🇨🇭President Zelensky is set to travel to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum next week. As reported by Tages-Anzeiger, he plans to journey to Bern to engage in meetings with either some or all members of the Swiss government.

Will he be asking for more money, or will he be explaining where the billions of allocated dollars have gone?

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🇩🇪🚜 At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, farmers have been protesting for the third consecutive day against government measures to reduce subsidies.

In a gesture of solidarity, residents of the German capital are bringing them food. Some farmers, accompanied by the police, are circulating through the city on their tractors and then returning.

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🇮🇱 Israeli Forces target Hamas in Khan Younis, shifting its focus to central and southern Gaza, since the operations in the north coming to a close.

The intensifying Israeli assaults in the area are adding more challenges to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the distressed population of Gaza.

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🇷🇺🪖 Key points of Russian MoD briefing on progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️In the Kupyansk direction, Ukrainian troops lost up to 30 people and an ammunition warehouse of the 125th Territorial Defense Brigade was destroyed.

▪️In the Krasny Liman direction, up to 190 Ukrainian military personnel were destroyed by air and artillery strikes.

▪️In the Donetsk direction, Kiev’s losses amounted to 240 people and up to 80 in the South Donetsk direction.

▪️In the Zaporozhye and Kherson directions, Ukrainian forces lost up to 55 people.

▪️Air defenses intercepted 10 Czech-made Vampire MLRS rockets and shot down six drones.

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🇬🇧⚓️ UK's sea power sags, facing recruitment nightmare and naval cutbacks

Severe shortages of seamen has prompted the UK to retire the refurbished Type 23 Class frigates HMS Argyll and HMS Westminster, as the once-most-powerful-navy in the world keeps shrinking.

This is not the first recent cutback by the Royal Navy, signalling deep internal issues: the Ministry of Defense had previously cut its panned purchase of new Type 26 frigates — from 13 to eight ships — and halved its Type 45 Class destroyer fleet from 12 to six, casting doubts over the Navy's financial management of its next-generation destroyer programme.

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Yemen’s Houthis continue attacking tankers in the Red Sea heading towards the Israeli port of Eilat, despite US announcing the creation of an international ‘coalition’ to combat them. The Houthis, along with Hamas and Hezbollah, are members of the 'Axis of Resistance'. What other militant groups are there?

🔺Gaza Strip: Hamas and PIJ
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have traditionally been the core of the resistance and regularly engage in genuine hostilities with Israel, unlike other members.

🔺Southern Lebanon: Hezbollah
Hezbollah is one of the most powerful parties in Lebanon and even has its own armed forces. The ‘Party of God’ controls Southern Lebanon, as well as the country's border with Israel.

🔺Yemen: Ansar Allah
The Ansar Allah movement, dubbed the Houthis in the West, announced in October they were ready to join the hostilities in order to “perform their sacred duty to stand by the Palestinian people”. Since November, the Yemeni armed forces have attacked a number of tankers and ships belonging to the US and British Navy.

🔺Iraq: Kataib Hezbollah and Hashd al-Shaabi
Since October, Kataib Hezbollah has claimed credit for several drone attacks on the Ain al-Assad and Al-Harir US military bases in Iraq, as well as the illegally-occupied US bases at Al-Tanf and the Koniko oilfield n Syria. The group worked in close partnership with Hashd al-Shaabi.

On January 4 the US-led international coalition carried out a drone strike targeting a Hashd al-Shaabi headquarters in Baghdad, killing senior commander Hajj Mushtaq Talib al-Saidi, also known as Abu Taqwa.

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🇺🇸💸 White House pleads with defense giants to boost Ukraine aid bypassing Congress

Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries, Fortem, Skydio and other US defense firms held a meeting with White House officials on Monday to seek how to aid Ukraine amid the ongoing row in Congress.

Led by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the Biden administration has engaged with top defense contractors to focus on deploying advanced technologies for Ukraine's conflict needs, such as de-mining technologies and UAV systems.

At the same time, Republicans want to link Ukraine aid to funding to stop illegal immigration, also impacting military aid to Israel, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. The Biden administration, stressing the $44.3 billion in military aid already sunk into Ukraine, wants another $61 billion as the conflcit enters its third year.

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Hezbollah confirms that another senior commander has been assassinated in Israeli air strike

Ali Hussein Barji, the commander of Hezbollah’s aerial forces in southern Lebanon, was reportedly killed in his car while on his way to attend the funeral of another Hezbollah commander, Wissam al-Tawil, who died as a result of an Israeli air strike yesterday.

