Breaking News, 1st of November, 2018

The United States intend to impose sanctions on the export of gold from Venezuela in order to prevent money laundering through their front companies, Interfax reports citing the Wall Street Journal. According to their sources — the sanctions will be announced this week. Presumably during the speech of the US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, on Thursday. Most of the more than 20 tons of gold, mined in that country, are being exported to Turkey. Earlier, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against six people and three Venezuelan companies. The list includes: the wife of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Minister of Defense, and the Vice-President.

Starting from 1st of November, South and North Koreas stopped all their hostile activities along the border — on land, at the sea and in the air, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South Korean armed forces, Pak Han Ki, told to the reporters. According to him, this was «the first step on the new path of peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.» The South Korean Ministry of National Security stated that «North Korea took measures to stop the hostile actions in accordance with the military agreement.»

Ali Hammoud, the minister of transport of Syria, announced Syrian interest in updating their air fleet. In particular — their desire to buy Russian passenger liners MS-21. Damascus asked Moscow to give them the priority in the list of customers — Ali Hammoud said in an interview to RIA NEWS. “For me, personally, one of the primary objectives of the Ministry of Transport is to turn to Russia with a goal of getting everything related to aircraft. We asked the friendly Russian side to give Syria the right of priority in the purchase of these aircraft” — said Ali Hammoud.

In November, Russia, India and Iran will hold a meeting during which they’ll discuss the launch of the »North-South» international transport corridor, which should be a cheaper alternative to the Suez Canal, Interfax reported while citing the Iranian television channel ‘Press TV’. The length of the new transport corridor will be 7200 km. The project will include a railway and water transport. The goods will be shipped from India to Iran on the coast of the Persian Gulf, then they will be delivered to the city of Bender-Anzeli on the Caspian Sea, after which they will go to the city of Astrakhan and then, by railroad, they will be delivered to Europe. The new transport corridor will reduce the cost and time of delivery of the goods by 30-40%. The cargo volume is estimated to be 20-30 millions of tons per year.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a large-scale military operation against Syrian Kurds located east of the Euphrates. This was reported by the Turkish agency ‘A-haber’. “We will not allow them to drown Idlib first, and then the rest of Syria in fire and blood, thus provoking the regime, and resurrecting the ISIS. We will not just stop there — we will also destroy the terrorist group on the east of the Euphrates” — said Erdogan. Earlier, ANNA NEWS reporters reported that the Turkish army attacked the positions of the Syrian Kurds east of the Euphrates, in the Zor Magar district of Syria.

The ‘Taliban’ stated that they shot down a helicopter of the Afghan Armed Forces in the Farah province, in the west of the country. This was reported by Reuters with a reference to a representative of the Taliban. Earlier, ANNA NEWS reported that the Taliban terrorists have weapons, left from the times of their war with the USSR. Among those weapons there are a number of American ‘Stinger’ man-portable air-defense systems. Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.