📹 "One can say they were made into suicide bombers," Russian intelligence officers said they found Ukrainian tanks with hatches welded shut from the outside

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Biden Admin. to Start Refilling US Oil Reserve With 3Mln Barrels Purchase in February

The Biden administration plans to start refilling the heavily drawn-down US Strategic Petroleum Reserve with a purchase of 3 million barrels of crude in February, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced in a document inviting US energy companies to tender for the sale.

Last week, the balance was at its lowest level since 1984 at 382.3 million barrels.

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Insanely Huge Marsquake Had Energy Equal to All Previous Quakes Ever Seen, Scientists Say

A marsquake tracked by Earth scientists earlier this year has had its power quantified for the first time, and the results are off the scales.

"The energy released by this single marsquake is equivalent to the cumulative energy from all other marsquakes we've seen so far," seismologist John Clinton of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland, said in a release. ‘[A]nd although the event was over 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) distant, the waves recorded at InSight were so large they almost saturated our seismometer."

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📹 The wife of a DPR militiaman, convicted by a Ukrainian court, recalled how her case was fabricated in order to force her husband to come to Ukraine

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High Heating Bills Force Some Cafes in Budapest to Close Until Spring

Some pastry shops in Budapest are being forced to close or reduce services until spring or for a longer period due to unaffordable heating bills, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Friday.

Several employees of bakeries and cafes in the Hungarian capital have spoken about the difficulties their businesses are facing amid the energy crisis in Europe.

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‼️Ukrainian troops shell city of Donetsk using six grad rockets - DPR

‼️Putin Says Ready to Listen to Proposals With Regard to Special Operation in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting at the operational headquarters that he was ready to listen to proposals for immediate and medium-term actions on the special operation in Ukraine.

"Comrade officers, today we will hear from the commanders in each operational direction, and I would like to hear your proposals regarding our immediate and medium-term actions," Putin said.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that on Friday, Putin observed the work of the joint headquarters of the Russian military branches involved in the special operation in Ukraine, heard a report on the progress of the operation, and held separate meetings with commanders.

‘Afraid of Losing Face’: US’ Africa Summit Aimed to Save Position, Distract From Policy Failures

On the last day of US President Joe Biden's Africa Summit, to which he invited most of the countries on the continent, Sputnik spoke with two African policy experts about Washington's goals for the summit for the first time in eight years.

What does the US expect from the summit and what actions are they taking? Read the expert analysis in our article.

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❗️Two ministers from Peru's new government have resigned amid protests that have resulted in civilian deaths.

"This morning I presented my letter of resignation from the post of Minister of State in the education portfolio," Peru’s Minister of Education Patricia Correa said on Twitter on Friday, posting her letter of resignation.

Culture Minister Jair Perez Branez also submitted his letter of resignation on Friday. "Today I have submitted my irrevocable resignation. Peru needs peace and effective dialogue, no more violence, wherever it comes from. I call on the highest level and all powers to reflect and take action to bring peace to the Peruvian people. Not one more death," Branez said on Twitter.

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⚡️Elon Musk lifts suspension of Twitter accounts who ‘doxxed his location’

📹Turkey successfully tests its first supersonic missile

The Bayraktar Akinci, a Turkish-made attack unmanned aerial vehicle, successfully test-fired the country’s first supersonic air-to-surface missile, developed by Selcuk Bayrakter, the head of the producing company, Baykar, said via his twitter account.

"Bayraktar AKINCI fired Turkey's first supersonic missile TRG230IHA, developed by Roketsan. Bull's eye from 100km's,” the official declared.

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📹The Pentagon's Aerospace Defense Command has shown how it will track the movement of Santa Claus's reindeer team on Christmas Eve: control of the "aerial object" will be carried out with the full force of the US armed services - helicopters, submarines, fighters, radar.

American children can sleep peacefully - Santa will not pass unnoticed, the Pentagon guarantees.

But will this 'holiday stalking' operation get anyone suspended from Twitter?

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🦠Almost 200,000 chickens will be culled in Japan's prefecture of Saitama, neighboring Tokyo, due to an outbreak of bird flu, Japanese TV reported on Saturday.

▪️On Friday, 76 dead birds were found at one of the poultry farms in the prefecture. In nine of them, genetic analysis confirmed the presence of a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza.

▪️This is the third bird flu outbreak in the prefecture. Since Saturday morning, work has begun on the culling of birds, which will last until December 23.

▪️ In addition, quarantine was introduced for the transportation of chickens and eggs within a radius of three kilometers (1.9 miles) around the farm, where foci of the disease were found, and the export of chickens and eggs outside the 10-kilometer zone was prohibited.

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🌍 ⚽️ FIFA President Gianni Infantino has praised the performance of African teams in the FIFA World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar

🇲🇦 Infantino congratulated Morocco, the surprise team of the tournament, who made history and qualified to the semi-finals of the championship as the first team ever from the African continent to make it past the quarter-finals.

🗣 “I want to congratulate Morocco; (I tip my) hat. And also I want to congratulate the other African teams. Senegal made it through the group stage. They played against a very strong England. And also Cameroon, Ghana and Tunisia. Fighting until the last minute to qualify,” Infantino said. “I'm delighted because for many decades, we've been talking about the development of African football and when their time will come - their time has come.”

He added that he would be looking forward to “some more excellent performances” from Africa in the FIFA World Cup 2026, where “double the number of African teams” is going to be qualifying.

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🤔Traces of a white powder suspected to be cocaine were found at a government “grace-and-favor” home after a party attended by political allies of former Prime Minister Liz Truss, according to sources who spoke exclusively to a UK media outlet

▪️The powder was discovered in the Chevening estate last summer, just days before Truss was elected the leader of the Tory Party and tapped as prime minister. At the time, Truss served as UK foreign secretary.

▪️Members of the estate staff say they tested the white powder and it came back positive for containing cocaine. Under UK laws, cocaine possession can result in seven years in prison and a fine.

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🌎Earth might lose more than tenth of its species by the end of the 21st century, according to new research presented during the UN Biodiversity Conference. Roughly 3,000 scientists have called for action from governments in order to reverse the worrying trend.

🔬Researchers have built a simulation model of an artificial Earth on a supercomputer, populating the virtual world with synthetic species and modeling the effect of global warming and land use.

As simulation showed, in the worst case scenario 27% of species will die out. In a moderate scenario roughly 13% of animals and plants will go extinct.

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⚡️An air alert has been declared in all parts of Ukraine

🇿🇦 Employees at a South African butcher shop encountered an unusual visitor

🗣 "The warthog went into the kitchen behind the building, but could not seem to find his way out," the shop’s owner Stephen Nel said.

▪️ Store employees called the local fire brigade to help the unusual guest find its way out. The warthog was then transported to the Forever Resorts nature reserve, from where it is thought to have escaped

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🇨🇫 The Head of the Russian House in the Central African Republic has been hospitalized following an assassination attempt; he will be discharged soon and is now conscious, the Russian Embassy stated

🔹Previously, an explosion was reported in the office of Dmitry Sytyi, the head of the Russian House in the CAR, where a note with a threat "from all the French" and a call for Russians to leave Africa was found

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Five Louisiana Police Officers Charged Over Fatal 2019 Arrest of Motorist Ronald Greene

Five Louisiana law enforcement officers have been charged by a state grand jury for their actions during the 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, who died while being taken into police custody.

Greene was killed while being arrested during a traffic stop; however police originally claimed he died due to a car crash.

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❗️The new package of EU sanctions against Russia will aggravate socio-economic problems in the European Union itself - Russian Foreign Ministry