🎅🐟 Submarine Santa brings Christmas cheer to a Tokyo aquarium

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

‼️Fed raises rates by 50 basis points in first slowing of US rate hikes this year

🔺 We continue our coverage of the US-Africa Leaders Summit and invite Dr. Gerald Horne to discuss the Biden administration's attempts to impress top diplomats from the Global South
🔺 Next, we bring on Robert Fantina to discuss Bernie Sanders' withdrawal of the War Powers Resolution
🔺 And finally, Dr. Linwood Tauheed joins us to explain what we need to know about Sam Bankman-Fried and his FTX's collapse

There's more on the other side! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

📻 Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

🇫🇷🇲🇦 France advances to World Cup final after beating Morocco in 2-0 match

➡️France will now face against Argentina for the Sunday final, as Morocco and Croatia meet up for the third-place match on Saturday

Russian Tor-M2U SAM system in action as part of the special military operation in Ukraine (video courtesy of Russia’s MoD)

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

‼️Canada revokes sanctions waiver for maintenance of Nord Stream 1 turbine - statement

FBI, Ukraine IT Army & Fauci: How Elon Musk's Twitter Files Sent Liberals Into Meltdown

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk is continuing to release material within the framework of his "Twitter Files" dump, which remains largely ignored by the US mainstream media.

Jason Goodman, a US investigative journalist and founder of Crowdsource the Truth has discussed with Sputnik why Musk dubbed the platform "a crime scene."

💬 "Twitter may have begun as an innocent social media network, but as it has grown in popularity and use, it has been infiltrated by a vast network of criminals, including what many refer to as the 'Deep State.' In fact, by exposing the number of former US Intelligence Community professionals who had careers at Twitter and elsewhere in social media, the deep state is being defined by their own resumes," Goodman said.

Check out the rest of the interview

An ex-taxi driver from Donetsk shares how she became a Jack-of-all-trades assistant for the Russian Army

“I came to my senses when I felt cold asphalt under me”: Harrowing account of a Donetsk resident who survived Ukrainian shelling

Fentanyl? Lozenges? Twitter Wants to Know What Jill Biden Gave Joe to Eat at Bill-signing Ceremony

During the Respect for Marriage Act signing ceremony this week, First Lady Jill Biden was spotted approaching the president and handing him something. Joe Biden quickly put it in his mouth as he sat down. Social media users want to know what Dr. Jill gave her husband, and offered up a few ideas of their own.

Read more

Russian Terminator BMPT in action as part of the special military operation in Ukraine (video courtesy of Russia’s MoD)

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

US Lawmakers Ask Biden Admin. Officials to Provide Information on COVID-19 Origins

Jim Jordan and James Comer are requesting documents, communications, and information pertinent to the investigation from US Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, among others, according to the press release.

To date, the committee’s probe has found three facts: COVID-19 likely originated from the Wuhan Lab, the United States financed risky experimental research on novel bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Lab, and Fauci acted to conceal the information by "intentionally downplaying the lab leak theory," the release said.

Read more

Peru’s Pariah Regime Declares State of Emergency as Uprising Intensifies

The newly-minted regime of Dina Boluarte in Peru has declared a state of emergency, suspending the right to “personal security and freedom” just one week after state security forces arrested the elected president, Pedro Castillo, in what many of the country’s neighboring governments are characterizing as a coup d’etat.

The declaration authorizes the deployment of troops alongside police, nixes the right to assembly and freedom of movement and allows security forces to search the residences of any Peruvians as they see fit, without needing to demonstrate cause or seek the permission of homeowners.

Read more

The first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Germany will be opened in the town of Wilhelmshaven on Saturday and receive the first LNG carrier this week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

💬“Europe’s security also means energy security. Nothing demonstrates it so evidently as the opening of the first floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Wilhelmshaven, which we will celebrate this Saturday. The construction has begun in July, and now the first LNG terminal is ready,” Scholz said delivering a speech in the Bundestag.

Read more

⚡️ The city center of Donetsk has been subjected to the most massive Ukrainian attacks since 2014, the city’s mayor reports

📹 Sputnik has obtained a video showing the aftermath of the Ukrainian shelling of the city.

🇷🇺🌍 Russia could create "independent" supply chain infrastructure to facilitate distribution of its grain and fertilizers to African countries in order to help them ensure food security on the continent, an expert at the Center for African Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Vsevolod Sviridov, says in an interview with Sputnik.

▪️According to him, the most efficient way to enhance supplies of Russian agricultural products to Africa is "to remove obstacles" that include some restrictions Russia is currently facing connected to the execution of financial transactions and in some cases lack of logistics capacity, as well as lack of necessary infrastructure in Africa itself, with which Russia could help the continent out.

👉 READ THE FULL STORY

🤔Talking about cutting expenses?

US President Joe Biden vowed $350 billion for a new initiative, "the Digital Transformation with Africa", while speaking at the US-Africa Business Forum Wednesday.

❗️However, it appeared that something hadn't gone according to the president's plan, as his administration later specified that what Biden really meant to announce was a sum 1,000 times smaller - $350 million

Subscribe to @sputnik_africa

📹 More than a thousand asylum-seekers lined up on the US side of the border with Mexico, wrapped in blankets on a bitterly cold afternoon, patiently waiting to be processed by American immigration authorities, a week before a Trump-era expulsion policy is expected to terminate, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

Read more

Ex-Austrian Vice Chancellor: EU May See More Protests Due to Bloc's Anti-Russian Sanctions

Former Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache has warned of a looming shortage of raw materials in the EU due to the bloc’s sanctions against Russia.

Strache, who also served as leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), told Sputnik that “the sanctions has increased the foreign trade turnover of raw materials in Russia from $100 billion to $220 billion, while in Europe, prices for energy supplies, raw materials, electricity and food are rising significantly.”

Read more

⚡️EU countries fail to agree on 9th sanction package against Russia, reports say

📹 Sputnik has obtained footage showing how a Russian Lancet UAV destroyed a Ukrainian radar station in the Kherson region.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt