Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Friday that he is prepared for a conflict with federal authorities over a legal dispute about barriers placed along the state’s portion of the US border with Mexico.

"We are prepared, in the event that that unlikely event does occur, just to make sure that we will be able to continue exactly what we’ve been doing over the past month, and that is building these barriers," Abbott said in an interview with Tucker Carlson, when asked about the potential for the federal government to take over the Texas National Guard.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court issued a temporary order allowing federal Border Patrol agents to remove physical border barriers placed by Texas. However, Abbott maintains that Texas has the constitutional authority to protect its borders, due to the federal government’s failure to address the flow of illegal migrants into the United States.

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❗️ The Biden administration considers the Texas governor's actions to protect the US border "unsafe," the White House said.

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❗️ Naval forces of the Houthi movement in Yemen attacked a British oil ship in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, and the vessel caught fire after it was hit by a missile, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said.

"Yemeni naval forces carried out a targeting operation on the British oil ship (MARLIN LUANDA) In the Gulf of Aden, using a number of appropriate naval missiles, the strike was direct, and resulted the burning of the vessel," the spokesman wrote on his Telegram channel.

Bloomberg reported that a Trafigura fuel tanker is on fire in the Gulf of Aden after being struck by a Houthi missile as it transited the Red Sea.

“Firefighting equipment on board is being deployed to suppress and control the fire caused in one cargo tank on the starboard side,” a Trafigura spokesperson said in a statement.

Military ships in the region are underway to provide assistance, according to the report.

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The United States intends to once again station nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom amid increased tensions with Russia, The Telegraph reported on Friday.

The United States intends to station nuclear warheads at the Royal Air Force’s Lakenheath base, the report said, citing Defense Department documents.

Washington removed its nuclear weapons from the United Kingdom in 2008 after having stationed them there during the Cold War.

The United States is expected to station B61-12 gravity bombs, which are three times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, at the Lakenheath base, the report said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that the Kremlin would view the deployment of US nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom as an escalatory action.

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Ukraine conflict is pretext for US to beef up military presence in the Black Sea

"The US wants to establish dominance over the Black Sea," Vasily Dandykin, a captain 1st rank reserve and military expert, told Sputnik. "This is an old idea. One of the goals is to bring Ukraine into NATO. Because they believe that whoever dominates the Black Sea and owns Crimea receives all the bonuses."

Washington is developing a new Black Sea strategy, as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Jim O'Brien revealed on January 25 while speaking at a German Marshall Fund gathering. O'Brien has been pushing the concept for quite a while, outlining the blueprint in detail on October 25, 2023 for US lawmakers. According to O'Brien, the Ukraine conflict is a "unique" opportunity for the US to assert and enhance its presence in the Black Sea region, redrawing the region's energy map and "isolating" Russia.

"The fact is that the strengthening of the United States and NATO – first of all, the United States – in all directions has become the general concept," Dandykin stressed, adding that Russia is ready for all possible scenarios in this respect.

Per the military expert, Washington's aggressive push in the Black Sea won't go unnoticed by Moscow. Moreover, Washington and NATO cannot sideline Russia to implement their Black Sea strategy, according to Dandykin: Russia maintains control over the strategic Crimean peninsula and its territorial waters in the Black Sea, it possesses military forces and sovereignty, he stressed.

“We are seeing a polar shift in the geopolitical sphere… maybe we will see countries like Russia, maybe like China, or maybe like South Africa or other BRICS members, find a way to stop or to punish Israel,” said journalist Esteban Carrillo Friday.

Carrillo joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines program to break down the International Court of Justice’s ruling on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel as it was released.

“Economically, Israel is already facing dire consequences,” Carillo claimed. “Its ports are empty, its workforce is completely depleted, and, among other things, their currency is on the downward trend.”

Carillo agreed the “moral weight” of the ICJ’s decision could convince Global South nations to take measures against Israel even as the United States continues to offer the country “complete protection.”

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☢️ US plan to cut reliance on Russia's uranium may be used to strong-arm suppliers

The prospects of a joint association by the US, France, Canada, Japan and the UK to cut reliance on Russian nuclear fuel sound "vague,” Alexey Anpilogov, military analyst and head of the Foundation center, told Sputnik.

According to the nuclear energy expert, it sounded like “an attempt to create a consortium or cartel of uranium buyers who will try to somehow impose their conditions on countries that sell natural uranium on the world market, trying to strong-arm them.”

As to which other countries might join this consortium, Australia and Kazakhstan were singled out by Anpilogov, along with a few African countries, such as Namibia and Malawi, that do not have their own uranium processing technologies. But the whole of ‘Francophone Africa’ is now a "big question," he remarked, referencing the resolve of many former French colonies to shed vestiges of their past.

There is little doubt regarding the ulterior motives of any such consortium led by the US to slash reliance on Russia's nuclear fuel, considering that Washington thrives on weaponizing its plans to suit its own agenda.
America’s own natural uranium production slumped to historic lows in past few years, while about a third of enriched uranium is still supplied by Russia.

Last year US lawmakers made efforts to end the supply of enriched uranium to their country from Russia. However, a bill banning US imports from Russia’s Rosatom by 2028 and approved by a House subcommittee last May but has stalled in Congress.

🇩🇿🇺🇳 Algeria will request that the United Nations Security Council be convened in the coming days to implement the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in the Gaza genocide case, the country’s foreign ministry said on Friday.

"The Permanent Mission of Algeria to the UN has received instructions from the republic’s president, Abdelmajid Tebboune, to request that the UN Security Council be convened as soon as possible for the implementation of the ruling issued by the ICJ regarding the provisional measures imposed on the Israeli occupation," the statement read.

Algeria believes that the ICJ’s ruling will put an end to the "impunity era" in Israel’s actions against Palestine.

