🇨🇳💰 China's GDP at the end of 2023 increased by 5.2% year-on-year to $17.698 trillion, which is above the official forecast, data of the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday.

"According to preliminary estimates, the gross domestic product (GDP) was 126,058.2 billion yuan [$17.698 trillion] in 2023, an increase of 5.2 percent over the previous year at constant prices," the bureau said in the latest release.

According to the official forecast, China's GDP was expected to increase by some 5% in 2023.

The country's GDP at the end of 2022 increased by 3% compared to 2021 against the background of localized coronavirus outbreaks and an unstable international environment, which was lower than the official forecast of about 5.5%. China's GDP in 2022 totaled 121.02 trillion yuan ($17.95 trillion).

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“The most difficult talks are those in which you feel simply that you want to go and punch your opposite number in the nose,” Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba admitted, suggesting he has trouble controlling himself when dealing with his counterparts.

Kuleba clarified he had one specific person in mind as part of his fantasy: Russia's top diplomat Sergey Lavrov.

The impolitic comment came to light after the release of an interview between Kuleba and a Ukrainian online influencer.

“That is the problem: uneducated, aggressive people were recruited under the guise of serving as ministers to ruin Ukraine for American money,” said Russian spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, questioning Kuleba's competence and temperament.

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🇳🇦 🇩🇪 Rooted in 'lived experience': why Namibia objects to German support for Israel in ICJ case

Namibia's condemnation of Germany's rejection of South Africa's "genocide" accusations against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is rooted in the traumatic experience of the Namibian people under German colonial rule, Dr. Rasigan Maharajh, chief director of the Institute for Economic Research and Innovation at the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa, told Sputnik Africa.

Maharajh said that the majority of people around the world find it difficult to understand Berlin's current stance on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip.

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❗️ Four RM-70 Vampire MLRS shells were destroyed in the Belgorod region, two Ukrainian UAVs were intercepted, the Russian Defense Ministry reported

“[Hamas] started a process of the falling apart and the collapse of a world order that was already decaying and degrading… for 20 or more years,” analyst Yezid Sayigh made the surprising claim in an interview published Tuesday in Chinese media.

Sayigh warned that domestic political pressures in both Israel and the United States during an election year created a dangerous situation where events could suddenly escalate into world war.

What’s more, the West’s unconditional support for Israel is threatening its hegemony and damaging the credibility of the liberal order it constructed after the last world war. The moment comes just as China, Russia, and other world powers are emerging as dominant players in a new multipolar world order.

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British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps delivered a speech intended to rally support for increased military spending Monday, but things didn’t go quite as planned. Users on the X social media platform widely mocked the jingoistic lecture, which warned of alleged attacks from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea within the next five years.

“The era of the peace dividend is over,” Shapps proclaimed defiantly, but the British government has imposed austerity for a number of years while remaining America’s staunchest ally in wars across the Middle East.

“Can you explain how British soldiers killed in Helmand or in Basra were at all beneficiaries of this so-called era of the peace dividend?” asked one X user in response to Shapps’ tone deaf comments.

“Wars happen when the government tells you who your enemy is. Revolution happens when you work it out for yourself,” said another.

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🇷🇺 Russian Fagot ATGM crew destroys Ukrainian command and observation post in Kupyansk direction

The soldiers hit the enemy command post with a well-aimed shot and withdrew from the firing position as quickly as possible so the enemy would not have time to strike back.

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Despite the fact that Moscow condemns military aid to Ukraine, which is used to attack civilian targets, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Paris will finalize a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for Kiev in the coming weeks and announce its signing during his visit to Ukraine in February.

"We are finalizing a bilateral agreement on guarantees that will be signed in the coming weeks. We will proceed with new [arms] deliveries: about 40 SCALP missiles [also known as the Storm Shadow] and several hundred bombs that our Ukrainian friends are waiting for," Macron told a news conference aired by the Elysee Palace on X.

