The Hungarian parliament has failed to ratify Sweden's application to join NATO due to lack of quorum.

The ruling parties did not attend the session as previously promised. As such, it was not even possible to approve the agenda, which should have included the issue of Sweden's NATO bid.

Earlier, the ruling parties of Hungary, which hold two-thirds of the parliamentary seats, stated that they would not participate in the vote on Sweden’s admission to NATO, and would wait for a meeting between Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Why Senate's border bill 'won't even receive a vote' in House?

Immediately after the US Senate released a new bipartisan border security and foreign aid bill, House Republicans signaled that the legislation will not go to a vote in the lower chamber as it does not include any of sweeping measures outlined in the GOP's H.R.2 Secure the Border Act of 2023.

Here's why:

▪️The bill disproportionally allocates funding for US overseas military efforts: $60 billion for Ukraine and $14.1 billion for Israel, whereas allocating just $20 billion for border security, which is deemed not enough to curb the crisis;

▪️The bill provides just $650 million to build a border wall, whereas Congress appropriated at least $1.4 billion to Homeland Security in the fiscal years 2020 and 2021 to build a barrier system along the southwestern US border;

▪️The legislation's asylum reform would mandate the expulsion of illegal immigrants only if the number of illegal border crossings exceeds 5,000 daily for a five-day average. House Republicans are seeking to tighten asylum standards by restricting asylum to only those who come through legal ports of entry;

▪️Besides allowing 5,000 illegal immigrants a day, the bill would give automatic work permits to asylum seekers, turning the process into "a magnet for more illegal immigration";

▪️The law clarifies the definition of the Biden administration's humanitarian parole system to stop abuse at the border, whereas Republicans seek to cancel the measure altogether;

▪️The new bill was drafted in "secrecy" by top senators who reportedly did not allow lawmakers to participate.

The row over the bill shows that House Republicans have lost their appetite to fund Ukraine and are now prioritizing domestic issues and Israel instead. Having signaled that the bill is a non-starter, House Speaker Johnson announced a standalone $17.6 billion Israel funding package, while putting Ukraine on the backburner.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Elon Musk is against the idea of banning Tucker Carlson from returning to the US if, as American media suggest, he interviews Vladimir Putin.

Musk agreed with American journalist Brian Krassenstein's statement that the idea of banning Carlson's reentry contradicts the principles of journalism and freedom of information.

Krassenstein noted on his X account that the American press has always interviewed any speakers, regardless of their political position.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇮🇷🇷🇺🇨🇳 Iran, Russia and China will hold joint military naval exercises in the upcoming weeks, Iranian Navy Commander Shahram Irani said.

“Other countries have also been invited to take part in joint naval exercises between Iran, Russia and China, which will take place at the end of March,” Fars news agency quoted Irani as saying.

This will not be the first joint exercise for these countries. In March 2023, Russia, Iran and China held the “Maritime Security Belt 2023” naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman. The Russian side was represented by a detachment of ships from the Northern Fleet - the frigate "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov" and the medium sea tanker "Kama".

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Could Europe bear the whole burden of funding Ukraine?

"Europe is still acting like they have a structural advantage over the US economically which is a delusion," financial and geopolitical analyst Tom Luongo told Sputnik.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson has made it clear that if the bipartisan border security and foreign aid bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival - meaning that the Kiev regime won't see its much-anticipated funds anytime soon.

In that case, the burden of supporting Ukraine will be passed to Europe which is incapable of carrying it, according to Luongo. The UK signed a security deal with Kiev recently, with Germany planning to follow suit. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden are due to meet on February 9 at the White House, where they may discuss the Ukraine-Germany security deal.

“Ukraine just got a lifeline from the European Union after Hungary’s Viktor Orban finally succumbed to the worst arm-twisting I’ve ever seen from them… But that money from the EU will barely pay the administrative costs of the current Ukraine government, no less the war effort against Russia,” Luongo said.

Without "generous" US funding, the UK and Germany's security agreements with Ukraine will not work, per the observer. The European countries simply cannot bear the whole burden of military action given that Germany is on track for recession with prices remaining high and de-industrialization dragging the economy down. The UK is likewise in no better shape, with the OECD projecting that the nation will suffer the highest inflation rate among G7 economies in 2024 and 2025.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

▪️Watch: What do ordinary Russians think about Tucker Carlson? Sputnik posed that question to Moscow residents.

▪️Why is Tucker Carlson so popular in Russia?

▪️Why Senate's border bill 'won't even receive a vote' in House?

▪️Could Europe bear the whole burden of aiding Ukraine, while Senate's border security and foreign aid bill is stuck in Congress?

▪️"What a clown!": Zelensky accused of filming fake videos "from the frontline"

▪️NYC is allocating $53mln for migrants - 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg are NOT having it

▪️Take a look at the advanced Russian military gear displayed at the World Defense Show expo in Saudi Arabia

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ The White House, contrary to its previous statements, did not notify the Iraqi government of its intention to launch airstrikes against targets in the country, the American news agency The Intercept reported, citing a source in the US National Security Council.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The US lied about warning Iraq in advance of strikes, the State Department admitted.

The US did not provide advance notice to Iraq before its recent strikes on Iraqi territory, contrary to last week's statement by Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby, US State Department deputy principal spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday.

"Iraq, like every country in the region, understood that there would be a response after the deaths of our soldiers. As for this specific response on Friday, there was not a pre-notification. We informed the Iraqis immediately after the strikes occurred," Patel said.

Last week, Kirby said that the United States had informed the Iraqi government about its operation prior to conducting the strikes.