Later in the day, a United Nations source told Sputnik that Algeria has requested a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Gaza Strip to be held on January 31.

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“This is extremely dangerous,” said activist Anthony Rogers-Wright Friday of the growing controversy between federal and state authorities at Texas’ southern border. The spokesman for the coalition Movement for Black Lives joined Sputnik’s Political Misfits program Friday to discuss the developing battle of states’ rights versus federal government prerogatives.

“If one skirmish like that happens, oh my goodness, what would happen after that, like, nobody knows,” he added, claiming the situation represents a “constitutional crisis” hearkening back to the Jim Crow era of the 1950s and 60s.

Quarrels over the dueling power of state and federal officials in the US strike at deeply-rooted controversies in the country’s history.

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The state of Texas will continue to defend its portion of the US border with Mexico amid a standoff with the Biden administration over the use of razor wire barriers, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement.

"Texas will continue to exercise its constitutional right to protect and defend our southern border," Abbott said on Friday via social media platform X (formerly Twitter). "In President Biden’s absence, we will hold the line to keep Texans - and Americans - safe."

Abbott maintains that Texas has a constitutional right to protect the border due to the Biden administration’s failure to address the record flow of illegal immigrants into the US from Mexico.

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A trucker convoy is heading to Texas to support the state’s border policy on the illegal migration issue, the newspaper Daily Mail reported.

The truck drivers are said to be aiming to draw attention to “record numbers of migrants crossing the southern border and into the US,” according to the paper.

Video from social media.

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“What I learned later is that [former US Defense Secretary Paul] Wolfowitz, even before he became Deputy Secretary of Defense, had advocated when he was at Johns Hopkins [University] for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein,” said security analyst Michael Maloof, a veteran of the US Defense Department.

“Why? Because they were enemies at that time of Israel,” the analyst explained on Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program.

Maloof described the nexus of neoconservatives and supporters of Israel within the US government who saw Iraq as a launchpad for future regime change efforts in the Middle East. He described a plan to overturn governments in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Libya on behalf of the US ally.

“We were looking at the Middle East completely through the prism of Israel, and we still do. And look where it's gotten us.”

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A high-ranking official of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in an interview with Fox News on Friday stressed that the Border Patrol does not intend to dismantle the razor wire installed by Texas along the southern border, emphasizing a robust partnership with Texas despite the existing legal disputes between the state and the federal government.

"While this issue plays out in the courts, the relationship between Border Patrol, Texas DPS [Department of Public Safety], & TMD [Texas Military Dept.] remains strong," the official said. "Our focus is and will always be the mission of protecting this country and its people. On the ground, we continue to work alongside these valuable partners in that endeavor."

Earlier in the day, the Border Patrol union in a statement posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) dismissed the idea that Border Patrol agents could start arresting Texas National Guard members.

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In the ongoing border control debacle between Texas and the White House, the federal government has the “upper hand”, said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor.

“I don't think anyone can honestly look at the southern border and say that the federal government has fulfilled its pledge. This is an unprecedented crisis brought about, I believe, by President Biden's policies,” said Turley, who spoke to an American conservative news channel on Friday.

“I think that many judges would be sympathetic to Texas, that they have a right to do something. They're being overwhelmed,” he continued. “ And so the idea of the federal government removing barriers, at this time is really otherworldly. But it's – you have to keep in mind on this fight, the federal government has the upper hand, legally. They tend to get a lot of deference along the border.”

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The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said it had struck a Houthi anti-ship missile aimed into the Red Sea.

"On Jan. 27 at approximately 3:45 a.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command Forces conducted a strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile aimed into the Red Sea and which was prepared to launch," CENTCOM said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).

According to the statement, the US forces identified the missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, and determined it presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US naval ships in the area.

"U.S. Forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missile in self-defense. This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy vessels and merchant vessels," CENTCOM said.

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“It's fair to say NATO is like a walking war machine, wherever it goes, there will be instability,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wu Qian at a press conference in Beijing Thursday.

The comment was made in response to questions about NATO’s recently begun six-month Steadfast Defender 2024 drill, which the alliance claims is its largest exercise since the Cold War era.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has increasingly criticized China in public statements recently, signaling Western countries’ anxiety over the rising Asian power. In 2023 Stoltenberg threatened “severe consequences” if China assists its ally Russia with military aid.

“As a regional military organization, NATO has launched and fought many wars around the world,” said Wu of the alliance, which played a key role in wars on Libya, Afghanistan, and the former Yugoslavia.

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🇧🇷 Brazilian police conducted raids Thursday on the country's former intel chief and 11 other suspects who are accused of illegally spying on ex-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s political rivals.

It’s claimed that the former head of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN) Alexandre Ramagem improperly used the Israeli surveillance software FirstMile to track the cellphone geolocation data of some 1,800 judges and politicians.

Among the alleged victims of the spying is Supreme Court justice and electoral court chief Alexandre de Moraes, who authorized the raids. The justice has been consistently embroiled in disputes with Bolsonaro and his supporters after the former president alleged electoral fraud in the 2022 elections that saw Bolsonaro removed from the presidency.

Ramagem has denied the charges while his allies claim the raids are political persecution against Ramagem, who now sits in Brazil’s congress and plans to run for mayor of Rio de Janeiro in October.

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The US State Department approved a potential sale of F-35 combat aircraft and related equipment to Greece for an estimated $8.6 billion, the Pentagon said in a statement.

"The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Greece of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Conventional Take Off and Landing aircraft and related equipment for an estimated cost of $8.6 billion," the statement said.

Earlier representative of Russian Foreign Ministry noted that US efforts to export weapons globally "have already damaged the global economy and affected the well-being of the population of many countries far beyond Europe."

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