➡️ White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby explained the reasoning behind the F-16 decision was because "there's a lot of capability that is being sent, and will be sent in the coming weeks and months" to Ukraine.

"The kinds of capabilities that we know will be critical to helping Ukrainians again in the fighting now in the wintertime, as well as the kind of fighting that we expect that they're going to be doing in the spring," he added.

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Senator Cruz Urges FBI to Search Hunter Biden’s Home for Classified Files Amid POTUS Office Finds

💬 “It seems he leaves classified documents wherever he goes,” Cruz said in a US media interview on Sunday. “And we also know that Hunter Biden at times was - declared his residence to be those very same places.”

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Stoltenberg’s Asia Trip Highlights NATO Appetite for Global Anti-China, Anti-Russia Bloc: Scholars

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg is in Asia to shore up the bloc's relationship with key US allies South Korea and Japan. What can be expected from the trip? How will Russia and China react? And what specifically is Stoltenberg after through the visit?

Sputnik has some possible answers

More Than 10% of US Adults Over Age 50 Show Signs of Food Addiction - Poll

Approximately one in eight US adults over the age of 50 show signs of addiction to highly processed foods, a University of Michigan poll released on Monday said.

The poll, conducted in July 2022, asked a national sample of more than 2,000 adults aged 50–80 about symptoms of processed food addiction and how the symptoms related to their physical, mental and social health, the release said.

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🚘 A suburb of Washington, DC, was the site of a bizarre car accident on Sunday in which the vehicle was launched into a house in mid-air.

Late on Sunday night, the town of Chillum, Maryland, which abuts the federal capital city, was rocked by a car flying into a home. Photos of the scene show a Honda CR-V sport utility vehicle upside down, sitting halfway into a brick house in a hole it undoubtedly created by plowing through the wall. Remarkably, the SUV is sitting on an intact porch railing - a hint of how it arrived in its final resting spot

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👉 Follow our LIVE UPDATES on the Ukrainian crisis

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US Administration Stops Providing US Companies With Licenses to Export to Huawei, Reports Say

Washington has stopped issuing licenses to US companies to export to Huawei as the US administration is getting closer to imposing a total ban on American technology sale to the Chinese telecommunications company, The Financial Times reported.

Restrictions on Huawei began during the presidency of Donald Trump, when shipments were only possible with government permission as part of a crackdown strategy on Chinese firms the United States thought posed a threat to US national security.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the current price cap imposed by Western countries on Russia’s oil exports will not significantly affect it volumes of petroleum trade.

🗣️ “At the current oil price cap level of the Group of Seven, Russian crude oil export volumes are not expected to be significantly affected, with Russian trade continuing to be redirected from sanctioning to non-sanctioning countries,” the IMF said in its updated World Economic Outlook on Monday.

IMF revised Russia's economic growth forecast upward by 2.6 percentage points to 0.3% in 2023, according to its updated World Economic Outlook (WEO).

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How Asia's Richest Gautam Adani Group Lost $60 Bln in Less Than a Week

The wealth of the planet's richest Asian, Indian billionaire Adani, has plummeted, pushing him out of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, where he previously ranked third.

👉 Find out the reason for one of the biggest financial crashes in Sputnik's explainer

📹 Footage of the combat use of the Su-35S jet on Ukrainian military facilities (video courtesy of Russia's MoD)

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Gas futures in Europe have increased by 10% on Monday, reaching over $680 per thousand cubic meters, according to the London-based ICE exchange.

As of 07:23 GMT, March futures at the largest European gas hub TTF were trading at $683.4, which marks a 10% increase

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📹 Russian "Pantsir" air defense missile systems are now able to intercept "HIMARS" missiles in the area of the special military operation in Ukraine

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🇿🇦🚰 Why do residents of Johannesburg, South Africa have blue tap water?

▪️ A resident in South Africa's capital found blue water flowing from her tap and posted a video of this strange phenomenon on social media.

▪️ The water utility firm, Johannesburg Water, explained that the water in the building had probably been contaminated by copper.

▪️ The authorities have launched an investigation into the case and samples were taken for testing.

