🇪🇸 History made in Spain as parliamentarian with Down's syndrome takes office

Mar Galcerán joined Spain’s People’s Party at 18, and now the 45-year-old made it to the 20th spot on the list of candidates for Valencia’s regional elections.

According to Spain’s Down’s syndrome federation, Garcerán’s case may be the first ever — at least in Europe.

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"If the Senate does not approve more aid to Ukraine, the war – which is already trending in Russia’s direction – could a month from now dramatically shift in Russia’s favor," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated.

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US risks to bring new tensions with China over Taiwan, as sources say Biden plans to send a high-level delegation to the island after local elections, reports Financial Times.

The delegation is reportedly expected to include former US deputy secretary of state James Steinberg and former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.

Experts and former officials consider it a poor and risky idea, the newspaper notes. For example, an unnamed former US official said Biden's decision to send a delegation to Taiwan immediately after the election was dangerous and could lead to undesirable consequences.

"Sending such a high-level delegation looks like a bear hug to Taipei, giving Beijing cover to overreact", the former official pointed out.

Previously, US House Speaker Pelosi's 2022 trip to Taiwan sparked a scandal and China responded with a large-scale military drill.

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

▪️Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems said on Wednesday that together with the country's defense ministry it had successfully tested a new all-in-one configuration of the Spyder air defense system in which numerous components of the missile complex are integrated on a single wheeled platform.

▪️US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday accused Iran of supporting the attacks by Yemen's Houthis on vessels in the Red Sea by providing them the necessary equipment, intelligence and other support.

▪️Death toll from Israeli strike on ambulance in Gaza rises to 6 – Palestinian Red Crescent.

▪️US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas discussed humanitarian issues related to the ongoing Gaza war, administrative reforms in the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian tax revenues collected by Israel, the State Department said.

▪️Reported incidents of anti-Semitism across the United States soared by 360% to unprecedented levels in the three months following the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1,400 Israelis which was immediately followed by the Israeli invasion and bombardment of Gaza which has so far killed more than 12,000 civilians, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said according to an NBC News report.

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🇷🇺🇧🇷 Russia-Brazil trade saw a remarkable increase in December 2023, soaring to $1.6 billion, marking a historic high, according to Brazil's Secretariat of Foreign Trade.

Brazil's imports from Russia surged to a record $1.5 billion by the end of 2023 — the highest in modern history, primarily driven by 1.5 million tons of petroleum, which amounted to $1.14 billion.

The official data shows that between January and August 2023, Russia accounted for 35.6 percent of Brazil's diesel imports by value and 40.6 percent by volume. During this period, Brazil's diesel imports from Russia grew to $2.11 billion, marking a significant rise from the prior year's $18 million and outpacing the $1.83 billion from the US.

The 1.5 million tons of petroleum supplied by Moscow makes Russia Brazil's number one diesel importer. The United States came next, supplying 413.5 thousand tons of fuel to the Latin American nation, while the Netherlands was third with 108.6 thousand tons.

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Weapons which will expand Russia’s lead over NATO in 2024

The Russian military’s modernization shows no signs of slowing down, with the Armed Forces set to receive weapons which proved themselves on the battlefield in the proxy war in Ukraine, plus strategic arms meant to prevent the current crisis from escalating to World War III.

“When we’re talking about conventional weapons types, today the focus has been toward a gradual shift to high-precision weapons,” military analyst Alexey Leonkov told Sputnik, pointing to the delivery of new systems like the Koalitsiya-SV and Malva self-propelled guns to the ground forces, and the overhaul of tank platforms.

Other areas to watch for include new radio-electronic warfare and communications equipment, the fielding of Kinzhal, Zircon, Kalibr and Onyx missiles by the Aerospace Defense Force and Navy, and upgrades to the nuclear triad through Sarmat and Yars ICBMs, Tu-160 bombers and Borei subs, Leonkov said.

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🇺🇸 House Judiciary Committee has approved a draft resolution to prosecute Hunter Biden for contempt of Congress

The initiative now faces a vote of the full House, and if approved, federal prosecutors will have to decide whether to bring charges against Biden Jr.

Earlier today Hunter Biden came to the Capitol attending the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing, where Rep. Nancy Mace criticized him for his apparent lack of respect for legal processes.

"Hunter Biden broke the law. He did so deliberately, you did so flagrantly, you showed up on the hill on the Senate side the day of that congressional subpoena to defy it and spit in the face of this committee... You’re here for a political stunt. This is just a... game you are playing with the American people. You’re playing with the truth," said Mace.

Eventually Biden Jr. ultimately departed the House committee meeting just as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) took the floor.

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Chris Christie officially suspends campaign for 2024 US Election

Christie said he suspended his campaign because there is no "clear path" for him to win the Republican nomination in the US presidential election.

Former President Donald Trump still holds an overwhelming lead over his Republican colleagues in the run for the party's nomination, according to various polls.

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The White House has confirmed plans to send a delegation of former US officials to Taiwan after regional elections, but the timing and participants have yet to be determined.

Following the White House statement the Chinese Embassy told Sputnik that China opposes Biden's plan and urges the US to avoid sending wrong signals to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces and refrain from interfering in elections in the Taiwan region in any form.

"Taiwan is an integral part of China. China strongly opposes the US having any official contact with the Taiwanese region", stated the Embassy.

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Liberated Ecuadorian hostage: 'It was like a horror movie'

"We will never be able to describe how we felt in those moments. Describing this is like watching a horror movie…" one of the employees of the Ecuadorian TV channel TC Televisión, who was held hostage by armed thugs in Guayaquil, told Sputnik Mundo.

