📹 Russian 152mm D-20 howitzers eliminated a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance boat approaching the left bank of the Dnepr River

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

▪️Russian forces destroyed up to 65 Ukrainian military personnel near Kupyansk (Kharkov region);

▪️The Russian military destroyed up to 135 Ukrainian military personnel during the offensive in the Donetsk direction;

▪️Russian troops destroyed a depot with ammunition for the 54th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of Verkhnekamenskoye in the DPR;

▪️The Russian military struck four ammunition depots of Ukrainian defense brigades near Kherson;

▪️Russian troops destroyed over 100 military personnel near Krasny Liman (DPR);

▪️Russian air defense systems destroyed 20 Ukrainian drones and four US-made HIMARS rockets;

▪️Over 55 Ukrainian military personnel were destroyed by Russian troops in the Donetsk direction and in the Zaporozhye region;

▪️The Russian military struck the command posts of three Ukrainian brigades in the DPR;

▪️The Russian military destroyed a fuel and lubricant storage for Ukrainian military equipment in the Poltava area.

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🇨🇳 China is ready to work with the international community to find a political solution and end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible, China's Central Foreign Affairs Office Director Wang Yi said at a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Wang stressed that China firmly adheres to an objective and fair position on the Ukrainian issue, and always strives to contribute to reconciliation and peace talks.

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❗️Moscow expels four employees of Austrian Embassy in tit-for-tat move, Russia's Foreign Ministry says

🇨🇳🇺🇸 China sanctions US' Lockheed Martin, Raytheon over arms sales to Taiwan, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said.

The US firms are now prohibited from carrying out import and export activities with Beijing, and investing in the Chinese economy, with their senior staff barred from entering China and employees no longer eligible to live and work in the country, the ministry added.

Beijing explained its decision as the need to protect China's national sovereignty and security, which it considers undermined by supplies of weapons to Taiwan. China also fined the defense companies the sum that double the amount of contracts on arms sales to the island.

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🇺🇸 US names new al-Qaeda* leader

▪️ Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces lieutenant-colonel and close affiliate of Osama bin Laden is al-Qaeda's "new de facto leader", according to a US State Department statement.

▪️ The statement follows the UN's Tuesday report which also identified Saif al-Adel as the new leader of the terrorist organization.

▪️ Since the former al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was reportedly killed in August 2022, there has been no formal announcement from the group about the new leadership.

💬 “But in discussions in November and December many UN member states took the view that Saif al-Adel is already operating as the de facto and uncontested leader of the group,” the report said.

*A terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries

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The US is reviewing its weapons stockpiles and may have to increase military spending after seeing the high rate at which ammunition has been used in the Ukraine conflict, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told media.

"One of the lessons of this war is the very high consumption rates of conventional munitions, and we are re-examining our own stockages and our own plans to make sure that we got it right," Milley said. Ammunition is "very expensive," the top general noted.

"We’re trying to do the analysis so that we can then estimate what we think the true requirement would be. And then we have to put that in the budget," he added. Milley also reaffirmed his belief that the conflict would end at the negotiating table, with neither side likely to achieve their military aims.

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⚡️ 101 POWs were returned to Russia as a result of a prisoner swap with Ukraine, the Russian MoD says

The recent hysteria in the US over an alleged Chinese “spy” balloon seems to be for the purpose of promoting hostility towards China, according to Netfa Freeman, Coordinating Committee member of the Black Alliance for Peace, organizer with Pan-African Community Action, and host of Voices with Vision on WPFW 89.3 FM

🎧Listen to more of Freeman’s views on the Chinese balloon as well as Sy Hersh's bombshell report on the Nord Stream attacks in our podcast By Any Means Necessary

💉🌍 Big pharma prioritizes profits over saving African lives, UNAIDS head says

▪️Winnie Byanyima has drawn attention to allegedly racist principles that prevent black and brown people from accessing the same level of AIDS treatment as whites and slammed pharmaceutical companies for prioritizing profits over saving people's lives.

🗣"The World Trade Organization rules allow lifesaving medications to be traded in the same way we could trade luxury goods. They allow pharmaceutical companies to set the price wherever they want, hoard their technologies and reap billions at the cost of lives," she said, as cited by the media.

▪️She stressed that Africa’s debt problems, HIV/AIDS stigma in many countries on the continent, and limited access to technology prevents Africa from achieving success in its struggle against the disease.

