The US exploited a “loophole” to sell weapons to Israel, The Washington Post revealed.

The US has reportedly made more than 100 "quiet" weapons sales to Israel, including thousands of bombs, since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas. Despite half-baked calls from the administration for Israel to spare civilian lives, the US has continued to restock their supply of weapons, helping to create one of the most intense bombing campaigns in military history.

The sales were reportedly made in silence - as they escaped congressional oversight - meaning they were processed without any public debate because they each fell under a specific dollar amount that requires the executive branch to notify Congress, the paper said.

Public sales to Israel already included: $320 million in precision bomb kits in November and 14,000 tank shells costing $106 million and $147.5 million of fuses and other components needed to make 155mm artillery shells in December. The deliveries made in December were made under an emergency authority.

“That’s an extraordinary number of sales over the course of a pretty short amount of time, which really strongly suggests that the Israeli campaign would not be sustainable without this level of U.S. support,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior Biden administration official and current president of Refugees International.

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Was neocon slay queen Victoria Nuland forced out?

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern speculated that political differences between Under Secretary of State Nuland and Biden administration officials may have led to her surprise ouster this week.

“My best guess here is that the CIA and the Defense Department and the NSA got this message around saying, 'look, Victoria's got her own agenda here,’” said McGovern on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program, saying the leaked recording of Nuland appearing to plan an attack on Russia with German officials may have led to her downfall.

“‘The president doesn't really want to strike these ammo depots in Russia or knock down the [Crimean] Bridge. So, we got to rein her in, I guess it's time for her to go to early retirement,’” said McGovern, speculating that Biden administration officials may desire a less confrontational stance towards Russia as the US-led Ukrainian proxy war has failed to weaken the country.

The discussion then turned towards French-Russian relations, which took a nosedive last week after French President Emmanuel Macron mused about the possibility of sending European troops to assist the Kiev regime in the Donbass. Russian State Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin responded by referencing Russia’s 19th-century victory over Napoleon Bonaparte after the French emperor launched an invasion from the west.

“The Russians remember that with particular pride,” said McGovern of France’s crushing defeat, which serves to prove the adage that it’s never wise to attack Russia during the winter. A certain mustachioed German chancellor would learn the same lesson more than a century later as millions of Russians made the ultimate sacrifice to save the world from Nazism.

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🇳🇬Nigeria intends to apply for membership in BRICS, the country's Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told Sputnik.

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▪️ The success of the World Youth Festival demonstrates that sanctions against Russia have failed, Putin said

▪️The US House of Representatives passed legislation with approximately $460 billion in spending

▪️The US and the UK launched two strikes against the Hodeidah international airport in western Yemen. Meanwhile, the Houthis hit a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, reportedly killing three crew members.

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▪️Nuland stepped down disenchanted with waning support for Ukraine
▪️Leaks show Western elites won't be able to intimidate Russia into imploding
▪️Germany considers connoscription: What are the Bundeswehr’s capabilities?

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The US does not fulfill its promises and continues to impose unilateral sanctions against China to curb its development, according to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Washington's policy undermines trust between major powers, and the Sinophobia of the United States indicates its self-doubt, he believes.

Wang Yi called on the US to recognize China's right to development, abandon attempts to maintain its hegemony, and adjust its words and actions to build stable and healthy Sino-American relations.

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Ukraine has become a "graveyard of tanks," wrote the National Interest about the destruction of Western equipment in the conflict zone.

As columnist Peter Suciu notes, three Abrams were destroyed in less than a week, and they "burned like other tanks—and the thousands of other tanks before."

He also highlights several problems: Ukraine needs hundreds of tanks, not dozens; Ukrainian forces have experience only with Soviet-made MBTs; and there is not enough accelerated training.

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Poland wants the EU to cancel all trade preferences that Kiev received after the start of Russia's special operation, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

"We really want to help Ukraine, but we must simultaneously protect the European and Polish agricultural market," he said.

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Czech farmers followed in the footsteps of their French counterparts and decided to use manure as a weapon: protesting farmers spread animal waste products on the Benes embankment in Prague, disrupting traffic, police reported.

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Ukraine's efforts to build defensive fortifications along the front line have not yielded significant results, the Wall Street Journal writes.

The New York Times, after analyzing satellite images west of Avdeyevka, recently wrote about Ukraine's poor defensive lines: the newspaper called the lines of Ukrainian trenches "sparse" and "rudimentary".

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NATO is working out a scenario of armed confrontation with Russia during ongoing exercises in Europe that increase tensions, said Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council.

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A terrorist attack was prevented in Russia's Karelia Republic in the north west of the country.

A citizen of Belarus from the nationalist Kastus Kalinovsky Regiment planned to blow up an administrative building in the Olonets town, the Russian Federal Security Service reported.

The man was recruited by the Ukrainian special services and opened fire on intelligence officers during his arrest. There are no casualties among the representatives of the security agencies and the civilian population.

A bomb made on the basis of a British-made explosive and an American detonator, as well as a pistol and cartridges, were seized from the terrorist.

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The military intelligence of Ukraine reported that mercenaries from more than 50 countries of the world are fighting in the Ukrainian troops.

The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly stated that the Kiev regime is using foreign mercenaries as "cannon fodder" and that the Russian military will continue to eliminate them throughout Ukraine.

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Easy way to get benefits: Spanish soldiers change gender

41 men in Spain's North African autonomous city of Ceuta have already changed their gender on official documents from male to female in order to gain certain privileges: higher pay and better sleeping quarters, thanks to Spain's "trans law" aimed at helping transgender people.

"On the outside I feel like a heterosexual man, but inside I am a lesbian," Army Corporal Roberto Perdigones told the Spanish newspaper El Español.

Perdigones said that after changing his gender on his documents, he received a 15 percent pay raise.

Imagine what they get on International Women's Day...

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