Both Iraq and Syria condemned the US strikes on their territory, and the Iraqi parliament's Security and Defense Committee called for the quick signing of an agreement on the withdrawal of the international coalition troops from the country.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

US State Department deputy principal spokesperson Vedant Patel reacted in a boorish manner to a Sputnik correspondent's question about the possibility of a Washington investigation of the terrorist attack on the Il-76, adding that he doubts the reliability of evidence of Ukraine’s involvement.

At the briefing, Patel refused to directly answer the question posed, asking the Sputnik reporter whether the evidence presented corresponded to "the same level of credible evidence that the Russians show when they tell the truth about other things".

Six Russian crew members, three Russian servicemen, and 65 Ukrainian POWs aboard the airplane were killed after a missile hit the Il-76 airplane over the Belgorod Region on January 24. The aircraft was en route for a planned prisoner exchange that was subsequently canceled.

The Russian Investigative Committee said that the Ukrainian armed forces used the MIM-104A guided missile of the Patriot system to shoot down the plane.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russia adds Ukraine's former representative of territorial defense Sarah Ashton-Cirillo to list of extremists and terrorists, according to a regulator.

Earlier, the military spokesperson threatened Russian journalists and the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova. After the threats, the Ukrainian Armed Forces removed him from the post and a criminal case was opened in Russia.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️LIVE NOW: UN Security Council discusses the US Strikes in the Middle East

Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website

❗️ The United States is intentionally aggravating tensions in the Middle East with targeted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia said during a United Nations Security Council meeting.

"It's clear that American airstrikes are specifically, deliberately aimed to stoke the conflict," Nebenzia said on Monday.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ The US strikes on Iraq and Syria are an attempt by the United States to improve the poor image of the current administration before the presidential election, Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said at a UN Security Council meeting.

"The largest US air operation in the region since 2003, presented by Joe Biden as an act of retaliation for a UAV attack of unidentified origin on an illegally located US base in Syria, has no justification," Nebenzia said.

"We see in this attempt to play with muscles, first of all, a desire to influence the domestic political situation in America and a desire to somehow correct the failed image of the current American administration in the international arena in light of the presidential election campaign gaining momentum," he stressed.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Russia calls on the international community to condemn the strikes by the United States and its allies on Iraq and Syria, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said at a UN Security Council meeting.

"We call on the international community to unequivocally condemn the reckless actions of Washington and its allies in the Middle East that violate the sovereignty of Iraq and Syria," Nebenzia said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The recent strikes by the US and Britain on Syria and Iraq were carried out in violation of international law, Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said at a UN Security Council meeting.

"We thank Deputy Secretary General Rosemary DiCarlo for the briefing, we heard a lot of verbal nonsense from her, but we did not hear the most important thing -- unconditional condemnation of violations of international law by the United States and Britain," Nebenzia emphasized.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

What issues currently plague the British Royal Navy?

The recent incident with UK aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, which failed to participate in NATO Steadfast Defender exercise due to propulsion problems, is but “the latest incident in a long line of maintenance problems plaguing” the vessel and its sister ship HMS Prince of Wales, says geopolitical analyst and former US Marine Brian Berletic.

“Both carriers were built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance comprised of several large and notoriously corrupt arms manufacturing corporations who do business through bribery and by maximizing profits at the expense of safety and quality,” he notes.

Meanwhile, Matthew Gordon-Banks, a former British Conservative member of parliament and senior research fellow at the UK Defence Academy, argues that “the only thing wrong with the Royal Navy” today is that “it is too small in size with a secondary issue of insufficient crew to man the existing ships.”

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Some 59% of US voters believe that US President Joe Biden is getting increasingly less mentally sharp as he is set to run for reelection in November, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports out Monday.

One-third of respondents, or 33%, disagreed with the majority about Biden’s mental health, but most suspect the mass media are covering up the president’s cognitive decline, Rasmussen Reports said in a press release accompanying the poll.

The poll was conducted among 943 US adult voters on January 28-30. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

In January, an ABC News/Ipsos poll revealed that only 28% of Americans believe that Biden has the mental sharpness required to serve as president. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre responded that the poll’s findings of President Biden’s low sharpness and physical health are confusing taking into account what he had achieved in the last three years.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The vengeful attacks of Washington would not deter strikes on US troops in the region provoked by outrage over American backing of Israel, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter told Sputnik’s Fault Lines program Monday.

“Our shock and awe initiation – I think 80, 85 targets, 220 plus munitions, $500 million it cost us to strike these targets – immediately several of the militias in the area have fired drones and rockets against American bases, and it's ongoing,” he noted. “This is just the insanity of the cycle of violence that the United States has engaged in.”

Ritter also noted the attacks angered Syria and Iraq, where US troops are stationed against those governments’ will.

“We are a terrorist organization, and we are sponsoring attacks against the legitimate government of Syria,” Ritter lamented.

👉 Follow the link for more details

Israel will provide evidence linking the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to "terrorism" to a UN panel looking into the organization, following accusations that its staff were involved in the October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Monday.

"Congratulations to the [UN] on forming the investigative committee. We will submit all evidence highlighting [UNRWA's] ties to terrorism and its harmful effects on regional stability. It is imperative that this committee brings the truth to light, necessitating the immediate resignation of the UNRWA chairman [Philippe Lazzarini]," Katz wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

In January, Lazzarini vowed to hold accountable anyone involved in "acts of terror."

The US, Finland, Italy, Australia, Canada, Japan, the UK, and some other countries have since suspended funding for UNRWA.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt