📹 The Russian Aerospace Forces have launched a new anti-ballistic missile defense system; it has been introduced to protect against attacks by means of air and space attacks

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❓🐾 Have you ever been envious of animals? Before answering, take a look at these cuties

😴 Jerboas in the Moscow Zoo have fallen asleep for the winter

🛏 They hibernate in refrigerated accommodations, in personal houses covered with foam rubber.

😳 97 of 230 transgender inmates, or about 42% of them, were sentenced to jail due to sex crimes, official Scottish figures show. 44 of them were jailed for rape and 14 forced under-age children to engage in sexual activity. Another 11 people were convicted of sexual assault and seven for possessing or making images of child abuse.

Based on statistics, it is impossible to understand whether these people are biological men or women, but six of them are held in women's prisons.

🗣 Former Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, commenting on that issue, said that "these statistics show that the fears of women’s rights campaigners are right," adding that there is a need "to consider placing such prisoners in separate facilities.”

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⚡️⚡️Explosion and blaze reported in Turkish port city Samsun

Watch: People on social media are sharing video showing a column of black smoke allegedly from the site of explosion in the Turkish port city of Samsun

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Russia actively cooperates with African countries in a variety of areas, especially in the field of security:

🇷🇺🇩🇿 Russia and Algeria held joint anti-terrorist exercises in November, in the most recent example of productive cooperation.

👉 What about cooperation between Russia and other African countries? Check out Sputnik's infographic!

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❗Latest statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪The Kremlin did not comment on a possible price cap Russian oil at $60, it is necessary to wait for the West's final decision;

▪Kremlin on the uniper lawsuit, possible new ones: Gazprom will defend its interests uisng all available means, primarily legal ones;

▪US President Joe Biden actually said negotiations with Russia possible only after Russian President Vladimir Putin leaves Ukraine, but this is impossible; the special military operation in Ukraine continues;

▪The US still does not recognize the new Russian territories, this significantly complicates the search for mutual ground for discussions;

▪Russian President Vladimir Putin open to talks with Washington, but attempts to negotiate with NATO, OSCE and United States were unsuccessful;

▪Nonrecognition of new Russian territories by US impedes dialogue.

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Catch our Fault Lines show where we provide updates on all the most vital stories! Here's our line-up for Friday:

🔺 We continue to examine the Macron visit and how the US destroys Europe economically
🔺 Also, we discuss how the Australian PM asked US officials to drop charges against Julian Assange
🔺 Finally, we talk about major layoffs at CNN and The Washington Post

We charge the energy for the day ahead! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 7am EST|4am PST|1pm CET via the website or app!

📻 Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 13.90AM

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⚡️Moscow has information that US contractors helping to prepare chemical provocations in Ukraine - Russian envoy

Swedish Fertility Drops to Lowest Level in Decades

The number of newborns in Sweden continued a long-term downward trend: in the first nine months of the year, it decreased by 7.7 percent. The number of newborns in 2022 reached its lowest level in the 21st century in 30 large and small municipalities scattered across the country.

At the same time, faced with dwindling birthrates and aging, Sweden has in recent decades resorted to mass immigration to plug the gaping holes in the labor market and in the pensions funds. As of now, the share of residents with a foreign background is over a quarter in a nation of over 10 million — and rising, due to immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa tending to have a higher fertility rate than ethnic Swedes.

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❗️ Russia’s MoD’s latest statement on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ Russian fighter aircraft shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 over the DPR;

▪️ Russian troops destroyed more than 60 Ukrainian soldiers in a day during the liberation of Kurdyumovka;

▪️ Russian forces hit three Ukrainian warehouses of rocket and artillery weapons and ammunition in the Zaporozhye region;

▪️ Russian forces hit the temporary deployment point of foreign mercenaries in the locality of Chasov Yar in the DPR;

▪️Russian aviation suppressed two firing positions of the Ukrainian MLRS "Grad" in the Kharkov region;