During a live news broadcast by TC Television on Tuesday, several masked men entered the set claiming that they were carrying "bombs", as violence continues to engulf Ecuador following gang leader Adolfo Macias' escape from La Regional prison on Sunday.

"One repeated: 'I want to kill them.' The other one said: 'Bring iron,' which meant weapons. We heard the clang of knives and machete blades. Suddenly a voice said: 'Bring explosives, do you have bombs?' And a response: 'Yes, there are explosives, bring them to blow up these ***'," the employee recalled.

President Daniel Noboa has declared a state of emergency across Ecuador, but the unrest has yet to be curbed.

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🇺🇸🇬🇷 US slapped Greece with ‘ultimatum’ over Ukraine aid, reports say

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to force Greece into shipping new weapon systems to Ukraine during his last visit to Athens, Greek media outlets claim.

PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis was reportedly given just a few days to comply with this 'extortion', national media reported.

"Greece has already given everything, it has breached national defense, especially on the islands, in order to support Ukraine with defense material," wrote the publications.

"What exactly does Blinken want us to send to [Ukraine’s President] Zelensky, who is collapsing on all fronts?"

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🛢 The US resumed imports of Russian oil in autumn as $2.7 million worth of oil was imported in October and another $750,000 worth in November, Sputnik calculated using US customs data.

At the same time, one barrel of Russian oil cost the United States $74 in October and $76 in November. This is significantly higher than the "price cap" set by the country at $60 per barrel.

US in March 2022 imposed a ban on oil and other energy imports from Russia as part of a new round of sanctions.

Donald Trump called Russian and Chinese leaders Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping very smart people.

"He [incumbent US President Joe Biden] can't put two sentences together. And he's representing us on nuclear weapons with Putin and Xi and all of these very smart people. Media hates when I say they're smart, but let me tell you, they're very smart and they're very cunning," he said on 10 January speaking to supporters in Iowa.

Earlier, Trump said he had a good relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the conflict in Ukraine could have been avoided if he had been the US president.

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❗️ Russian air defence systems have intercepted Ukrainian drones over Rostov, Tula and Kaluga regions, said the Defence Ministry.

Additionally, a drone has exploded over a technical structure of a pumping station on the outskirts of the Russian city of Kaluga, the building was damaged, there were no fires or casualties, said Kaluga Region Governor Vladislav Shapsha.

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Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green confirmed rumours that Biden fell during a foreign trip and "soiled himself"

"This is the reality of people in their 80s or late tage in life, especially when they suffer from conditions of late-stage dementia or Alzheimer's... This is where people's faculties fail. But unfortunately, Joe Biden has having it happened to him while he is being President of the United States," said Green, when asked by show host, Benny Johnson.

This is another reason why Biden will probably be replaced "with someone like Michelle Obama," Green added.

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A resolution for Italy to continue to provide military aid to Ukraine was passed in both houses of parliament, Italian askanews news agency reported.

At the same time, the Chamber of Deputies rejected the resolution to stop arms supplies to Ukraine, which was submitted by the opposition Five Star Movement and the Greens and Left Alliance, askanews said.

"Just a few months ago, PM [Giorgia] Meloni was betting on defeating Russia, which we never did, because we believe that supporting this military escalation leaves no way out of this situation... Instead, the result is that we have the government that continues to obey Washington's orders and instructions and passively submit to this warmongering logic of military escalation, which bears no fruit other than more deaths and destruction," Giuseppe Conte, former PM of Italy and the leader of the Five Star Movement, said.

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❗️Putin revealed that Russia's economic growth by the end of 2023 could be higher than 3.5%

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The Biden administration “in principle” backs legislation that would allow it to seize roughly $300 billion of frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine, Bloomberg reports.

Biden's support for the move came after Republicans in Congress blocked more than $60 billion in funding for Ukraine, partly due to concerns that Washington was taking on way too much of a financial burden as Kiev's counteroffensive stalled.

However, the White House is aware that the move could tarnish the reputation of the US financial system and trigger a further flight from the dollar.

Europe’s support for this decision is also not guaranteed. The European Central Bank's members are worried about the impact this step could have on the eurozone’s stability and the fact that Moscow could retaliate by confiscating funds that are blocked in Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that Western countries would face repercussions if they used Russia's frozen assets to assist Ukraine.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia now Europe’s number one economy, despite "being strangled and crushed from all sides"

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📹🚁 A strike group of combat helicopters belonging to the Russian Aerospace Forces hit a Ukrainian stronghold in the Krasny Liman region with unguided C-8 air missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

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West, China on brink of trade war?

Whether a trade war between China and Western countries will happen or not depends on the trade balance, Dr John Gong, professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and a China Forum expert, told Sputnik.

According to him, right now there is a large trade balance between China and the US, and the PRC and the EU.

“China needs to work with the US and the EU to make trade more balanced over the long run. But the solution should be increasing their exports to China, whether being goods or services, as opposed to curtailing back China's exports to these countries,” Gong pointed out.

The expert also said that

▪️Washington’s and Brussels’s concerns over China's manufacturing growth “also has a competition on technology perspective.”

▪️The US and the EU are unwilling to see China leading in cutting edge technologies, such as electric cars, batteries, and solar panels, which is “all about dominance in high-tech.”

▪️It’s safe to say that China exports a lot, but “not up to half of its output.”

▪️About 40% of the PRC’s exports is actually associated with foreign companies operating in China, which “could be wholly owned subsidiaries or joint ventures.”

The Bloomberg news agency earlier noted that the Chinese government’s shift to injecting money into manufacturing as property-related activity might fuel a new wave of trade tensions across the globe and even result in a new trade war.

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