to strengthen the immune system. > > "We were asked to urgently send all of our developments, and the letter arrived, let’s say, today, but everything had to be sent yesterday," one researcher told Meduza. > > The urgency is reportedly driven by Mikhail Kovalchuk, a 77-year-old scientist and close friend of Putin. Kovalchuk, who heads the Kurchatov Nuclear Research Institute and has ties to a state-funded genetics program that includes Putin’s eldest daughter, endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, is said to be leading the push for life-extension research. > > "The big boss set the task, and officials rushed to implement it in every possible way," according to a Kremlin insider. > > Kovalchuk is described as being "obsessed with eternal life." > > He reportedly pitched the idea to Putin.

> "A significant number of civilians, abandoned by Russian authorities without any means of survival – food, electricity, water, and gas – remain in the territory controlled by Ukrainian forces," the statement reads. > > Military officials emphasized that since its establishment, the commandant's office has been providing comprehensive assistance to residents. Most of them are elderly people and children. Daily medical check-ups and necessary medical aid are provided both in the city of Sudzha and in other villages of the Kursk region under Ukrainian control. > > In accordance with international humanitarian law, the military commandant's office also supplies civilians with food and water. > > The Ukrainian Ground Forces added that throughout the time of the operation, the Russian side has not created any humanitarian corridors nor provided any assistance to its citizens.