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New Railway to Link Iranian, Syrian Coasts

Port of Latakia, Asharq Al-Awsat
Port of Latakia, Asharq Al-Awsat
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New Railway to Link Iranian, Syrian Coasts

Port of Latakia, Asharq Al-Awsat
Port of Latakia, Asharq Al-Awsat

A report by the Syrian ministry of transport revealed a bid on connecting Iranian and Syrian coasts as well as the Iranian town of Shalamcheh to Iraq’s Basra by a railway system that stretches from the Port of Imam Khomeini to the Port of Latakia.

Iran’s national state-owned railway system announced in April a project linking the cities of Shalamcheh and Basra via a 32-kilometer railway project financed and implemented by the Iranians.

Iran seeks to bolster its presence in Syria through scoring many vital economic agreements which will help it in dodging US sanctions.

It recently obtained the right to manage Syria’s port of Latakia after signing an agreement with President Bashar al-Assad during his visit to Tehran last February. Iran will use the Syrian port as an alternative route for shipping.

All this coincides with accelerating the implementation of the railway project linking Iran to Syria through Iraq. While the terms of the Iranian agreement to manage the port of Latakia were unclear, Moscow was quick to take control of the port of Tartus through a 49-year lease.

More on Syria-Iran deals, state news agency IRNA said a memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries’ electricity ministers in Tehran covered the construction of power plants, transmission lines, cutting losses in Syria’s electricity network, and the possibility of connecting the two countries’ grids through Iraq.

Iran, which has estimated expenditures in Syria at $6 billion yearly since 2012, has won economic contracts in Syria in agriculture, oil, industry, livestock and ports.

Its exports to Syria increased after a tax exemption. Tehran also signed an agreement to develop phosphate mines in Syria and is looking to enter the telecommunications sector as a third mobile operator.

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World

Russia's Lavrov Says Work Under Way on Putin's Order on Possible Russian Nuclear Test

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - Reuters
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - Reuters
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Russia's Lavrov Says Work Under Way on Putin's Order on Possible Russian Nuclear Test

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - Reuters
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - Reuters

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that work is under way on President Vladimir Putin's order to prepare proposals for a possible Russian nuclear test, state news agency TASS reported.

According to TASS, Lavrov said: "Regarding President Vladimir Putin's instruction at the Security Council meeting on November 5, it has been accepted for implementation and is being worked on. The public will be informed of the results."

The order was in response to President Donald Trump's surprise announcement last week that the US would resume testing.

TASS also cited Lavrov as saying that Russia had received no clarification from the US regarding Trump's order, Reuters reported.

Russia-US relations have deteriorated sharply in the past few weeks as Trump, frustrated with a lack of progress towards ending the war in Ukraine, has cancelled a planned summit with Putin and imposed sanctions on Russia for the first time since returning to the White House in January.

World

Tornado in Southern Brazil Kills Six, Injures Hundreds

This handout photo released by the Parana State Government shows the destruction after a tornado with winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour hit the city of Rio Bonito do Iguacu, in Brazil's Parana State on November 7, 2025. A tornado killed at least five people and injured around 130 when it swept through parts of a town in southern Brazil on November 7, authorities said. (Photo by Handout / Parana State Government / AFP) /
This handout photo released by the Parana State Government shows the destruction after a tornado with winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour hit the city of Rio Bonito do Iguacu, in Brazil's Parana State on November 7, 2025. A tornado killed at least five people and injured around 130 when it swept through parts of a town in southern Brazil on November 7, authorities said. (Photo by Handout / Parana State Government / AFP) /
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Tornado in Southern Brazil Kills Six, Injures Hundreds

This handout photo released by the Parana State Government shows the destruction after a tornado with winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour hit the city of Rio Bonito do Iguacu, in Brazil's Parana State on November 7, 2025. A tornado killed at least five people and injured around 130 when it swept through parts of a town in southern Brazil on November 7, authorities said. (Photo by Handout / Parana State Government / AFP) /
This handout photo released by the Parana State Government shows the destruction after a tornado with winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour hit the city of Rio Bonito do Iguacu, in Brazil's Parana State on November 7, 2025. A tornado killed at least five people and injured around 130 when it swept through parts of a town in southern Brazil on November 7, authorities said. (Photo by Handout / Parana State Government / AFP) /

A tornado accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain struck the southern Brazilian state of Parana, killing six people, the state government said on Saturday.

The town of Rio Bonito do Iguacu was hit hardest late Friday, with the state's civil defense agency reporting that over half of the urban area suffered roof collapses, along with multiple structural failures.

Roads were blocked and power lines damaged, Reuters reported.

Authorities said 437 people were treated for injuries and about 1,000 were displaced. The nearby city of Guarapuava was also affected.

According to the Parana Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring System, the tornado's winds reached speeds between 180 kph (111 mph) and 250 kph (155 mph).

Institutional Relations Minister Gleisi Hoffmann said she would travel to the area on Saturday with acting Health Minister Adriano Massuda and other federal officials to support relief efforts and reconstruction.

"We will continue to assist the people of Parana and provide all the help needed," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X, expressing condolences to the victims' families.

World

Russia Hits Several Key Ukraine Energy Facilities, Kills 3 People

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration on November 8, 2025, Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a heavily damaged residential building following an air attack in Dnipro, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration on November 8, 2025, Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a heavily damaged residential building following an air attack in Dnipro, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration / AFP)
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Russia Hits Several Key Ukraine Energy Facilities, Kills 3 People

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration on November 8, 2025, Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a heavily damaged residential building following an air attack in Dnipro, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration on November 8, 2025, Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a heavily damaged residential building following an air attack in Dnipro, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration / AFP)

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in overnight attacks on Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least three people and damaging large energy infrastructure facilities in three regions, Ukrainian officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched more than 450 drones and 45 missiles.

Two people were killed and 12 wounded in the city of Dnipro when a drone hit an apartment building. One person was killed in the Kharkiv region, regional officials said. Energy facilities in the Kyiv, Poltava and Kharkiv regions were damaged, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.

Zelenskiy said the strikes showed that sanctions pressure should be intensified. "... for every Moscow strike on energy infrastructure – aimed at harming ordinary people before winter – there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions," he said on the Telegram app.

Since the start of its full-scale assault on Ukraine almost four years ago, Russia has made a point of attacking the power sector as the need for heating grows.

This autumn it has attacked gas facilities nine times in the space of two months, according to the state energy firm Naftogaz.

Moscow's Defense Ministry said it had launched "a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons" on weapon production and energy facilities in response to Kyiv's strikes on Russia.

Russia also said its forces continued to advance in grinding battles around the key towns of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk, and had captured a tiny village in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine regularly sends its drones to strike oil facilities inside Russia.

As diplomatic efforts to stop the war have faltered, Kyiv is trying to reduce Moscow's ability to finance its war.

The Ukrainian air force said 406 Russian drones and nine missiles had been shot down, and 26 Russian missiles and 52 drones had hit 25 sites. Svyrydenko said the government and energy companies were working to restore damaged electricity, water and heating provision.

In the central Poltava region, two cities - Kremenchuk with a population of about 200,000 people and Horishni Plavni with some 50,000 residents - lost most of their electricity and were using generators to provide water, city officials said.