Barji’s assassination comes amid a wave of escalation in violence between Israel and Hezbollah, renewing concerns of a regional war breaking out in the Middle East.

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Why Team Biden did not 'miss' Pentagon chief Austin

"I actually think the State Department's more heavily involved in military actions than they should be," Earl Rasmussen, a retired Lieutenant Colonel with over 20 years in the US Army and international consultant, told Sputnik when asked as to why Lloyd Austin's hospitalization had gone nearly unnoticed by Team Biden.

Austin underwent an initial medical procedure on December 22; on January 1, the defense secretary suffered severe pain and was admitted to intensive care at Walter Reed military hospital in Maryland. The White House had been in the dark about his whereabouts for days.

"We've got a lack of process and a lack of communications, and those things need to be seriously looked at especially in our current environment with tensions with Russia and Ukraine,” warned Rasmussen. “We've got tensions in the Middle East that could explode, and easily could bring in Hezbollah and Iran."

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

▪️The war in Gaza has killed 1% of the Gaza population, equivalent to 3 million Americans, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said.

▪️The Israel Defense Force (IDF) said it had expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip's southern city of Khan Yunis, claiming to have killed 40 Hamas fighters and found various weapons during a raid on the armed group's military facility.

▪️The number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the ground operation against Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip has risen to 180, Israeli broadcaster i24 reported, citing the IDF.

▪️Ceasefire is the only solution to prevent the Gaza war from a spillover effect into the region, the Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Geng Shuang said.

▪️Only 15 hospitals are now operational in the Gaza Strip, while cases of infectious diseases are on the rise, including diarrhea incidence climbing to 81,000, Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said.

▪️The lead EU spokesman for foreign affairs said that Brussels supported the International Court of Justice, a top UN court tasked with determining whether Israel's war on Gaza was genocidal.

▪️US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and stressed the need to minimize harm to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip amid Israel's military operations, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

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🇺🇸🚀🌑 The first US commercial robotic unmanned mission to send science payloads to the Moon has failed as the spacecraft is running out of fuel after post-launch problems and cannot make a soft landing on the lunar surface as planned, the Astrobotic Company announced in a statement.

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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Asutin underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure last month to treat prostate cancer, and his prognosis is excellent, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center officials said in a statement released by the Pentagon on Tuesday.

"As part of Secretary Austin’s routinely recommended health screening, he has undergone regular prostate specific antigen (PSA) surveillance. Changes in his laboratory evaluation in early December 2023 identified prostate cancer which required treatment," the statement said. "His prostate cancer was detected early, and his prognosis is excellent."

According to Walter Reed officials, Austin's hospitalization in early January occurred due to complications following his surgery in late December to treat his cancer. His infection has cleared and he continues to make progress toward a full recovery, but the process may be slow, officials added.

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De-Coupled, De-Dollarized & Developing: De-Centralizing as Well?

The unexpected economic boom witnessed in Russia amid unprecedented global sanctions is evidence to the country’s industrial might.

It is worth noting that all these new manufacturing plants are state-of-the-art, with the latest equipment and systems geared to resolving any shortages due to imposed trade restrictions, Paul Goncharoff, a US native economics expert with deep-rooted ties to the Russian business market, wrote in a Sputnik article.

Military advancements, pharmaceutical breakthroughs, trade cooperation, and enhanced internal logistics contribute to improving the quality of life and income levels of the Russian population.

👉 Read more

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Russian air defense systems shot down a Ukrainian drone and a Uragan MLRS missile over the Belgorod region, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.

"On January 9 at about 19:30 Moscow time [16:30 GMT], an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an Uragan multiple launch rocket system and an aircraft-type UAV against objects on the territory of the Russian Federation was prevented," the statement said.

The ministry added that one missile and a drone were destroyed by the air defense systems on duty over the Belgorod region.

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🇩🇪 Arming Ukraine is more important to Berlin than supporting German farmers

"The German government is short of money," Gunnar Beck, a member of the European Parliament for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, told Sputnik, commenting on Berlin's decision to cut subsidies for German farmers.

Nonetheless, the German federal government has just this month managed to provide the Kiev regime with a Skynex air defense system, 10 Schützenpanzer Marder infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), ammunition for Leopard tanks and other equipment.

"It obviously means that to the German government supporting Ukraine is more important than the needs of its own population. It's as simple as that," Beck said. "Germany would follow the EU and in particular the US [diktat] almost at any cost."

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