US Escalation in the Red Sea: A Lose/Lose Proposition

“If the US attacks Yemen, the Houthis will respond, and they do have the capability to sink US Navy ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. And once that happens, the Red Sea becomes an active war zone, and then, all bets are off, along with all shipping in the Red Sea, and 12% of all global trade. Think about it…

The economies of the EU nations are already in serious decline. The US national debt stands at over $33 TRILLION, and the era of the US dollar's reserve currency status in global trade is closing fast. A 12% overnight decline in global trade would almost certainly lead these economies into economic depression equivalent to the Great Depression of almost 100 years ago. Economic war and military war are two sides of the same coin. The Houthis have a major economic advantage based on their geography to influence and even threaten global economic activity, and have proven their ability and willingness to use it. And it is by no means certain that the Western armada assembled along the Yemeni coast can even defeat the Houthis militarily without unacceptable and unsustainable losses.

The range of their missiles allows the Houthis to cover not only the southern third of the Red Sea, but all of the Gulf of Aden and much of the Arabian Sea as well. With the exception of the USS Indianapolis and the USCG ships in the Gulf of Oman, all of the US/UK naval ships near Yemen are already within range of Houthi missiles.”

Analysis by Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley (@TXDPR)

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US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter and subpoena to Attorney General Merrick Garland seeking information about the Justice Department’s alleged use of its authority to get access to private communications of lawmakers and congressional staff members.

"The Executive Branch used its immense law-enforcement authority to gather and search the private communications of multiple Legislative Branch employees who were conducting Constitutional oversight of the Department's investigative actions - actions that were later found to be unlawful," Jordan said, referring to an investigation into former President Donald Trump’s campaign associate Carter Page.

Jordan explained that the requested information would help the Judiciary Committee articulate any potential legislative proposals on the issue, including those that would require the Justice Department to provide appropriate notice when it seeks to access private information belonging to an employee of Congress.

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🇺🇸💸"Raytheon will design, build and test two high-power microwave antenna systems that will use directed energy to defeat airborne threats at the speed of light," read a press release Tuesday.

But as drone warfare led by the Houthis rages on, the weapons contractor says they don’t expect to deliver prototypes of the technology until 2024 and 2026.

The US military has experimented with microwave weapons tech for decades, recently spurred on by the increasing use of drones on the battlefield.

The United States has long claimed the use of the technology by foreign adversaries, most recently demonstrated by unfounded claims of “Havana Syndrome” suffered by US diplomats.

❗️ Colorado Supreme Court rules Trump "disqualified" from serving as US President, wrongful to list him on 2024 ballot, according to the court filing.

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🇺🇸🥴2023 is set to be one of the most unproductive years for US Congress ever

Unprecedented battles over the House speakership took weeks to resolve earlier this year, and Republicans have also spent days pursuing a so far unfruitful impeachment inquiry against US President Joe Biden.

But the 118th Congress has struggled to otherwise make good use of their time, with only 20 bills set to become law this year.

Numismatists will be pleased, however, after Congress voted to approve the minting of a coin celebrating the US Marine Corps.

2023 has seen a large number of lawmakers announce their retirements amidst what many have labeled a trend towards “political performance art” in Washington.

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❗️ Former President Donald Trump will challenge a ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court barring him from the state’s primary vote for the upcoming election, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a press release.

"The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a concurrent request for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision," Cheung said on Tuesday. "We have full confidence that the US Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits," he added.

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❗️ The Colorado Supreme Court disqualified former President Donald Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot, court documents revealed.

"A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot. The court stays its ruling until January 4, 2024, subject to any further appellate proceedings," the court stated on Tuesday.

Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment states that no person who has "engaged in insurrection" or given aid to enemies thereof shall be eligible to hold public office in the United States.

It is the first time a state court has ruled that Trump should be barred from the 2024 election on those grounds.

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🇮🇸Latest details released by the Icelandic Met Office has revealed that gas pollution is now threatening Iceland's capital of Reykjavik with fumes that may soon reach the capital.

Authorities revealed that the dangerous fumes may potentially reach the capital between late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

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US House Speaker Mike Johnson stated the Colorado court’s ruling to bar former President Donald Trump from the state's primary election is a partisan attack.

"Today’s ruling attempting to disqualify President Trump from the Colorado ballot is nothing but a thinly veiled partisan attack," Johnson stressed on Tuesday.

Johnson emphasized that regardless of political affiliation, every US voter should not be denied the right to support Trump, who is the leader in every poll of the Republican primary.

The House Speaker added that he trusts the US Supreme Court will set aside the court’s "reckless" decision and let the American people decide the next US president.

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🇨🇳 Rescue efforts following China’s deadliest earthquake in nearly 10 years were hampered by the high altitude and temperatures of the region.

On Tuesday morning at least 127 people were reported to have died as the result of a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in northwest China. The quake first struck the province of Gansu late on Monday and severely damaged infrastructure.

Fatalities could also rise as more than 700 were reported to be injured—that figure is a sharp increase from the 96 injuries that were reported yesterday. Conditions in the region are also freezing, with temperatures reaching -13C (8.7F).

Chinese President Xi Jinping has reportedly ordered thousands of rescue crews to assist the affected region, and has ordered workers to repair infrastructure. A local official said the government had dispatched 1,400 rescue personnel to the quake zone, with another 1,600 on standby.

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US President Joe Biden said former President Donald Trump recently quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin is not surprising and accused Trump of allegedly having ties with Moscow, according to the White House press pool.

