📹 A resident of Kharkov criticizes the Ukrainian authorities for indiscriminately handing out draft papers to locals

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Russia’s Sberbank Plans to Open Office in China in 2023

Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, plans to launch a branch office in China by the end of 2023, Alexander Vedyakhin, the first deputy chairman of Sberbank's executive board, said on Monday.

"I hope that by the end of 2023 we will be able to open a branch office in China. Usually it takes one and a half to two years, but we hope that by the end of 2023 we will already have an office in this country," Vedyakhin said.

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Iranian Foreign Ministry Calls Ukrainian Threats Irresponsible, Warns of Consequences

Last week, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that the West should turn away from sanctions against Iran that "are not working" and start arresting people and destroying plants responsible for alleged drone supplies to Russia.

The comments sparked a reaction from Tehran.
"We reject the accusations of the Ukrainian leadership... We do not take part in the Ukrainian conflict and are ready to help resolve the crisis and establish peace in this country… We consider threatening rhetoric irresponsible from whichever body it originates," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Kanaani said during a press conference.

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📹 S-300V air defense systems in combat operations as part of a special military operation (video by Russian MoD)

The soldiers have already shot down numerous targets, including Tochka-U tactical missiles, Olkha and Uragan MLRS shells, and Soviet-made Strizh UAVs.

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Seven Most Chilling Natural Disasters of 2022

This year was rich in crises of all kinds, in both form and content. Sputnik brings you this compilation of the most severe natural disasters that rocked the planet over the past 12 months.

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🗣️ "Former vice-president Mike Pence did not file to run for President today," Devin O'Malley, a spokesman for Mike Pence wrote on Twitter.

Earlier, the US media reported that Pence had filled in the application to run for president in the 2024 election more than a month after former US President Donald Trump announced that he would be standing for re-election

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😨 The Assistant Secretary of Biden's Department of Health and Human Services and the world's first transgender Admiral Rachel Levine has demanded that any criticism of sex reassignment operations in children be censored.

🗣️ According to Levine "the positive value of gender-affirming care for youth and adults is not in scientific or medical dispute".

Levine, who transitioned from male to female in 2011, claims that “an onslaught of anti-LGBTQI+ actions at the state levels is dangerous to the public health".

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👉 Follow our LIVE UPDATES on the Ukrainian crisis

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🚨 US President Joe Biden has declared an emergency because of a snow storm in New York State, the White House reported

A once-in-a-generation snowstorm that hit parts of the United States on Christmas Day has already claimed an estimated 55 lives.

On 26 December, the president issued a federal declaration of a state of emergency in New York State, authorizing government assistance against the background of ongoing reconstruction work, aided by hundreds of National Guard troops

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Some representatives belonging to the administration of President Joe Biden have insisted that the US operations of Chinese-owned TikTok be forcibly sold, American media has said.

According to the reports, representatives of the Pentagon and the Ministry of Justice are seeking guarantees that Beijing will not be able to use the application for espionage and political influence. They claim that it is possible to eliminate all the risks associated with the application only by separating TikTok from its Chinese owner, ByteDance

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The head of Turkey's defense industry announced that the country has successfully conducted tests of a new ALKA Directed Energy Weapon System - a hybrid defense resource using electromagnetic and laser technology against asymmetric threats. Its algorithms have been developed using artificial intelligence

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❗️At least 15 people have been injured In the state of Assam after being attacked by a leopard. The casualties included three employees of the forest department.

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🇨🇦 Next year NATO is likely to say goodbye to Jens Stoltenberg as the Secretary General. One of the prime candidates to replace him as the head of the alliance is the Canadian Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland, who has Ukrainian roots and is known for her anti-Russian rhetoric.

In April Freeland was one of the Western politicians who wanted to stop dialogue with Moscow and to kick Russia out of G20, saying that “it’s impossible to talk about international collaboration, international co-operative efforts with Russia.”

Here is another quote from Freeland:

💬 “Canadians – our own parents and grandparents – fought and died to establish the rules-based international order during and after the Second World War.”

❗️Ironically enough, Freeland’s own grandfather Mykhailo Khomiak, was a Nazi collaborator. Before moving to Canada he edited Krakivski Visti, a Nazi propaganda newspaper, with anti-Polish, anti-Russian/Soviet and anti-Jewish materials, which identified the “historical enemies” of the Ukrainian nation. Khomiak's contact Emil Gassner reportedly answered directly to the Nazi propaganda boss Joseph Goebbels.

It’s unclear whether Freeland was referring to Khomiak personally in her speech, but she portrayed her grandparents as noble fighters for Ukraine’s independence: “they saw themselves as political exiles with a responsibility to keep alive the idea of an independent Ukraine” – she wrote in a 2015 essay.

❓The rhetorical question is whose legacy Chrystia Freeland will continue if appointed as NATO Secretary General in 2023.

All You Need to Know About 'Brain-Eating Amoeba' as First Death Confirmed in South Korea

South Korea has identified its first case of someone who was infected by the Naegleria Fowleri amoeba, otherwise known as the "brain-eating amoeba" because of its tendency to penetrate the human brain, the Korean Agency for Disease Control and Prevention (KDCA) announced.

The KDCA said that the patient had been in Thailand for four months before returning to South Korea on 10 December. Once returned, he started to display symptoms including headaches, fever, vomiting and speech dysfunction. He died on 21 December. The health authorities, after tests, confirmed that he had succumbed to the Naegleria Fowleri amoeba

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