▪️ The resident later said that the water eventually stopped coming out blue and returned to running clear

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❗️Latest statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️ The Kremlin is confident in the correctness of launching the special operation; it was necessary to save people in Donbass;

▪️ Poroshenko, Merkel, and Hollande confirmed that for their countries, the Minsk agreements were a front for preparing for a military scenario in Donbass;

▪️ Putin will visit Volgograd on February 2; there will be celebration dedicated to the anniversary of the victory at the Battle of Stalingrad;

▪️ The growing involvement of the West in the conflict in Ukraine is obvious; Russia takes it into account, but this will not change the course of events;

▪️ The Baltic countries and Poland are ready to do everything to provoke further confrontation with Russia, with little thought about the consequences.

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The Iranian Permanent Mission to the UN warned on Tuesday, after the recent drone attack in the province of Isfahan, allegedly carried out by Israel, that Tehran would consider any military action by the US against Iran as a declaration of war which would be met with retaliatory measures.

🗣 "In Iran's perspective, the use of the military option at any level means U.S. entry into the war. For now Iran considers such a possibility to be weak," the mission told US news magazine.

Tehran also said that if the US "miscalculates and starts a war," then Washington would be responsible for the consequences of such a conflict "for the region and the world," the news outlet reported. In such a case, Iran will be capable of ensuring its own security and defending the country's interests, the magazine cited the mission as saying

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⚡️⚡️Turkish parliament will not ratify protocol on NATO membership of Sweden and Finland under current conditions, foreign minister says

WATCH: Russia's Su-34 aircraft perform combat actions during the special military operation

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📹 Russian FM Lavrov and Egyptian Counterpart Shoukry Hold Joint Press Conference in Moscow

Sputnik brings you a live broadcast as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry hold a joint press conference after talks in Moscow on Tuesday, 31 January.

WATCH LIVE

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🇫🇷 "We must condemn the lies of the West about Russia" — grandson of Charles de Gaulle

The ban on the broadcasting of Russian media goes against the values that France stands for, politician and public figure Pierre de Gaulle said in an interview with Sputnik.

"France is basically a democratic country where everyone can express their opinion. Silencing certain media outlets, whatever their position and whatever their role, is not in the order of things."

De Gaulle also spoke about relations between Russia and the West.

"The West does not know Russia, the Russian people and their culture well. And I think that's what we have to work on to get closer to the world. And we must also condemn the lies about Russia and the West's incorrect perception of it."

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

▪️ Russian artillery hit manpower and hardware of the 114th and 104th Territorial Defense Brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkov region. The enemy's losses during the day amounted to 45 Ukrainian servicemen, one tank, four armored fighting vehicles, and a D-20 howitzer.

▪️ Russian artillery and heavy flamethrower systems hit the 25th Airborne and 95th Airborne Assault Brigades of Ukraine in the DPR. More than 60 Ukrainian troops and four armored fighting vehicles were neutralized.

▪️ As a result of a successful offensive, volunteers of assault groups, supported by operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops, and artillery, liberated the village of Blagodatnoye in the DPR. Up to 50 Ukrainian servicemen, a French Caesar self-propelled artillery system, a US-made M-777 artillery system, and a MSTA-B howitzer were eliminated in the area during the day.

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces hit units of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine in the DPR. Over 40 servicemen, one tank, two armored fighting vehicles, and two pickup trucks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were neutralized in this direction.

▪️ Two artillery ammunition depots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed in the DPR.

▪️ Two Gvozdika self-propelled artillery units and two ammunition depots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kherson region were destroyed as part of a counter-battery operation.

▪️ Operational-tactical aviation, missile troops, and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces neutralized 84 AFU artillery units in firing positions, as well as struck enemy manpower and hardware in 126 areas during the day.

▪️ Russian air defenses shot down one Mi-8 helicopter of Ukrainian Air Force in the Kherson region.

▪️ Some 381 airplanes and 206 helicopters, 2,987 unmanned aerial vehicles, 402 anti-aircraft missile systems, 7,691 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, 997 combat vehicles equipped with multiple launch rocket systems, 3,970 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 8,229 units of special military hardware have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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Should F-16 Supplies to Ukraine Ever Be Considered by Any Country?

Ukraine appears confident that after some Western countries decided to supply it with tanks, it might get F-16 fighter jets as well. Recently, US President Joe Biden has made it clear that Washington will not provide F-16s to Ukraine. However, some of Kiev’s Western allies have promised to consider such a possibility.

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