📌Latest statements by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov:

▪️President Putin did not consult with OPEC+ before signing decree on measures in response to price cap on Russian oil;

▪️Russian authorities analyzing situation after introduction of price cap on gas by West, too early to talk about further steps;

▪️President Putin's decree on oil measures in response to western cap applies to existing contracts containing link to ceiling

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Indian PM’s Mother Hiraba Modi Hospitalized, Condition Stable

🙏🏾 After PM Modi's mother Hiraba was admitted to hospital, local politicians and government officials, including BJP legislators Darshnaben Vaghela and Kaushik Jain, and other senior bureaucrats, have already visited Hiraba at U.N. Mehta Hospital to check upon her condition.

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Belgian Justice Ministry Says Scale of EU Parliament Scandal Investigation Unprecedented

The Belgian-led investigation into alleged bribery in the European Parliament has reached a scale typical of investigations into organized crime, Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told a British newspaper.

The minister recalled Belgium's 2021 joint probe with France and the Netherlands to intercept communications between war lords and other criminals by cracking the SKY ECC encryption software

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❗️Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️Russian troops eliminated more than 30 Ukrainian servicemen in the Kupyansk direction;

▪️The Russian Army destroyed over 80 Ukrainian servicemen in the Donetsk direction;

▪️Russian troops eliminated Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group in the DPR;

▪️Russian forces eliminated more than 70 Ukrainian servicemen and mercenaries in the Ugledar region of the DPR;

▪️The Russian Army destroyed two M777 and a German-made FH-70 howitzer that had been used to shell residential areas of Donetsk;

▪️Russian troops hit five Ukrainian command posts and an arms depot in the DPR, Kharkov and Zaporozhye regions.

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⚡️ Russian Foreign Ministry summons charge d'affaires of Lithuania in Moscow to express protest in connection with expulsion of Russian diplomat, declares one Lithuanian embassy employee persona non grata

🍸Larry Flint's Hustler Club has announced it will provide free travel from the airport to its doors and will provide free entry to anyone who can present a ticket for a flight that has been canceled because of bad weather in Las Vegas. The offer includes a free drink.

Stormy weather has caused massive flight delays in the US. According to American media, Southwest Airlines has "wiped out any ability to make a reservation until 1 January"

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🇺🇬 🇷🇺 An administrative and spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church will be built in Uganda's capital, Kampala

🗣 “Thanks to the personal good contacts of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, agreements that were unprecedented, in my opinion, were reached. There is an understanding that an administrative and spiritual center will be built,” the Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, Metropolitan Leonid of Klin said.

💒 According to the Patriarchal Exarch for Africa, the President of Uganda allocated 6 hectares of land for the construction site "in the best location of the capital, right across the road from the presidential palace".

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⚡️ The Turkish Defense Ministry announced that Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and the head of the National Intelligence Organization of Turkey, Hakan Fidan, are on a visit to Moscow to hold talks

Year of ‘Great Life-and-Death Struggle’: What Happened on the Korean Peninsula in 2022

Pyongyang formally laid out its goals for strengthening national defense in 2023 on Wednesday amid an escalation of tensions with Seoul and Washington during the outgoing year. What changes, good and bad, has 2022 brought to the Korean Peninsula?

Let this punchy Sputnik year in review bring you up to speed

🇷🇺🇸🇾🇹🇷 The defense ministers of Russia, Syria, and Turkey held trilateral talks in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss ways to resolve the Syrian crisis, the issue of refugees, and joint efforts to combat extremist groups, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

After the meeting, the defense ministers noted the constructive nature of the dialogue and stressed the need to continue the talks to further stabilize the situation in Syria and in the region as a whole, the ministry added.

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F-35 Crash in Texas Prompts US, Israel to Ground Part of Their Fleets

The US and Israeli militaries have grounded part of their F-35 fleets in response to the December 15 crash in Forth Worth, Texas. The office did not specify which planes it considered “higher risk” and un-airworthy, whether the TCTD applied F-35Bs or all variants of the aircraft.

The F-35 crash in Texas involved an F-35B, which is a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the plane used by the US Marine Corps, as well as the British Royal Air Force and Navy. Italy, Singapore and South Korea also plan to order this particular model of the aircraft.

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⚡️ Washington explains through diplomatic channels that it has no plans to send US specialists to Ukraine to control Patriot air defense systems - Lavrov

🥴 When two poster children collide: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg chalked up another win on Wednesday - but not against governments with pollutive industries.

Andrew Tate, who has had his Twitter account back for barely a month after being reinstated by Elon Musk, took aim at Greta, boasting about his supercars and their 'enormous emissions.' The pint-sized sharp-tongued Swedish climate activist’s response to Tate's trolling has since gone viral online.

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Face of US Changing as Migration Becomes Major Driver of Population Growth

Net international migration (the number of people moving in and out of the country) was the primary driver of growth, adding a whopping 1,010,923 people between 2021 and 2022. For comparison's sake, the "positive natural change" – births minus deaths – increased the US population by 245,080. Remarkably, the year-over-year increase in total births was the largest since 2007, as Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau, said in an official statement.

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🇷🇺🇨🇺 Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and discussed topical issues of bilateral cooperation, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, adding that special attention was paid to mutually beneficial joint projects in energy, industry and other areas.

Both parties confirmed their readiness to implement the agreements of November 19-22, considering the will of the Cuban side, the statement said.

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‼️US to require negative COVID-19 tests for travelers from China starting January 5, 2023

➡️ Tests will be required regardless of one's vaccination status, and must be administered within two days before their scheduled departure

🇷🇺🇨🇳 The joint Russia-China exercises dubbed "Naval Interaction-2022" ended in the East China Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

💬 "Detachments of warships of the Pacific Fleet and the Navy of the People's Liberation Army of China completed practicing tasks as part of the bilateral naval exercise 'Naval Interaction-2022', which took place in the waters of the East China Sea," the ministry said.

Earlier, the ministry said that the main purpose of the exercise is to strengthen Russian-Chinese naval cooperation, as well as to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

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💬 "Now, this has been a longstanding policy from the U.S. of antagonizing Russia and expanding NATO and expanding the influence of the US military to the Russian border. In fact, you can see it in 2019 Pentagon study in which the study recommended spending billions of dollars to arm Ukraine in order to harass Russia, in order that they might overextend themselves and get more involved in the region," says Bryce Greene, a contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

🎧 Listen to more of Greene's analysis in our podcast: Ukraine Foreign Minister Proposes Peace Talks - Without Russia