Ramstein Summit Showed Lack of Unity, Unclear Goals & No Post-War Ukraine Plan, Military Experts Say

The NATO chief praised member states' willingness to provide air defenses, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored vehicles to the Kiev regime and stressed that they need to ramp up the production of weapons and ammunition to rapidly replenish stockpiles. However, Germany's reluctance to provide its Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Kiev popped up as an unpleasant surprise for Kiev and NATO leaders.

The ability to form a consensus in the West has been seriously weakened by domestic problems, economic recession, and very poor intelligence being provided to Western politicians about what has been and is happening in Ukraine and in Russia, according to retired Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense.

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📹 Russian Ka-52 and Mi-28 attack helicopters in action as part of the special operation in Ukraine (video courtesy of Russia’s MoD)

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Mystery Sponsors Helped Bail Disgraced Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Out of Jail

Bankman-Fried, who is facing convictions on a generous buffet of fraud charges, is currently awaiting trial in a Manhattan federal court, residing under house arrest at his parents' California home.

One of the two unnamed sponsors posted $500,000, with the other posting $200,000 towards guaranteeing the alleged fraudster's $250 million bond, settled in December, 2022. Besides these two bail backers, the bond was also secured by Bankman-Fried's parents, who offered their Palo Alto home, estimated to be worth $4 million, as collateral.

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Access to Almost 2% of Global Copper Supply Under Threat Over Peru Unrest

Loss of nearly 2 percent of the world’s copper output churned out by two of Peru's largest mines - Glencore's Antapaccay copper mine, and Las Bambas, operated by MMG Ltd. - would come as inventory levels of this critical metal have been dropping to historical lows across the world. Copper is a crucial input metal in a number of industries, used in everything from wind turbines and electric wires to electric vehicles.

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Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea Found in the US for the First Time

On Thursday, health officials announced the discovery of a new strain of gonorrhea in Massachusetts which they find to be concerning. The strain is showing a “reduced response to multiple antibiotics”, according to the Department of Public Health.

“The discovery of this strain of gonorrhea is a serious public health concern which DPH, the CDC, and other health departments have been vigilant about detecting in the US,” said Public Health Commissioner Margret Cooke

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📹 A cloud with a very suggestive shape has appeared over the Turkish city of Bursa

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New Zealand Education Minister Chris Hipkins has become the new leader of the country's Labor Party.

He will now become the country's prime minister, taking over from Jacinda Arden who unexpectedly stepped down as premier last week, announcing that she "had no more in the tank".

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👉 Follow our LIVE UPDATES on the Ukrainian crisis

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📌 The latest statements from the Speaker of Russia's State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin:

▪️The supply of offensive weapons to Ukraine will lead to global disaster, retaliatory measures with more powerful weapons

▪️By its decision to supply weapons to Kiev, the West is leading the world towards a terrible war, to hostilities worse than those at present when strikes are directed only towards infrastructure;

▪️Arms supplies to Kiev may end in a tragedy that will destroy the West, given the technological superiority of weapons in Russia

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Six More Classified Documents Found in Search of Biden's Family Home

The documents were found at Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware during a 13-hour search that the president promptly complied with, according to his lawyer Bob Bauer. Some of those documents and other materials were from the president's tenure in the Senate which lasted between 1973 and 2009.

🗣 “Yesterday, D.O.J. completed a thorough search of all the materials in the president’s Wilmington home. It began at approximately 9:45 a.m. and concluded at around 10:30 p.m. and covered all working, living and storage spaces in the home,” Bauer said.

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🇹🇷🇷🇺 Turkey has successfully completed a transaction and paid for Russian grain in rubles, and now Moscow is discussing the possibility of similar supplies to Egypt, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko told Sputnik.

🗣 "The latest example is a deal with Turkey on food supplies, when the settlement was carried out in rubles. The first ‘swallow’ was successful. Our largest [grain importer] is Egypt, and we are also beginning work on such a transition with them," Abramchenko said

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Russian Scientists Develop Robotic Masseur For Cosmonauts

Researchers from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University have been working on a robot that would be attached to the body of a cosmonaut and perform massages without distracting them from their work. The developers will present their ideas at the Korolev Readings in Moscow from 24 to 27 January.

The Institute of Mechanical Engineering (IMASH) of the Russian Academy of Sciences has made and tested its full-scale kinematic model to determine how such a masseur could work.

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🦧 “Unbreakable bond”

📹 Young orangutans at a rehab center are taught to be cautious in the presence of snakes with the aid of a toy cobra.

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⚡️Nine people killed in mass shooting in city east of Los Angeles that was celebrating Lunar New Year, police say

🇸🇾 A five-story residential building collapsed in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, including a child, and injuring three others, media reported.

The incident occurred in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, Syrian broadcaster reported. According to preliminary data, as many as 30 people may remain under the rubble.

Firefighters and civil defense forces are reportedly working on the scene. The cause of the building collapse is yet to be established, according to the broadcaster

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🇹🇷 Protest in front of Swedish embassy in Ankara over burning of Quran in Stockholm

Participants chanted slogans including ''NATO is now only a dream for you'', ''Sweden - you are the disgusting face of two-faced West'', “The Quran is the inextinguishable Sun”, ''He who came to kill us will find his death here'' and others.

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🇸🇪🇹🇷 Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Sunday condemned the burning of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm as a "disrespectful" act, though admitted that it did not violate the law.

💬 "Freedom of expression is a fundamental part of democracy. But what is legal is not necessarily appropriate. Burning books that are holy to many is a deeply disrespectful act. I want to express my sympathy for all Muslims who are offended by what has happened in Stockholm today," Kristersson wrote on Twitter.

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

▪️Russian forces assumed more advantageous lines and positions in the Zaporozhye direction;

▪️The Russian Army eliminated over 50 Ukrainian servicemen, a car and a pickup truck in the Kupyansk direction;

▪️Russian troops eliminated over 80 Ukrainian servicemen, an infantry fighting vehicle, five armored fighting vehicles and a pickup truck in the Knasny Liman direction;

▪️The Russian army destroyed a Ukrainian artillery ammunition warehouse in the Donetsk direction;

▪️Russian forces destroyed US-made AN/TPQ-48 and AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radars in the DPR and in the LPR;

▪️The Russian Army eliminated over 80 Ukrainian servicemen, three armored combat vehicles, two cars, and a D-30 howitzer in the Donetsk direction;

▪️Russia troops destroyed a Ukrainian artillery ammunition warehouse in the Donetsk direction;

▪️Russian forces eliminated up to 85 Ukrainian servicemen, an infantry fighting vehicle, two armored fighting vehicles, a pickup truck, two D-20 howitzers and a D-30 howitzer in the Zaporozhye direction;

▪️The Russian Army destroyed a US-made AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery radar in the Kherson direction;
Russian air defenses destroyed a Ukrainian Su-25 and 9 UAVs.

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RT France was the only TV channel in France that gave objective coverage of the yellow vests protests and demonstrations against vaccine passes during the COVID-19 pandemic, Florian Philippot, leader of the French Patriots movement, said.

RT France on Saturday announced that it was shutting down after its accounts in France had been blocked. The channel's management reported that the General Directorate of the Treasury - part of France's Ministry of Finance - decided to freeze the RT France bank accounts using the excuse of the ninth package of sanctions against Russia, which does not mention the channel, only the shareholder in the parent company

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