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The Western coalition is indifferent to the deaths of civilians in Yemen and other countries, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik

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❗️A Turkish delegation will visit Russia this week to discuss gas hub details, a source in the Turkish Energy Ministry has told Sputnik

EU ready to fast-track new naval mission in Red Sea

The European Union is reportedly ready to follow the lead of the US, setting up its own naval operation in the Red Sea “to protect commercial shipping” from Houthi attacks.

The bloc could sign off on the plans as soon as January 22 at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels. The EU wants to fast-track the process, hoping to get the maritime operation up and running by late February.

The EU’s Political and Security Committee has given its initial approval of plans to send at least three destroyers or frigates “with multi-mission capabilities” to the area, as well as to exchange secret maritime information with the US-led mission, Prosperity Guardian, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

The EU's operation may be based on AGENOR - the European mission in the Persian Gulf, which is part of the European Maritime Surveillance Initiative in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASoH).

Earlier, Russia denounced the US attacks on Yemeni territory, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova branding them as a sign of “blatant disregard for international law in the name of escalating the situation in the region for their own destructive purposes.”

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"Macron: ‘Allowing Russia to win means exposing yourself to the risk that the established rules of the international order will no longer be respected.’ If Macron has a copy of the ‘rules’ mentioned, please share. As for victory, it does not depend on the ‘permission’ of Macron or anyone else - Russia will do what it said,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

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US investigators found cocaine on Hunter Biden's gun holster

US investigators found cocaine residue on Hunter Biden's gun pouch last year, prompting federal prosecutors to oppose his requests to dismiss illegal gun possession charges against him, ABC News reported Wednesday, citing prosecutors.

"The strength of the evidence against him is overwhelming ... To be clear, investigators literally found drugs on the pouch where the defendant kept his gun," prosecutors were quoted as saying.

The son of US President Joe Biden refuses to plead guilty to allegedly lying about his drug use when filling out a form to buy a gun in October 2018. Hunter Biden revealed in his memoirs that he was addicted to drugs at the time.

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The security agreement between the UK and Ukraine concluded last week shows that Kiev will not be allowed to exit the conflict through negotiations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

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❗️ Russia handed over a humanitarian cargo of 25,000 tonnes of free grain to Mali, said the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

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US in search of new ‘allies’ rich in resources in Central Asia, The Hill says

Central Asian countries, led by Kazakhstan, are moving closer to the US and EU, the media outlet insists. The US could benefit from “cooperation” with Kazakhstan, which also hosts a sizeable Russian minority: the Asian country possesses an estimated 40 percent of the world’s uranium reserves and abundant rare earth minerals, the author says.

However, a Russian victory in Ukraine could put an end to this trend and return the region to Moscow’s orbit, the author of the article notes with regret, adding that Russia is still Kazakhstan’s biggest trading partner.

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💶 The Russian National Wealth Fund is reported to no longer hold euros, with only yuan, gold, and rubles remaining, as stated by the Ministry of Finance.

The decision to abandon the dollar was made in 2021. As of the end of 2023, the total volume of the National Wealth Fund amounted to 11.965 trillion rubles (approximately $135.3 billion).

The National Wealth Fund of Russia is a reserve fund utilized to cover the federal budget deficit and as a component of the pension system. The fund is formed from Russia's oil and gas revenues and is unofficially referred to as "kubyshka," which translates to a money-saving container or piggy bank.

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❗️ Six attacks were repelled in the Donetsk area, with Ukrainian losses amounting to 290 troops, a tank, and two infantry fighting vehicles. In the southern DPR, Kiev's losses amounted to 75 soldiers.

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from Russia’s MoD briefing on progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️In the Kupyansk outskirts, a Ukrainian attack was repelled, and enemy losses amounted to 30 people as well as two armored personnel carriers.

▪️Three attacks were repelled in the Krasny Liman area, with Ukrainian forces losing up to 210 personnel and a tank.

▪️In the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, Ukraine’s total losses amounted to up to 50 military personnel.

▪️Air defense systems shot down 11 Olkha and Vampire MLRS missiles and 21 Ukrainian drones.

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❗️Pakistan has informed Iran that it has decided to recall its ambassador, calling Tehran’s strikes illegal, and that it reserves the right to respond