Dutch foreign minister announces cancellation of planned trip to Israel - reports

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp has confirmed that his planned trip to Israel next week will not take place, the NOS broadcaster reported.

The minister earlier planned to visit Israel next Monday.

On Thursday, Veldkamp said that during consultations with the Israeli side, a decision was made to cancel his visit to Israel due to "current circumstances." However, he did not specify what these circumstances were.

On Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Later in the day, Netanyahu's office accused the ICC of isolating Israel and supporting terrorism against Israel.

Veldkamp then said the Netherlands would execute the ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu if he were to appear in the country. The minister said his country was committed to implementing the Rome Statute "100 percent."

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🔭First zoomed-in shot of star outside the Milky Way

Astronomers have taken the first close-up picture of a star outside our galaxy, according to a European Southern Observatory press release.

The recently observed star, WOH G64, is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the smaller galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. Scientists have known about the celestial body for many years and appropriately named it a "giant star." With a diameter about 2,000 times larger than the Sun, WOH G64 is classified as a red supergiant.

“For the first time, we have succeeded in taking a zoomed-in image of a dying star in a galaxy outside our own Milky Way,” said Keiichi Ohnaka, an astrophysicist from Universidad Andres Bello in Chile.

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367,000 HIV-positive people may be connoscripted for military service in Ukraine

Russian hacker group RaHDit has leaked a database containing records from the Ukrainian Health Ministry of HIV-positive citizens who may be drafted into the army, according to the group's spokesman.

"The purpose of publishing the lists of infected people in Ukraine is to demonstrate the mobilization potential of this category and thus alert Russian health services to the potential threat of refugees and prisoners from Ukraine," a member of the group said.

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🔸 Oreshnik hypersonic missile: What’s its reach?

🔸 NATO’s actions will have consequences: experts on ‘breakthrough’ Oreshnik missile

🔸 Polar opposite reactions to ICC's arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant

🔸 UNESCO turns a blind eye on Russian journalists murdered by Ukrainian thugs

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💬 Don't mess with Russia, warns Hungarian PM

The West should take Vladimir Putin's statements on the Oreshnik missile test and the updating of Russia's nuclear doctrine very seriously, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

He noted that there is a different "weight and meaning of the spoken word" in the West and in Russia.

In the West, politics, especially in recent years, is 80% talk and 20% action, so "speeches have no consequences."

"When the Russian president makes a statement, it carries significant weight and consequences…Vladimir Putin, speaking directly to the public on TV, expressly stated that they consider countries that supply such [long-range] weapons to Ukraine as military targets. The West must fully grasp the implications of his words and should not dismiss the president's statement as merely a "communication trick."

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🎥🎥 Lavrov and Ryzenkov speak at joint meeting in Brest, Belarus

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

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📹 Last-chance migrant caravan

People from Central and South America are hoping to cross the border before Donald Trump takes office on January 20, 2025.

The Republican president-elect is threatening to resume construction of a wall between the US and Mexico to solve the problem of illegal immigration once and for all.

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Damaged but not deterred: US investor sets sights on Nord Stream 2 auction

An American investor with a flair for Russian dealmaking is reportedly aiming for the sabotaged Nord Stream 2 pipeline, viewing it as the deal of the century - if not a geopolitical mic drop.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Stephen P. Lynch has approached the US Treasury for permission to bid on the $11 billion project in a Swiss bankruptcy auction, undeterred by sanctions or the less-than-ideal "damaged goods" status of the pipeline.

With many investors likely steering clear due to the geopolitical chaos, Lynch appears eager to step in, arguing that US ownership of the pipeline could be a game-changer - not just for peace talks with Russia but for locking down control of Europe's energy supply.

He’s called it a "once-in-a-generation opportunity," which is certainly one way to describe buying a pipeline that’s both politically radioactive and physically broken.

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🇷🇺 Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov on Russia's use of the Oreshnik missile:

🔸 Russia would prefer if Washington had paid attention to President Vladimir Putin's statements made prior to the Oreshnik test.

🔸 There has been no contact with the current US administration following the Oreshnik test.

🔸 Russia’s military is working on mechanisms to notify Ukraine’s civilian population in the event of plans for new ballistic missile strikes.

🔸 President Putin's main message is that the reckless decisions made by the West to supply missiles to Ukraine cannot go unanswered.

🔸 Russia has demonstrated its capabilities to respond to Western actions by using ballistic missiles.

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📑Unhinged Germany goes ballistic, gears up for potential war with Russia – reports

Germany is implementing contingency protocols in preparation for a large-scale war with Russia, German media reported, citing a classified strategy paper.

Fueled by hyped allegations of a “Russia threat,” the Bundeswehr has reportedly developed comprehensive plans for responding to a potential “maneuver” by Moscow on NATO's eastern flank in its Operation Plan Germany (Operationsplan Deutschland).

Here are some details:

◻️ Identifies infrastructure facilities deemed “particularly worthy of protection for military reasons”;

◻️ Involves possibly moving 200,000 military vehicles across German territory if needed;

◻️ Details the logistics of national defense mobilization, highlighting the significant challenges Germany would face if it became a hub for “tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands” of soldiers, along with military equipment, food, and medicine that would need to be transported east to the front lines;

◻️ Advises businesses to work out plans for crisis scenarios that include stockpiling of diesel generators, securing alternate energy sources such as wind turbines, and stocking up on supplies;

◻️ Tasks territorial command centers with implementing the plan developed by government officials and military leaders, a Bundeswehr spokesperson was cited as saying.

Operation Plan Germany first surfaced following the COVID pandemic, and then earlier in the year, with German Brigadier General Thomas Hambach quoted as saying that the plan deals with issues ranging from “homeland security and the protection of defense-critical infrastructure to deployment planning and national territorial defense.” It also addresses the possibility of rapid NATO troop movements through Germany.

Russian officials ridiculed the Bundeswehr’s rich imagination at the time, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova comparing the leaked plan to a “powerful horoscope,” saying she wouldn’t be surprised if the scenario was provided to the German military by the Foreign Ministry and its notoriously Russophobic chief, Annalena Baerbock.

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❗️Russian forces have liberated the settlement of Novodmitrovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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❗️Russian forces struck a defense industry facility in Dnepropetrovsk in response to the use of long-range American and British weaponry.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's weekly briefing on the special military operation's progress:

🔸 The launch of the medium-range ballistic missile "Oreshnik" against Ukraine's defense industry facility in Dnepropetrovsk was successful, with all warheads reaching their designated targets.

🔸 The Russian Sever Battlegroup hit Ukrainian forces, inflicting losses of 2,620 militants.

🔸 Ukraine lost 3,845 militants in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

🔸 Ukrainian forces lost more than 3,210 militants in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone,

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 975 militants in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone.

🔸 Ukraine lost over 2,680 militants in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup combat zone.

🔸 The Russian Dnepr Battlegroup struck Ukrainian forces, resulting in the loss of up to 530 militants and the destruction of four field ammunition depots.

🔸 82 Ukrainian militants surrendered, with 52 in the Kursk region.

🔸 Russian air defenses shot down two Storm Shadow missiles and 642 Ukrainian drones.

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