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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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⚡️ 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.

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🤔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

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📹 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.

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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.”

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⚡️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.

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🙊 Good words and no deeds.

Biden swung at solving all the problems of digitalization in Africa, but this time he was stopped by the White House staffers protecting the US treasury

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❗️ An update by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov:

▪️ Russia knows nothing about the results of the probe into terrorist attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines or whether the West will insist on finding out the truth;

▪️ Canada’s decision to reimpose sanctions on the Nord Stream turbine is unlikely to affect Russia, sanctions will hit European consumers;

▪️ No decision has been made to launch the intact line of the Nord Stream pipeline;

▪️ Polish authorities refuse to face the truth and recognize that the TU-154 crash was a tragic accident.

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🇪🇺🇷🇺 Another interesting observation from Karin Kneissl's interview. She said that the transition from fossil fuels to green energy can’t happen overnight, as the European Union is now attempting to do, it may be a matter of 10-15 years.

Former Austria's top diplomat has also slammed Europe's decision to get rid of Russian gas supplies.

French Politician Accuses Macron, Von Der Leyen of Adding to EU Energy Crisis

French politician Florian Philippot, head of the right-wing Les Patriotes Party, blamed French President Emanuel Macron and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen for rising energy prices in Europe.

“The Russian budget surplus quadrupled in November, while our deficits are skyrocketing. We have stopped heating schools and hospitals, and we plan to use candles,” the politician tweeted. "Ursula, Macron and [French Finance Minister Bruno] Le Maire are doing a great job!" Philippot concluded sarcastically.

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📹 When Sputnik cameras stopped rolling after the interview with Austria's ex-minister of foreign affairs Karin Kneissl on Wednesday, she has shared her views on how China and the Gulf States are perceiving the G7, EU and US sanctions against Moscow.

💬 “The Chinese, I think, are just as stunned as any person who still believes in the rule of law must be - stunned, astonished, irritated, because the fact that the assets of the Russian central bank were attacked” - said Kneissl, adding that the Gulf states are unhappy with G7's 60-dollar-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil, which puts the Arab nations and Beijing on the same page when it comes to common concerns about restrictions.

A boy from Donbass told how he didn't have time to save a cat running out of a burning house after the building was set on fire by Ukrainian shelling. It's unknown if the cat is alive or not.