Breaking News, 9th of October, 2018

4 Israeli F-16 fighters invaded Lebanese airspace while flying close to the borders of Syria. Last week Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems were deployed in Syria in order to protect it, Interfax reports. After approaching the borders of Syria — the F-16 fighters made a U-turn in the skies of Lebanon, and headed in the opposite direction — to Israel. Observers have a suspicion that the Israeli Air Force began testing Syria on the readiness of the S-300 air defense systems on the reaction on the possible Israeli air strikes.

The Government of Macedonia has begun the process of making constitutional amendments regarding the change of the name of the country. The corresponding document has been sent to the parliament. Tomorrow, the parliamentarians will begin working on this issue, TASS reports. The amendments concern the addition of the adjective “Northern” to the name of the Republic of Macedonia, to the introductory part of the constitution with a list of the state legal traditions, to the paragraph about “respecting the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of neighboring countries”, to the paragraph about the care for the Macedonians, and the representatives of their diasporas abroad. According to the government, this is “the path to the EU and NATO”, and for this, “an agreement between Macedonia and Greece is necessary.” Previously, the referendum on the renaming of Macedonia was declared invalid. However, the NATO, the EU, Washington, and the Macedonian cabinet of ministers ignored this fact.

The Russian Minister of Energy, Alexander Novak, announced that the route through Bulgaria and Austria is being considered as a priority option for the continuation of the second line of the Turkish Stream, RIA NEWS reports. According to him — there are different options today for the continuation of the second line of the Turkish Stream. Those are the routes “Greece — Italy”, and the route “through Turkey to Bulgaria, and then to Serbia, Hungary and Austria”. The priority option is “the direction towards Bulgaria and Austria,” since the road maps for the development of the gas transmission infrastructure have been signed with all those countries. In addition, «the timing is generally synchronized with the construction of the Turkish Stream.»

Reporters of ANNA NEWS report with a reference to SANA agency: Syrian President Bashar Assad explained the position of Western states regarding the situation in Idlib. He said that the victory of the government forces in Idlib would destroy the plans of the western countries for the promising, long-term presence of their troops in Syria. Bashar Assad also outlined the Syrian position regarding the agreement between Russia and Turkey on the establishment of the DMZ in Idlib. He noted that the agreement, which allowed to avoid bloodshed, is only temporary. “This province, just like the others that remain under the control of the terrorists, will someday return to state control” — said Bashar Asad.

Larry Kudlow, The chief economic adviser of Donald Trump, said on ‘Hill TV’ that the United States must challenge Russia in the energy sector. “We are the dominant energy power. In a couple of years, we will be making 15 million barrels of oil per day. We are already overtaking the Saudis. We are overtaking Russia as well» — explained the adviser of the US president. The United States are negotiating with the EU countries regarding the reduction of the purchase of gas from Russia, and purchase of it from the United States.

The joint training of the Counter-Terrorism Center of Kyrgyzstan, and the Russian air forces, continues. The Central Asian News Agency of Kyrgyzstan, CA-NEWS, reported, with a reference to the Counter-Terrorism Center, that the SU-25 and MI-8 destroyed a convoy of armored vehicles of the “enemy” on the Edelweiss training ground in Kyrgyzstan. The defeat of the enemy vehicles ended with two MI-8 helicopters that used rockets on them, after which they used autocannons to destroy the retreating «terrorists».

Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.