🇺🇸🚀What's the US’ Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile?

Early Thursday, the US Air Force was forced to blow up an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean during a routine test of the weapon.

Sputnik spoke with Dr. Matthew Crosston, professor of national security and director of the Office of Academic Transformation at Bowie State University in Maryland, about the missile and its properties.

Get all the details here!

📹 Russian artillery in action

The Russian army destroyed a Ukrainian assault group with direct artillery strikes.

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❗The US House of Representatives passed a $14.3 billion security aid bill for Israel on Thursday, despite facing both an uphill battle in the Senate and a veto threat from the White House.

House lawmakers passed the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act in a vote of 226-196, mostly along partisan lines. The bill separated the $14.3 billion in emergency aid for Israel from the Biden administration’s larger $106 billion supplemental funding request, which also included aid for Ukraine.

The legislation now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been a vocal critic of the bill. Additionally, US President Joe Biden has also issued a veto threat for the legislation should it clear both congressional chambers.

🇮🇱 Israel's military-political cabinet has decided to stop all contacts with the Gaza Strip, including the transfer of funds through the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the opportunity for residents of the enclave to work in Israel, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

It said there will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza in Israel, and workers who were in Israel on the day the war started will be returned to Gaza.

🇺🇸🇨🇳 The US has agreed to a rare summit on nuclear arms control with China. Brian Berletic, a former US Marine and a geopolitical researcher believes Washington is still seeking to gain an advantage rather than defuse tensions.

🗣 “If the US thought it was possible to constrain or reverse Chinese nuclear capabilities I think they would try, especially under the guise of an arms control treaty,” he told Sputnik.

🗣 “In the past, the US has made, then broken, arms control deals with other nations primarily to appear to be pursuing a diplomatic resolution to tensions with other nations, while in reality sabotaging the deals to then accuse their adversaries of posing a threat to global peace and stability,” he explained. “We've seen the US do this repeatedly to Russia and now Iran. It appears they would like to pursue a similar formula with China.”

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🇷🇺🇺🇳 Vassily Nebenzia stated at the UN General Assembly's special session on the Gaza crisis that under international law, Israel does not have the right to self-defense. Still, the Russian envoy clarified that Moscow recognizes "Israel's right to ensure its security".

The topic was raised by Nebenzia as he lambasted the West for its unwillingness to recognize the catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and support the call for a ceasefire in the region.

🗣 "We in the 'West' have a culture of impunity. US crimes in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. have gone unpunished," retired UN Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas told Sputnik.

🗣 "The countries, who refuse to condemn Israel's attack on Gaza, which can only be described as an Israel concentration camp for Palestinian, do not do so because Israel is an important part of the structure of world hegemony the US," argued international criminal lawyer Christopher Black.

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🇰🇪🇬🇧 'Apologies Wouldn't Be Helpful': Does Kenya Need King Charles III's 'Regrets'?

On November 1, during a visit to Kenya, UK King Charles III expressed regret over British colonial-era policies in Kenya. Sputnik Africa asked experts to shed light on what the monarch's remarks mean for Kenyans.

💬 "If the British people depleted the Kenyan economy and that's how they built this mega-empire called the United Kingdom, and they're just coming to tell us 'we are sorry', I do not think that's something that Kenyans are going to look forward to, Professor Fredrick Onyango Ogola, Kenyan governance and economic expert, told Sputnik Africa.

The expert added that he would only be interested if "the pain caused was reversed" and the depleted resources were returned.

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❗A US jury has found FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven criminal fraud counts linked to the historic collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange platform

📹 The Kostroma paratroopers crew in combat action

Russian paratroopers destroyed a Ukrainian vehicle using the Kornet anti-tank guided missile system.

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🇨🇦 The life cycle cost of Ottawa’s F-35 program is estimated to be of C$73.9 billion (US$53.6 billion), Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux said.

In early January, former Minister of Defense Anita Anand announced that Canada had inked a US$14.2 billion deal with Lockheed Martin to acquire a fleet of 88 F-35 fighter jets to replace the aging F-18 fleet of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Giroux added that the four phases of the program – development, acquisition, operations and sustainment, and disposal – will cost Canada some C$73.9 billion. “This is roughly in line with the governments own estimate of about C$70 billion,” he added.

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🇺🇸 US President Joe Biden’s attempt to lump aid for Israel with a four-times-larger handout to Ukraine was “despicable” but also “ordinary everyday politics,” former Florida Democrat congressman Alan Grayson told Sputnik.

🗣 "It’s a parliamentary manoeuvre to slap two things together and force people who were inclined to vote for one against the other, to vote for both," Grayson said.

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🇷🇺 Two Il-76 aircraft will deliver 28 tons of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reports

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📹 Russian soldiers from the Viking special forces detachment identified a camouflaged dugout of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with ammunition in the Artemovsk direction, and then destroyed it with a kamikaze drone

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🗣 There were elements of genocide in Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip, former director of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights Craig Mokhiber told Sputnik

Mokhiber pointed out that following the escalation in October, the world has been witnessing "the wholesale slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza", while the United Nations has totally failed to respond effectively to the situation and noted that a humanitarian ceasefire was blocked by the United States in the Security Council.

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Doctors in the Gaza Strip are struggling with shortages of everything and have to operate without anesthesia, renowned US doctor Bill Novick told Sputnik

He stressed that it is very difficult to treat patients, particularly children, in Gaza, where hospitals are running out of gas, medical supplies and anesthesia.

The US doctor said that the current situation looks more difficult than in 2000 when he worked in the West Bank and Gaza in the beginning of the Second Intifada.

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📹 Online footage appears to show Hamas militants using their hands to place mines on a Merkava tank during a battle

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🗣 The European Union's total losses from the imposed sanctions and curtailed economic relations with Russia come to around $1.5 trillion, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grushko stated

🇺🇸🇮🇱 Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv

It was reported that the Secretary of State intends to "commit US support for Israel's right to defend itself from terrorism in accordance with international humanitarian law."

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Biden asks Israel to show some restraint amid public outrage

US President Joe Biden reportedly warned Israel in recent private talks that growing global outcry over Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe would have “dire consequences” for IDF operations against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.

“The problem for [Israel] is that the criticism is getting louder, not just among their detractors, but from their best friends,” CNN cited an unnamed source as saying.

On Thursday night, the Israeli military said that the IDF is surrounding Gaza City and “deepening” its operations in the area, amid reports about more explosions in Northern Gaza.

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Who is First Woman to Be at Helm of US Navy?

▪️Admiral Lisa Franchetti most recently served as acting chief of naval operations from August to November 2023 and the 42nd vice chief of naval operations from September 2022 to November 2023.
▪️In 2020, she served as the second deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting development, and commander of the United States Sixth Fleet from 2018 to 2020.
▪️The US Navy veteran served on a series of surface vessels, commanding a guided missile destroyer, a destroyer squadron and two carrier strike groups.

On Thursday, the Senate approved Franchetti to lead the US Navy, making her the first woman to hold the position and to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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🗣 Netizens were quick to share their opinion on the new appointment of America’s top navy commander, with some of them saying that the move will have an adverse effect on the US military