Neocon Haley campaign spent thousands on luxury hotels - report

US Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley's campaign has spent thousands of dollars on luxury hotels in the past year, despite claims from her team that she runs a "tight ship" and stays in "affordable" accommodations, Fox News reported, citing a third-quarter disbursements filing by Haley with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Haley's campaign spent more than $11,000 on luxury four-star and five-star hotels, the filing reportedly shows.

This comes as the US is preparing for the first Republican Party nominating contest of the 2024 presidential election cycle on Monday, in the form of caucuses in the state of Iowa.

Haley has emerged as Trump's top competitor and is the most active proponent of an aggressive foreign policy towards Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, and other countries.

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⚡️ For new US military biological projects, funds from the Clinton, Rockefeller, Soros, and Biden foundations are attracted under state guarantees, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said.

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⚡️ In 2023, the Pentagon developed documents suggesting the expansion of a foreign network of US-controlled biological laboratories, the Russian Ministry of Defense said

⚡️ The US is increasing its military-biological potential, this can be seen in the example of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense said

☣️ Key Statements from the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding U.S. biological weapons:

▪️One of the U.S. priorities - biological espionage along the borders of geopolitical adversaries and in anticipated deployment areas.

▪️In 2023, the Pentagon developed documents envisioning the expansion of the U.S.-controlled biolab network abroad.

▪️The U.S. is building up its military-biological potential, as evident in the case of Ukraine.

▪️The U.S. and the UK are engaged in projects to transmit pathogens from animals to humans and study highly dangerous viruses in the post-Soviet space.

▪️The U.S. thwarts any international initiatives for verification of the Biological Weapons Convention.

▪️The U.S. military-biological work aims to form "artificially managed epidemics."

▪️The Pentagon conducted aerobiological experiments using two strains of the natural smallpox virus.

▪️The Russian Ministry of Defense expressed concern about the increase in research on natural smallpox viruses by U.S. military personnel.

▪️The Russian Ministry of Defense handed over dossiers on individuals involved in military-biological activities in Ukraine, including U.S. citizens, to military investigative authorities.

▪️Many U.S. institutions involved in biological programs in Ukraine were previously Pentagon contractors for biological weapons.

▪️The U.S. is attempting to recreate the technology of producing large-scale biological recipes for an offensive program.

▪️The scale of U.S. research and the global biological risks they create demand an independent international investigation.

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🇹🇷 Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan has asked Turkish officials not to participate in the Davos summit because of the organizers' position on the Middle East, Bloomberg reports.

According to Western media, the forum events are not very productive. The Financial Times called the joint photo of the participants the main achievement of the meeting on Ukraine in Davos.

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How the Red Sea crisis has affected the global trade

🔹 Container transport volume plummeted to 70% below expected levels.

🔹 EU exports and imports fell by 2% and 3.1% respectively in a month. In Germany, they fell by 1.9% percent and 1.8%, and in the USA by 1.5% and 1%.

🔹 Suez Canal revenues dropped by 40% in the first 11 days of the year; transit shipments fell 30%.

🔹 The number of ships passing through the Suez canal up to January 11 was 544, compared to 777 last year.

🔹 Major shipping companies, including AP Moller-Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, began to bypass the Red Sea and Suez Canal, choosing longer routes around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope. That increased travel times by over a week and added about 3,500 nautical miles to the journey, along with added costs for delivery of goods and insurance premiums.

🔹 Transportation of a 40-foot (12.2 meters) container from China to Northern Europe now costs over $4,000, almost three times the $1,500 in November 2023.

🔹 Suez Canal's strategic importance: handles 15% of global trade and 30% of container traffic.

🔹 Europe and Mediterranean: most affected regions due to reliance on Red Sea and Suez Canal trade routes.

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The Russian Investigative Committee will conduct a criminal-legal assessment of the actions of all those who committed crimes against the residents of Donbass.

"I can confidently state that the Investigative Committee, for its part, will make a criminal-legal assessment of the criminal actions of all those who participated in the preparation and implementation of criminal plans against the civilian population of Donbass and Novorossiya," Chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin told Sputnik.

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened more than 4,000 criminal cases related to atrocities in Donbass since 2014, he added.

Since the illegitimate coup in Ukraine in 2014, the Kiev regime has committed crimes against civilians in Donbass. It was in response to those atrocities that Russia launched its special military operation on February 24, 2022. According to President Putin, the operation is aimed at protecting the population of Donbass from the genocidal actions of the Kiev regime.

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A US-owned trading vessel has been hit by a missile near the shores of Yemen, as reported by Reuters.

Earlier, the British Royal Navy disclosed an "incident" near the coast, providing no further details.

UPD: CENTCOM confirmed the information about the attack saying that Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and struck the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged, U.S.-owned and operated container ship, adding that the ship has reported no injuries or significant damage and is continuing its journey.

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A Tale of Two Fates: Gonzalo Lira and Rafi Jabar

Last Friday, news broke that American blogger Gonzalo Lira died in a Ukrainian prison following months of likely torture, extortion, and medical neglect. The Biden administration did not lift a finger to help him in any way throughout the ordeal.

Such blatant indifference is completely at odds with how Russia tries to help its citizens who find themselves in trouble abroad, write Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley (@TXDPR). Nowhere is this more evident than in the story of Rafi Jabar, an Afghan who gained Russian citizenship for his years of service in the Donetsk People’s militia.

In mid-2023, Jabar took a trip back to Afghanistan to visit family and old friends. While there, the Donbass veteran was arrested by local authorities on false charges. The Russian embassy in Kabul quickly leapt into action to secure his release and President Vladimir Putin personally intervened, leading to Jabar being freed within 27 days.

Read the full column here

🇷🇺🇮🇷 Moscow and Tehran will sign a major interstate treaty, the Russian Defense Ministry said after a telephone conversation between the Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Ashtiani.

"The parties emphasized the commitment to the fundamental principles of Russian-Iranian relations, including unconditional respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, which will be confirmed in the major interstate treaty between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran that is being prepared for signing," the ministry said.

In September 2022, it was announced that work was underway on a new major treaty between Russia and Iran when Vladimir Putin and President of the Islamic Republic Ebrahim Raisi discussed the issue on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Samarkand.

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🪖 Kiev’s mobilization bill was presented to the Ukrainian parliament in December 2023. This document proposes several measures, including reducing the minimum draft age to 25, sending out electronic summonses, imposing restrictions on draft dodgers, and even connoscripting women.

What do Ukrainians, both abroad and within the country, including soldiers, think about this? We have put together their reactions in our video clip.

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🚜🇩🇪 Thousands of farmers continue rallying nationwide since the last week in protest against the planned cuts to agricultural subsidies and tax breaks, prompting the government to walk back on some of the changes.

Rail workers joined the strike to demand higher pay, bringing the EU's leading economy to a near-standstill. More rallies by farmers are expected to continue this week.

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🇲🇦🇷🇺 Russian at heart – story of a Moroccan man defending Russia in special op

Meet a Moroccan native who has decided to volunteer as a soldier in Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.

“I love Russia with all my heart. I treasure Russia more than the country I was born in. That’s why I was ready to defend my motherland, to pay my dues to my country,” he told Sputnik.

The man decided to pursue higher education in Russia. After he finished the program, he decided to stay. Since then, the young man has made Nizhny Novgorod his home for the past 12 years.

He said he was fully ready to defend Russian national interests, which is he has signed a service contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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The Head of the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced that the intensive phase of military operations in the northern Gaza Strip has concluded. He also hinted at the imminent conclusion of intense fighting in the southern part of the enclave.

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