❗️The US announced a new $175 million military aid package for Ukraine, Blinken said.

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🇷🇺🇸🇦 "We were expecting you in Moscow. I know that the circumstances have made adjustments to these plans. But, as I said, nothing can prevent the development of our friendly relations," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

"Indeed, being here on the Arabian Peninsula on a planned visit to the UAE, I decided to take advantage of your invitation to come and talk to you and all our friends, with whom we have been actively developing our cooperation over the past 7 years", Putin added.

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Joe Biden floats possibility of “American troops fighting Russian troops” during a speech calling on Congress to pass new Ukraine aid package.

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🇷🇺🇵🇸🇸🇦 Vladimir Putin made an official visit to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

He held talks with the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and with the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Latest updates on Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

▪️The 200th cargo plane carrying military equipment for the IDF has arrived in Israel, with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment delivered to the country since the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israeli Defense Ministry said.

▪️Israeli forces are surrounding the house of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, and his capture is only a matter of time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

▪️The high death toll among journalists in the area of the Israel-Palestine conflict has shown that media rights protection mechanisms are dysfunctional, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

▪️Shia militant groups announced an attack on the US airbase in western Iraq in response to hostilities in the Gaza Strip.

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🇷🇺🛩 Kremlin on jets escorting Putin's plane: Measures taken to ensure safety of President

The plane of Russian President Vladimir Putin was accompanied by Russian Su-35S fighter jets during his visits to Abu Dhabi and Riyadh due to the fact that the head of state worked in a turbulent region, and all measures were taken to ensure the safety of the president, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"The region is turbulent. While the UAE and Saudi Arabia are stable and safe countries… The adjacent region is certainly full of dangers and unpredictability, therefore, naturally, all measures are being taken to ensure the security of the head of the Russian state at the proper level," Peskov told reporters.

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💵 US Senate fails to advance supplemental funding request with Ukraine, Israel aid

The US Senate failed to advance a supplemental funding bill valued at more than $100 billion, as congressional Republicans continue to insist on the inclusion of border security measures in the legislation.

Senators rejected a measure on Wednesday evening to begin debate on the bill, which required 60 votes to pass.

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🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin’s trip to the UAE and Saudi Arabia could be used by Arab states “as leverage relative to the Palestinian issue,” Abdulaziz Algashian, a Saudi political analyst, told Sputnik.

From an economic aspect, "OPEC+ is the core issue," with the oil powerhouses likely to “strategize, to see how they could move forward with the pricing of oil in the future,” stressed the research fellow with SEPAD international research network.

“For the Gulf States, relations with Russia are seen as an essential leverage in adapting to their changing relationship with the US,” agreed Sami Hamdi, Saudi political analyst and head of the International Interest, a risk analysis group.

👉 Follow the link to learn more

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🇸🇦🇷🇺🇦🇪 President Vladimir Putin's visits to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia have once again shown that the West's efforts to isolate Russia over its Ukraine operation had totally failed, Mideast experts told Sputnik.

"The Global Rest has not followed the Global West," said Dr. Marco Carnelos, former Italian diplomat. "World politics is slowly turning more multipolar, and such a context provides better and wider opportunities, especially from an economic point of view. Both Saudi Arabia and UAE do not want to miss such a unique train."

In addition to flourishing trade and OPEC+ collaboration with Russia, "Russia has a great deal of influence [in Arab countries] because of its support for Palestine," Mehmet Rakipoglu, a scholar at Dimensions for Strategic Studies think tank told Sputnik, citing the ongoing Palestine-Israel crisis.

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Donetsk People's Republic shelled by Ukraine 39 times in past day

The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of issues related to Ukraine's war crimes said Ukrainian troops shelled the DPR territory 39 times over the past day.

"Over the past day, the office reported 39 cases of fire by Ukrainian armed units," the office said in a statement on Telegram.

According to the statement, one civilian was killed and 18 others wounded.

Overall, the Kiev regime fired 132 rounds of various ammunition. A total of 56 shelling attacks by Ukrainian forces were recorded in the previous day.

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🇺🇸🛬 US Navy grounds all Osprey aircraft amid probe of deadly crash off Japan coast

The US Navy grounded all Osprey aircraft in light of a probe into a recent Osprey crash that killed eight US service members off the coast of Japan, the US Navy said in a press release.

"Out of an abundance of caution, following the AFSOC operational stand down, NAVAIR is instituting a grounding bulletin for all V-22 Osprey variants Dec. 6. This decision comes after the V-22 Osprey mishap on Nov. 29, off the shore of Yakushima, Japan," the US Navy stated on Wednesday.

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🎙Check out AfroVerdict's new episode about the impact of Russia's grain shipments on the continent and the future of cooperation between the country and Africa.

Is Ukraine aid ‘dead’?

Journalist Christopher Helali says US aid flowing into the country, long ranked among the most corrupt in Europe, evokes memories of “money being carted around in Iraq on palettes.”

Funding for Ukraine did in fact fail in the US Senate on Wednesday when the legislative body refused to advance a supplemental foreign aid bill.

However, the journalist believes the Biden administration will be forced to compromise on the issue and negotiate increased US border security funding with Republicans in order to allocate assistance for Ukraine.

“I think eventually Democrats will have to cave because they need this funding,” Helali claims.

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Biden is confident he will defeat Trump in 2024

"Probably 50 of them. I am not the only one to beat him, but I will defeat him [Trump]," Biden told journalists in the White House, after being asked whether there were any Democrats besides himself who could beat the former president.

Biden's remarks follow comments Tuesday in which he admitted he was "not sure" that he would be running in 2024 if Trump was out of the picture. "If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running," the president said at a campaign event in Boston, saying he must run now because he "cannot let [Trump] win."

Biden's comments Wednesday assuring he could defeat Trump don't square with recent polling showing a steep slide in the president's ratings, owing in part to public concerns over the state of the economy and inflation, and in part to his full-on support for Israel in the ongoing Gaza crisis, which is reported to have cost him support among key demographics including young people and minorities.

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🇺🇸 Ramaswamy says Ukraine conflict 'pointless'

US entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy during the fourth Republican primary presidential debate said the Ukraine conflict is pointless and slammed former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for not backing efforts to reach a peace deal.

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During a trip to Mexico City on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US would be responsible for Ukraine’s defeat should Congress fail to approve US President Joe Biden’s latest supplemental spending package, according to a recent report by RT.

"I've talked to members of Congress, my colleagues have. I think they understand this, that this is a dire situation and we can hold ourselves responsible for Ukraine's defeat if we don't manage to get this funding to Ukraine that's needed, and I'm including direct budget support here because that's utterly essential," Yellen said.

US lawmakers are debating a $111 billion supplemental spending package, of which $61 billion would be included for Ukraine. The spending package would also include funding for Israel, Taiwan, and US border security.

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🇺🇸 The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is asking the US for THAAD missile defense systems, F/A-18 Hornet fighters, Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, as well as C-130 Hercules, and C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft, Reuters reports, citing documents.

Meanwhile, the US Congress still cannot agree on funding for Ukraine.

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🇺🇸 "If you think the cost of supporting Ukraine is high now, just imagine how much higher it's gonna be, not just in national treasure but in American blood," John Kirby commented on the need to support Ukraine.

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🇨🇳🇷🇺 China-Russia trade in January-November 2023 grew 26.7, percent to a record $218.17 billion, so the goal set by the two countries' leaders for 2024 has already been achieved, China's General Administration of Customs has said.

China's trade turnover with the United States during the same period decreased by 12.2% - to $607.01 billion; the US remains Beijing's third largest trading partner (after ASEAN and the EU).