Paraguay gov’t official sacked for signing doc with fake ‘nation’

A gullible government official in Paraguay was sacked after he signed a “memorandum of understanding” with a delegation from a fictional country.

Arnaldo Chamorro, who was chief of staff in the South American country’s Agriculture Ministry, put his signature under a “proclamation” with representatives of the “United States of Kailasa,” set up by an infamous “guru” claiming to have supernatural powers.

The “state” brands itself as the "revival of the ancient enlightened Hindu civilizational nation which is being revived by displaced Hindus from around the world."

Paraguayan officials are not the first to be duped by the flock of followers of self-styled “godman” Nithyanand, who is wanted in India on several charges, including sexual assault.

Earlier in the year, local officials in Newark, New Jersey, were conned into signing a “sister city” deal with the fake nation, with Mayor Ras Baraka later apologizing for the "regrettable incident."

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"Look, we are not backing down, I am satisfied," Volodymyr Zelensky said when commenting on the counteroffensive in an interview with AP.

He also touched on the fact that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has already reduced aid supplies to Ukraine.

“We already can see the consequences of the international community shifting [its attention] because of the tragedy in the Middle East,” he said. “Only the blind don’t recognize this.”

Ukrainians understand “that we also need to fight for attention for the full-scale war,” he said. “We must not allow people to forget about the war here.”

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📹 Yuula Benivolski, a Toronto-based Jewish filmmaker, says she is renouncing her Israeli citizenship because of the war on Gaza

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❗️WATCH LIVE: Lavrov holds press conference following OSCE Ministerial Council meeting

👉 Watch the live stream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website

The top Russian diplomat arrived in Skopje on Wednesday evening. This is Lavrov's first trip to Europe since the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, not counting his visits to Belarus and Turkiye. The minister's previous visit to Europe took place in January 2022, when he traveled to Geneva to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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⚡️The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 125 thousand people and 16 thousand units of various weapons in six months of the so-called counter-offensive, the Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said.

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📹 Footage of the combat work of Russian UAV operators and artillerymen near Kleshcheevka and Belogorovka against enemy positions

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🪖 Ukraine’s Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny was conspicuously absent when Volodymyr Zelensky met with army commanders yesterday.

Zelensky visited a military command post in Kharkov Oblast on November 30 to discuss strengthening fortifications and other front-line necessities.

Footage accompanying the post showed Zelensky conferring with recently appointed businessman-turned-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi and others.

However, the no-show by the Commander-in-Chief, coming amid the spiraling Zelensky-Zaluzhny spat, begs the question: is this further proof of bitter behind-the-scenes infighting for control of Ukraine?

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 Negotiations on the exchange of hostages in the Gaza Strip continue despite the resumption of hostilities, media reported, citing a source familiar with the talks.

Earlier in the day, the Israel Defense Forces said that Hamas broke the humanitarian pause, prompting Israel to resume combat.

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