Bethlehem did not hold its traditional Christmas celebrations this year due to the war in Gaza: people are surviving and praying for peace, former city mayor Antoine Salman told Sputnik.

"No holiday events were held in the city of Christmas; everything was limited to prayers for peace in our land. Due to the war, there were no tourists at all, since they stopped visiting Bethlehem three months ago. Our economy is practically paralyzed, people live and survive in extremely difficult conditions. It was also complicated to what was happening to the children, who were constantly asking why there was no holiday or decorations this year. Many parents don’t tell their kids what’s going on in Gaza."

On December 25, the Catholic community of Palestine celebrated Christmas. Orthodox Christians will celebrate the holiday on January 7.

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Ukraine's military command did not request the mobilisation of half a million people, said Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces.

According to him, the initiative to call up so many troops came from the General Staff.

According to Zaluzhny, there was not a single request for specific numbers. The Ukrainian commander-in-chief said that a figure has been formed for 2024, taking into account the coverage of the shortage, but he did not name it.

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Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny admitted the loss of Maryinka and said that Ukrainian troops had withdrawn from the western outskirts of the city.

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WATCH LIVE: Putin holds a meeting with heads of state of the CIS

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❄️🇷🇺 Winter Wonderland: Immerse yourself in Moscow’s holiday spirit

The Russian capital is preparing to celebrate the New Year with colorful lights, elaborately decorated trees, and an ice-rink in Red Square.

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US seeking to restore CIA’s ‘human espionage capabilities’ in China, according to the report

The US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is trying to restore its damaged spy network in China, the Wall Street Journal has cited unnamed American officials as saying.

The sources claimed that the goal is to rebuild the CIA’s “human espionage capabilities” in the PRC, where the agency suffered “horrendous” losses of agents a decade ago.

The report comes amid the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s ongoing craсkdown on the country’s individuals suspected of providing information to the CIA.

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🥧 3333 Ossetian pies* sent to soldiers in the special operation zone

The initiative came from the administration of the head and government of North Ossetia (republic in southwestern Russia).

In each box of pies there are letters to the fighters from officials, the warmest words and wishes to return home with victory, the head of the republic Sergey Menyailo said.

*Ossetian pies, prevalent in North Ossetian cuisine and widely enjoyed across Russia, are savory flatbread pies featuring diverse fillings like cheese or potatoes.

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Snipers on the line of combat contact

📹 A Russian sniper pair, together with a spotter from the reconnaissance battalion of the Southern battlegroup, destroy Ukrainian troops.

Video by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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"Greetings to all Sputnik readers, with all my sympathy"

🇲🇽 Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador addressed Sputnik readers after his regular daily press conference and on the anticipation of the New Year.

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Project ‘Grandpa on a leash’

The West is used to blaming Russia for interfering in internal affairs, but what if US President Joe Biden is Russia's project?

Check out a satirical video by RT

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How Israel-Gaza war morphed into a multi-arena conflict

"We already see a multi-front war against Israel which was started of course by Hamas but was joined by Hezbollah and also by the Houthis in Yemen," Professor Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told Sputnik. "We also see activities of Iranian-led militias, Shiite militias in Syria and also in Iraq, all of them participating in a war against Israel."

Israel's war in Gaza will be long and tough, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Jewish lawmakers on December 26, adding that the Israeli military is currently fighting on seven different fronts – in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.

"[The conflict] might spill over to the region," Ayman Yousef, professor of political sciences at the Arab-American University in Palestine, told Sputnik. "If Israel continues to kill Palestinians in this indiscriminate way, (…) that might ignite a kind of a new regional configuration and new regional forces."

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Political highlights you couldn't miss in 2023: Ukraine, Gaza, BRICS

With the countdown for 2024 already underway, Sputnik rolls out a video showcasing a whole array of political highlights that grabbed the global headlights of the outgoing year.

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Israel will stop granting automatic visas to United Nations employees, accusing the UN of being “complicit partners” in Hamas’ tactics.

Government spokesman Eylon Levy said that Tel Aviv will consider visa requests from UN employees on a case-by-case basis.

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The newest bicaliber MLRS "Vozrozhdenie" (lit. Revival) is being created in Russia; it will go into production in the first half of 2024, Sergey Chemezov, general director of the Rostec state corporation, told Sputnik.

"In just a few months we received the first serial two-caliber vehicle, which can both mine terrain with 140 mm caliber rockets and hit targets with 220 mm caliber rockets," he said.

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What are the UK PMs actually doing when they say they are working

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📹 "There are only three hospitals in which major operations can be performed," the head of the department of cardiovascular surgery at one of the hospitals in Gaza, Mohammed Callum, said.

Callum is a Russian citizen. His family was evacuated, but he stayed to work and help women and children.

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"Josep Borrell seems to be bent on offering Europeans daily reminders of his diplomatic ineptitude”

Such was the analysis of Politico which awarded the EU’s foreign policy chief the dubious “Borat award for diplomacy” on Tuesday.

The media outlet noted the EU top diplomat’s propensity for gaffes – earlier this year he drew ridicule for congratulating Ecuador for “peaceful elections” after a candidate was assassinated.

Borrell was also criticized for comments referring to Europe as a “garden” in need of protection from the “jungle” of the outside world.

Politico also noted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s struggle against Borrell and European Council President Charles Michel to represent the bloc to the public.

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Russian drones rule the skies of Ukrainian conflict battlefields

Kiev's troops may soon be forced into a retreat as their military hardware keeps getting destroyed by Russian drone strikes.

While President Vladimir Putin pays close attention to drone production in Russia, the powers that be in Ukraine apparently have no vision for the drone industry of their own, if the recent revelations of the Ukrainian Center for Aerial Reconnaissance’s head Maria Berlinskaya are to be believed.

During a recent interview with Ukrainian media, Berlinskaya complained about Russian drone strikes taking out much of Kiev regime forces’ military hardware and claimed that Ukrainian authorities have no vision for Ukraine’s drone industry.

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Accused Pentagon leaker Teixeira was nicknamed 'active shooter kid' by colleagues, a new report found

Newly-obtained documents revealed Jack Teixeira, who was indicted on six counts in relation to the ‘Discord Leak’, was described by his colleagues as “the active shooter kid.” According to the report, Teixeira shared his fringe interests with a close colleague, expressing his desire to live “off the grid” so he could “blow stuff up.”

The findings detailed that Teixeira—arrested in April by the FBI—worried his fellow airmen, who feared he might “shoot up the place” after the since-accused leaker was told off for looking at classified information that had little to do with his job as a computer technician at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod.

🗣“From all our training, this was a red flag, it was tripping all the indicators,” said a fellow guardsman of Teixeira’s.

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