▪️Byanyima also called on African governments to develop south-south partnerships on medical research and development, noting that the lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic for Africa was: "you must have the capacity to produce yourself"

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🇨🇳🇺🇸 The US is developing a new strategy vis-a-vis Taiwan, taking into account the "lessons" of the Ukraine crisis, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks has said in an interview with US media.

Hicks said that Ukraine “was more of a cold-start approach than the planned approach we have been working on for Taiwan, and we will apply those lessons.” She added that an amphibious landing would be the hardest part of a military operation to undertake, and re-supply would be difficult “if China chokes off ocean access.”

Against the backdrop of increasing tensions between China and the US, Washington officials casually continue their rhetoric about a Chinese "invasion" of Taiwan, while at same time formally reaffirming that the US remains committed to the One China policy.

In October, President Xi Jinping stressed that Beijing would do its utmost to achieve peaceful reunification with Taiwan, but would not rule out the use of force to prevent “interference by outside forces and the few separatists” from deciding Taiwan’s fate.

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❗️The three unidentified objects shot down by American forces over North America were not used in “intelligence collection against the US,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. He added that nothing points to the objects being a part of China’s “spy balloon program.”

❗️YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down, US media reports

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NATO's Unsustainable Bluff

💬 "Two decades of singular focus on low-intensity combat in Iraq and Afghanistan has atrophied both US and European production lines for artillery ammunition. It would take years to start up new production lines, and even then, the private defense industries involved would be loath to do so without long-term contracts which, given the moment-by-moment aspect of NATO aid to Ukraine, is not forthcoming," Scott Ritter, a military analyst and former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, writes.

❗️“ Meanwhile, Russia’s defense industry is chugging along on all cylinders, not only producing ammunition in sufficient quantities to meet its prodigious expenditure rates in Ukraine, but also build stocks sufficient to supply an expanding Russian military, expected to grow to over 1.5 million in the next several years.”

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Why is the US Militarizing the Philippines?

The US is actively wooing the Philippines to join its anti-China coalition, ramping up its military activities in the island nation and greedily eyeing its military bases - including for the possible deployment of intermediate-range ballistic missiles. What are the Pentagon's ultimate objectives? And what is the 'First and Second Island Chain' concept that's motivating US military planners' calculations?

Read this article to find out

🇲🇿 Mozambican pastor reportedly dies of malnutrition in attempt to emulate Jesus' 40-day fast

▪️According to reports, the clergyman, Francisco Barajah, died after fasting for 40 days, trying to complete what Jesus Christ is said to have done on the biblical Mount of Olives.

▪️After 25 days of fasting, the pastor had seriously lost weight, to the extent that he couldn’t stand up or walk.

▪️The death of the pastor and founder of the Santa Trindade Evangelical Church in the central province of Manica, western part of Mozambique, was confirmed on Wednesday at the hospital in Beira where he was taken in critical condition

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❗️A train carrying hazardous materials derailed outside Detroit in Van Buren Township, Michigan, US media reported

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Biden: Nothing Presently Suggests Three Downed 'Objects' Were Tied to China or Spy Ops

Over the weekend, the US Military downed three unidentified objects flying over United States and Canadian airspace. The operations were preceded by the US military shooting down what officials claim was a Chinese spy balloon.

Four days after shooting down the last of three unidentified flying objects located over United States and Canadian airspace, President Biden briefed the public on the operation, saying there was no indication that the objects were spy balloons from China or any other country.

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Famed US actor Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, his family has confirmed.

The Thursday revelation comes nearly a year after it was announced in March 2022 that he was retiring from acting after initially being diagnosed with aphasia.

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🔺Support shortage? US is training Ukrainians to use less ammunition while Germany says there will be fewer tanks going to Ukraine than promised
🔺Nord Stream files: Journalist Seymour Hersh has promised to unveil more info on the US' involvement in the attack
🔺Rage Against the War Machine: Diane Sare joins us to discuss the upcoming anti-war rally in Washington

We discuss all the important stories ignored by the mainstream media! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

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🇺🇸 US’ true colors shine through: Vicky Nuland pitches arms sales to countries “who are dependent on Russian weapons”

The US is working to become an alternative arms sales partner for countries dependent on Russian weapons amid Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said.

💬 "So we have an opportunity not only to ensure our own stocks are replenished, but countries like Ukraine that have a long term defense requirement, as we talked about before, can be replenished, but the countries that have made a bad bet on Russian weapons have other options, and we're also working on that,"

Nuland said during a press briefing. Countries like India that are fully dependent on Russian weapons should understand they will not be able to resupply their stocks, Nuland said.

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