"This weekend Trump was embracing his old pal Putin," Biden said as quoted by the press pool on Tuesday. "Trump even quoted him this weekend. That’s no surprise. After all there’s a lot of agreement between Moscow and Mar-a-Lago."

Biden said Trump is the greatest threat to US democracy.

In later remarks, Trump at a campaign speech in Iowa said Biden is the greatest threat to US democracy and accused his administration of conducting election interference in the 2024 presidential election because of the federal cases against him for alleged election meddling in the 2020 vote.

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🇳🇪🇷🇺EXCLUSIVE: Niger’s goal is "to develop cooperation built on the win-win principle" with Russia and "all other peace-loving countries"

🗣 "[…] President General Tiani received the Russian ambassador and the mission that arrived. He said that Niger is a country that knows the difference between toxic aid and aid that should allow us to free ourselves from aid and it will not occur to us to always extend a hand," Niger's Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine told Sputnik.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Israel is working on a new deal for the release of hostages with Palestinian movement Hamas in exchange for a temporary ceasefire, which may include 30 to 40 women, elderly people and persons with physical or mental illnesses being held in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported Tuesday, citing sources.

The Channel 12 broadcaster reported that Israel cannot go for Hamas' demand for a complete cessation of hostilities, so the possibility of several humanitarian pauses "in stages" is being considered. The Jewish state, in response, will consider a "flexible" approach to the number of ceasefire days depending on the number of released hostages, as well as agreeing to release Palestinian prisoners charged with a serious offense, the report said.

The Israeli military has said about 128 hostages are still being held in Gaza.

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🇷🇺 Maria Zakharova, the official spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reiterated that Moscow believes the future lies in a two-state model, with peaceful coexistence between the two states and Palestine's capital in East Jerusalem, the official said in an interview with the channel Belarus-1.

"We see the essence of this conflict, we understand that through the method of aggression, by conducting military operations, indiscriminately killing the civilian population, this situation will not only remain unresolved, but could also be exacerbated," Zakharova emphasized.

She commented that while Western countries have long been destabilizing the region, countries in the region have outgrown illusions and understand that their stability, future, and happiness are in their own hands, not in those of others who promise much but have caused interventions in internal affairs and regional reshaping.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 The goal of bringing Russia-China trade to the $200 billion mark has already been achieved ahead of schedule as bilateral trade reached $218.28 by the end of 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday.

"The goal set five years ago by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and me to bring the volume of bilateral trade to $200 billion has been achieved ahead of schedule," Xi told a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing, adding that this reflects the positive dynamics of bilateral cooperation.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Highlights of the meeting between Russian PM Mishustin and Chinese President Xi:

▪️A strong foundation for cooperation has been laid in relations between Russia and China, Xi Jinping said.

▪️Mishustin expresses condolences at meeting with Xi Jinping in connection with the earthquake in China.

▪️Trade and economic cooperation between Russia and China has met the challenges in 2023, said Mishustin.

▪️Russia and China to implement 80 joint projects worth 20 trillion rubles, said Russian Prime Minister.

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Match made in heaven: US toxic relationship with depleted uranium

“The health consequences are horrendous," US Navy veteran Mike James, who fought in Iraq, told Sputnik, describing what depleted uranium (DU) shells do to people. "They are worse than any American is willing to think about or come to terms with. At least that’s the way it seems. The general public simply cannot come to terms with the horrific effects.”

Meanwhile, Robert Anderson, a member of Veterans for Peace, noted that US troops were training to use such a toxic weapon even back in the 1960s.

“I was in the Air Force in the mid-1960s, and I was in a field that dealt with munitions and explosives. It was called ‘explosive ordnance disposal’ […] Here, in the States, we were trained in what DU was. We saw it, we had it,” Anderson stressed.

The US, as well as the UK, sent DU shells for Abrams tanks to Kiev this Fall, and while Washington continues to claims that their use is safe, real data suggests otherwise.

What whould be the consequences of DU for Ukrainian troops and civilians?

Read this Sputnik interview with US veterans to find out.

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"Joe Biden is a threat to democracy"

That's how Trump reacted to the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to disqualify the former president from the 2024 Republican primary ballot.

"It's no wonder that crooked Joe Biden and the far-left lunatics are desperate to stop us by any means necessary," Donald Trump said.

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Ukraine conflict showed flaws in NATO's eastward push

"As NATO attempts to foment conflict and expand eastward, it has proven incapable of effectively producing enough weapons for its own defense, let alone that of Ukraine. NATO was designed for a non-defensive forward operating posture, it is currently under-equipped, it is very expensive, and it is increasingly demographically, fiscally and politically unsustainable for the US or most European countries," retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.

The Ukraine conflict has exposed NATO's vulnerabilities, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a Defense Ministry meeting on December 19.

According to Kwiatkowski, Putin's idea of the transatlantic bloc's aggressive stance and Russia's readiness to deal with it sends a serious message to the West.

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2024 Republican primary ballot riot

Vivek Ramaswamy called on presidential candidates to refuse to participate in the primary following the Colorado Supreme Court's disqualification of Donald Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot.

"I pledge to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary ballot until Trump is also allowed to be on the ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley do the same immediately - or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country," Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy asserted.

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❗️Iran's Foreign Minister met with head of Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh

The Iranian FM arrived in Doha, where he will discuss the current situation in the Gaza Strip.

Abdollahian will hold a series of consultations with Qatari officials, reports Al Jazeera.

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