Brazilian Gov't Needs Decisive Response to Curb Rampant Riots in Future, Experts Say

The Brazilian government has to respond decisively to the recent violent protests by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro against his successor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to prevent such riots in the future, experts told Sputnik.

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Russia, Iran Providing Sanction-Proof Trade Access to Central Asia For India

🇷🇺🇮🇷 The new shipping corridor, proposed in response to the US-led push for “friendshoring,” or relocating supply chains to friendly countries, is also being pitched as a potential partnership with India, which has not participated in the Western-led isolation efforts against Iran and Russia.

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❗️ The Russian MoD’s latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ Artillery and army aviation have neutralized over 30 Ukrainian servicemen and two motor vehicles near Kupyansk.

▪️ Four sabotage and reconnaissance groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been eliminated in the LPR.

▪️ The Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost up to 90 servicemen, both killed and wounded, as well as two armored combat vehicles, and three vehicles have been eliminated during the day.

▪️ Russian troops have liberated Podgorodnoye in the DPR during a successful offensive.

▪️ Airborne Troops blockaded Soledar from the northern and southern parts of the city. The Russian Aerospace Forces are striking enemy strongholds. Assault squads are fighting in the city.

▪️ Up to 80 Ukrainian servicemen, one tank, three armored fighting vehicles, and two motor vehicles were destroyed as a result of the shelling of units of the 61st AFU Mechanized and 17th Tank Brigades.

▪️ Up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen, an infantry fighting vehicle, and two motor vehicles have been annihilated by a complex fire attack in southern Donetsk.

▪️ Fighter aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces have shot down one Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 aircraft in the DPR.

▪️ 2 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the DPR and LPR have been shot down by air defense forces overnight.

▪️ 5 rounds of HIMARS and Olkha multiple-launch rocket systems were intercepted in the DPR and LPR.

▪️ Some 371 airplanes and 200 helicopters, 2,868 unmanned aerial vehicles, 400 air defense missile systems, 7,473 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 976 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 3,809 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 8,006 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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🇵🇭📞 Philippine President Marcos has been ignoring Zelensky's attempts to contact him since June, a Ukrainian charge d'affaires has said.

According to the diplomat, Kiev has been trying to arrange a conversation with Markos twice a month, but there's been no answer.

Earlier, the Philippine president said that his country does not need to interfere in what is happening in Ukraine.

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⚡️⚡️ Explosion rocks Kabul near the building of the Afghan foreign ministry, shots also heard - sources to Sputnik

⚡️Scene from the site of the blast in Kabul today.

According to the picture, there may be casualties.

⚡️The death toll from an explosion near the Foreign Ministry in Kabul reaches 20, media reports suggest.

📹 New generation high-precision munitions demolish Ukrainian Armed Forces strongholds and armor (video courtesy of Russian MoD)

A precision-guided munition successfully engaged a stronghold and an armored vehicle of the Ukrainian Armed Forces located a significant distance away. The targets were hit with the first shot.

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✈️ All flights to the US have been interrupted, leaving thousands of passengers on hold after the FAA systems crashed, leaving pilots unable to view their flight plans.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system that alerts pilots and other flight personnel to hazards or any changes to airport services and procedures is not working.

According to the FAA, the NOTAM (notification of air missions) system "failed". More than 400 flights have reportedly been delayed going to, within or from the US.

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❗️The White House has said that there's no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, and President Joe Biden has ordered a full investigation into the system outage

Uranium Found in Package at London's Heathrow Airport

An "extremely small" amount of the radioactive element uranium has been detected in a package at London's Heathrow Airport.

The Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday that its counter-terrorism command was contacted by UK Border Force officers after the item contaminated with the material was discovered on December 29.

The parcel was addressed to un-named Iranian citizens living in the UK and had come from Pakistan, via Oman.

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📹 Solntsepyok flamethrower systems in combat as part of the special military operation (video by Russian MoD)

The MLRS crew launches strikes with 300mm thermobaric projectiles at AFU positions, destroying their shelters, observation posts, artillery depots and positions.

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📹 Famous tech entrepreneur and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has sustained a record blow to his wealth in recent months.

▪️ Since November 2021, Musk’s net worth has plummeted over $200 billion from about $338 billion to $137 billion in December 2022, of which $133 billion was lost in 2022 alone, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

▪️ Musk's recent losses surpass the entire riches of French tycoon Bernard Arnault who has overtaken Elon in the aforementioned billionaires’ ranking as the wealthiest man in the world with $162 billion to his name.

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❗️ Latest Kremlin statements on Putin-Raisi phone conversation:

▪️ President Putin discussed issues of the Russian-Iranian agenda with Ebrahim Raisi placing emphasis on further building-up of bilateral cooperation;

▪️ Vladimir Putin and Ebrahim Raisi spoke in favor of consistent implementation of mutually beneficial projects in the energy, transport and logistics sectors;

▪️ Putin and Raisi express their willingness to cooperate to normalize the situation in Syria and restore its territorial integrity.

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⚡️ Russian MoD: Chief of General Staff Gerasimov named Commander of Joint Group of Forces in Ukraine

⚡️ Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, has been appointed Commander of the Russian Joint Group of Forces as part of a special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.

▪️ The Defense Ministry added that Commander of the Aerospace Forces General Sergey Surovikin, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces Oleg Salyukov and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Colonel General Alexei Kim have been named Gerasimov's deputies.

▪️ The new appointments in the leadership of the special military operation are connected with the expansion of the scale of the tasks being solved and the need for closer interaction between all types and branches of the military, the MoD explained.

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Around 60% of French Approve Protests Against Pension Reform, Survey Says

Around 60% of French people approve the protests scheduled by unions against Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's pension reform, which includes a gradual increase of the retirement age to 64 by 2030, a survey conducted by Elabe for the French broadcaster found on Wednesday.

The pollster surveyed a representative sample of 1,002 respondents aged 18 and over, balanced according to sex, occupation and place of residence, via the internet on January 10.

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Fentanyl-Related Deaths Skyrocket in US Amid Unprecedented Opioid Crisis

A synthetic opioid analgesic nearly a hundred times more powerful than morphine, fentanyl is approved for medical use in the United States since 1968. The drug, however, is also used recreationally and is sometimes even mixed with other narcotics such as cocaine or heroin.

The number of reported law enforcement encounters testing positive for fentanyl in the US started rapidly increasing around 2013 during the second term of President Barack Obama, with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) sounding the alarm in 2015 about a rise in overdose deaths involving fentanyl.

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🤭 Republican Kentucky Representative James Comer, who is the new chair of the panel, wrote to White House counsel Stuart Delery on Tuesday, asking him to provide all the documents found at Biden's private office in Pennsylvania by January 23.

💬 "The Committee is concerned that President Biden has compromised sources and methods with his own mishandling of classified documents," Comer wrote.

▪️ Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for condemning his Republican predecessor Donald Trump for keeping official documents after leaving the White House in 2020 that he had the authority to declassify.

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