Catch our Fault Lines program where we provide updates and analysis on all the most pressing stories! Here's our line-up for Friday:

🔺 We kick off with a new cache of secret documents found in different places used by Biden: this time, papers have been found in his Delaware garage;
🔺 Next, we talk about the media’s attempts to whitewash the Hunter Biden story;
🔺 We also discuss the FTX trial and the shake-up at CNN.

Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 7am EST|4am PST|1pm CET via the website or app!

📻 Also in the United States on 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM and 1140AM.

Ex-French Army Soldier in Donbass: ‘France, Other Countries Will Have to Answer for Their Crimes’

Former French serviceman Adrien Bocquet arrived a few month ago in Donetsk. He recently announced that he has asked for political asylum in Russia. He witnessed the "massacre" in Bakhmut and huge losses on the Ukrainian side. Bocquet also saw the Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk and denounced "crimes" committed using "mainly French and American weapons".

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📈 Sweden's inflation rate reached double digits in December for the first time since 1991, as the rise in prices shows no signs of easing despite efforts by the central bank. The CPIF inflation rate tracked by the Riksbank increased by 10.2 percent compared with the previous year, according to Statistics Sweden.

This exceeds forecasts by economists who had predicted 9.8 percent, and the Riksbank which came up with a figure of 9.1 percent

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Sri Lanka to Downsize Army by Third to Cut Costs

🪖 In November, while presenting the budget for 2023, President Ranil Wickremesinghe's government allocated $1.108 billion for the Ministry of Defense. However, the latest move suggests that the Sri Lankan leadership has instructed to slash 5% from all proposals submitted by the ministries allocated in the 2023 Budget.

Details ↗️

Life After Chanel: Most Russians Unruffled By Exodus of Western Clothing Brands, Survey Shows

A swathe of Western fashion brands made a great show of exiting the lucrative Russian market, albeit at their own detriment, following the start of Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. They have been counting their losses since, while the niches that opened up in Russia were not left empty for long.

More than 50 percent of Russians couldn’t care less that a swathe of global fashion brands exited the country last year, a recent survey has revealed. Russia’s consumers are quite content, as they go about their business, browsing the generous array at various shopping centers and online.

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🎞 Russian "Cheburashka" movie bypassed Avatar (2009) in box office and became the highest-grossing film in the history of Russian film distribution yielding more than 3.5 billion rubles (around $52 million)
🔙 "Cheburashka" is a monkey-like creature, who, according to the story, written by Eduard Uspensky, was found by a shop-keeper in the box with oranges. He appears to be almost a folk character for several generations, especially those, who grew up in the Soviet Union.

Spin It! Time Travel is Possible if Universe is Rotating, Study Suggests

Being able to go back in time and erase all of one’s mistakes is a long-held dream of mankind, described by many science-fiction and fantasy writers. However, people must ask themselves - is time travel even theoretically possible?

Over the course of years, many prominent scientists have obtained theoretical calculations, suggesting that one can turn back time - under certain conditions.

The theoretical justification for time travel is contained in the 1949 work "An Example of New Type of Cosmological Solutions of Einstein’s Field Equations of Gravitation" by renowned Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel. The scientist was a close friend of Einstein, whose work and discoveries he used.

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Technology Developing Fast - Human Cloning 'Red Line' May be Crossed One Day, Scientist Warns

Nearly three decades ago the world was amazed by the creation of the first cloned sheep, named Dolly, which would live for seven years. Cloning is the process of generating a genetically identical copy of a cell or an organism.

However, the scientific breakthrough was accompanied by ethical concerns over potential "genetic manipulation" targeting human beings. Therefore, the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Bioethics came up with the protocol prohibiting human cloning, which was signed in Paris on 12 January 1998.

Cloning experiments with mammalian species continued and 25 years later, China's first registered cloned warm-blooded horse named Zhuangzhuang trotted onto the world stage on 12 January 2023, in Beijing. Zhuangzhuang is not the first cloned horse in the world: many countries have been using the technology to advance their biomedical research.

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💭 "As I've said before, I think that US leaders ignore the dictum of Carl von Clausewitz, that 'war is politics by other means', and they think that fancy weaponry and technology is going to win wars when we have precedents such as Vietnam and Korea where it didn't, where technology proved completely inadequate on the battlefield," Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of the magazine CovertAction and author of four books on US foreign policy, said.

💭 He added: "I think there are some parallels with Ukraine because you have to look at the political context in each case. In the case of Vietnam, the US violated the Geneva Convention and was trying to create an artificial nation South Vietnam. In the case of Ukraine, the US supported a coup d'etat against a legally elected government in 2014. And the new Ukraine government alienated the eastern provinces who are pro-Russian - anyway, their economy was tied more to Russia.