▪️Russian forces thwarted attempts by Ukrainian forces to attack in the Kupyansk direction, more than 50 Ukrainian soldiers were destroyed;

▪️Eleven Ukrainian troops surrendered during the day in the Krasny Liman area

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⚡Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a phone conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz - Kremlin

▪Russian President Vladimir Putin and the German Chancellor discussed various aspects of the situation around Ukraine;

▪The Russian President explained in detail the fundamental Russian approaches to conducting the special military operation;

▪Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a conversation with Olaf Scholz, urged Germany to reconsider its approaches in the context of the events in Ukraine;

▪The Russian President told German Chancellor that the actions of the West stimulate radical Ukrainian nationalists to commit bloody crimes against civilians;

▪Russian President Vladimir Putin told Olaf Scholz that the strikes on targets in Ukraine were a forced response of the Russian Federation to Kiev's provocations, including the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge.

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⚡️Formula 1 confirms the 2023 Chinese Grand Prix will be cancelled over difficulties presented by the COVID-19 situation

A Squid Game star, Young Soo, will stand trial in February accused of harassment. The incident happened in 2017, when a woman accused him of touching her inappropriately, a South Korean court said.

The Seongnam District Court said on Thursday that prosecutors charged the 78-year-old Emmy nominee last week over the allegations and that his trial will begin in February.

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Edward Snowden is now a Russian citizen as he has taken the oath and received a Russian passport, his lawyer said. His wife is also in the process of applying for a passport. Previously Snowden announced that he intended to obtain dual Russian-US citizenship so as not to be separated from his family.

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Jordanian Prince Hassan bin Talal is attending an international "Mediterranean dialogues" conference in Rome. I asked him about Russia's possible role in solving the Syrian refugee crisis. "I think this is an issue that we have to discuss in the context of the refugees agencies, and I believe, certainly, that there is a strong feeling of "triple standards" when it comes to the issue of refugees in the case of Russia-Ukraine confrontation and in the context of the 51 million refugees in our region. It's going to be huge pressure on all of us [to increase the attention to it]." - said Prince Hassan bin Talal. Subscribe to @BolotskySputnik

⚡️Russia appalled at French Foreign Ministry's remark on creation of 'special tribunal for crimes by Russia' - Foreign Ministry

Gasoline Price Drop: Why It's Too Early for Biden to Pop Open the Champagne

The price of gasoline has fallen to $3.47/gallon ($0.92/liter) nationally, according to the American Automobile Association. Addressing an audience in Bay City, Michigan, President Joe Biden took the credit for low gasoline prices. "This isn’t accidental. We’ve been on this for months," he claimed. Still, it's not Biden's policies that sent gasoline prices down, according to Dr. Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and a senior adviser to the United States Energy Security Council, who lists four reasons behind the price drop. So is it possible to say that the decline has finally happened, or should we expect something else?

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Observations via the James Webb Space Telescope allowed scientists to discern the presence of clouds in Titan's atmosphere, which seems to confirm the existing predictions about "seasonal weather patterns” there.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has now procured a set of images of a planet located somewhat closer to Earth.

The images in question depict Titan, the largest moon orbiting planet Saturn and the only planetary body beside Earth in the Solar System that has seas and rivers (though in Titan’s case, the seas and rivers are comprised of hydrocarbons rather than water, as NASA points out).

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🦎📹 WATCH: This reptile walking on water will definitely blow your mind

🔸 In the video shared by Sushant Nanda of the Indian Forest Service (IFS) on Twitter, a lizard was seen falling into the water from the top of a wooden stick and then coming back up in a truly magical way.

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Can't Deliver by Christmas: UK's Royal Mail Clashes With CWU Union

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is the main trade union representing people working for telephone, cable, and digital subscriber lines and postal delivery companies in the United Kingdom.

It has 110,000 members in Royal Mail, as well as more in many other companies.

Britain's post may grind to a halt this Christmas following industrial action by its workforce during its busiest period.

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