🎧Listen to more of Jeremy's views in our podcast "Political Misfits"

🌑 NASA has allocated $57.2Mln to the Texas large-scale 3D printing firm ICON for the implementation of the Project Olympus program, which involves the development of technology for the construction of buildings and structures on the Moon and Mars using local materials.

The Olympus system from ICON has been conceived as a multi-purpose construction system, mainly using local lunar and Martian resources as building materials to support the efforts of NASA, as well as commercial organizations to create a sustainable lunar presence after people return to the Moon

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Kanye West Reportedly Ties Knot With Yeezy Designer & Kardashian Lookalike in Secret Ceremony

Embattled rapper Kanye West is believed to have remarried, several months after officially parting ways with voluptuous American socialite and media icon, Kim Kardashian.

As the dust from the acrimonious divorce settles, the hip-hop star who now likes to be known as Ye has tied the knot in secret with a 'Kardashian lookalike', Bianca Censori, according to media reports. The 27-year-old Australian woman is the "head of architecture" for his brand Yeezy.

Speculations were rife as Ye was allegedly spotted wearing a large new ring on his left wedding finger. Furthermore, the musician and the young blonde were seen tucking into dinner for two at the Beverly Hills Waldorf Astoria.

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'Likely to Cause Offence': Posters of Demi Lovato in Bondage Gear on Crucifix Bed Banned in UK

The UK Advertising Standards Authority announced on 11 January that an inquiry was being launched into posters promoting singer Demi Lovato’s new album in London. Several people complained to the board about the image of the pop star dressed in bondage-style gear and sprawled on a crucifix-shaped mattress.

After acting on the complaints of four individuals, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) weighed in on the "image of Ms Lovato bound up in a bondage-style outfit while lying on a mattress shaped like a crucifix".

The singer was "in a position with her legs bound to one side which was reminiscent of Christ on the cross", the ASA said.

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🇲🇼 At least 750 dead and more than 22,500 infected in Malawi’s worst cholera outbreak in two decades

Malawi’s Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda said that since the start of the outbreak in the country in March 2022, at least 22,759 cases of cholera have been detected, including 892 at present hospitalized with the acute diarrheal disease.

🗣 “We continue to record a rising number of cases across the country - despite signs of reduced transmission - and deaths in a few areas,” she said, “so we need to adhere strictly to sanitation and hygiene measures.”

Despite the ongoing crisis, Malawi's health authorities have decided to reopen schools in the commercial hub Blantyre and the capital, Lilongwe, from 17 January. Schools were scheduled to open on 3 January, but the government earlier decided to delay it for two weeks.

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💭"So we see the US had invested in Japanese military and now they have so many military bases there that they've sustained and now they're kind of taking the gloves off. They've encouraged Japan's rearmament and basically doing away with this pacifist constitution and really ramping up military spending. And then there are these new agreements for US military troops to take an even more active role." Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of the magazine CovertAction and author of four books on US foreign policy, said.

🎧Listen to more of Jeremy's views in our podcast "Political Misfits"

Stress at Middle Age Raises Risk of Dementia Later in Life for Men, Study Claims

The study, published by the American Medical Association's journal JAMA Network Open, found that "through careful modelling, we established a connection between symptoms associated with mental distress and an organic brain disease."

"As the population ages, memory disorders are becoming more common. Naturally, this makes understanding their risk factors important," the authors wrote.

Data from the study showed that "psychological distress symptoms were significantly associated with increased risk of all-cause dementia."

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Republicans Preparing to Move Forward With Ukraine Aid Audit, US Congresswoman Greene Says

US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Friday that she and other House Republican lawmakers are preparing to move forward with an audit of US aid to Ukraine, an idea first proposed late last year before the House Republican majority took effect.

"We don’t even have committees filled yet but [Congressman Michael McCaul] and I are already preparing to move forward with the audit of Ukraine. No more blank checks to Ukraine," Greene said via Twitter.

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'Their Blood, Our Bullets': How US Training of Ukrainians Exposes Washington's Grim Global Strategy

The United States has allocated over $125 million to train more than 26,000 Ukrainian troops since the 2014 coup in Kiev, with Washington's allies providing instruction to tens of thousands more. What challenges does this assistance pose? What are its risks and benefits? And why are some US officials speaking out in opposition? Sputnik explores.

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Russia, China Enjoy Record 29% Bump in Trade, Signaling Failure of Western Sanctions

Russia and China ramped up diplomatic and economic cooperation on a number of fronts in 2022. Earlier this month, in a New Year’s telegram to President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed Beijing's readiness to continue to deepen “comprehensive strategic cooperation and practical collaboration” with Moscow.

According to new data put out by China’s Customs Administration , Russia imported some $114.149 billion in goods and services from China over the year, with China importing $76.122 billion from Russia in return. Russia's total imports from China increased by some 43.4 percent in 2022, while China’s jumped upward by 12.8 percent.

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