Norway establishes NATO amphibious assault training center in the Arctic – reports

Norway established a NATO amphibious assault training center in the northern part of the country, specifically in the Sorreisa commune, located beyond the Arctic Circle, according to the Barents Observer, which cited Norwegian Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram.

The training facility in northern Norway will be able to accommodate several hundred NATO soldiers, the report states.

It is designed to train amphibious assault units from NATO countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. The report also notes that Norway does not have its own amphibious assault force.

Norway plans to invest approximately $1.45 billion in military infrastructure in the Troms region alone, where the new NATO facility will be located, the report adds.

Earlier, Alexander Bortnikov, Director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), stated that NATO was rapidly expanding its presence in the Arctic and Baltic regions.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💉 Cancer vaccine: melanoma and metastases disappear after use – Russian scientist

After the use of the cancer vaccine, which is being developed by experts at the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Ministry of Health, melanoma is dissolved, and metastases also disappear. This has been shown by preclinical studies of the drug, the center's director, Alexander Gintsburg, told Sputnik.

💬 "In preclinical studies, we see that the tumor — melanoma — simply dissolves and disappears, and not only the tumor itself, but even the metastasis disappears. I do not rule out that we will have patients even at stage 4," Gintsburg said.

He noted that, at present, plans are in place to begin testing the drug's effects on a number of other types of cancer, including lung, kidney, and pancreatic cancer. Oncology institutes are expected to be involved in this work, Gintsburg explained.

Earlier, Gintsburg told Sputnik that the cancer vaccine would be personalized — that is, it would be made individually for each patient. Artificial intelligence will assist in its development by analyzing the parameters of the tumor and generating a "blueprint" for the future drug. Based on this, specialists will produce the vaccine within a week.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Joint China-Russia patrols not directed against third countries - Defense Ministry

Joint patrols by Russia and China are not aimed at third countries and are unrelated to the current international and regional situation, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said on Sunday.

The Russian Aerospace Forces and the Chinese Air Force conducted joint patrols in the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean from November 29 to 30, Zhang reported.

💬 "We have effectively tested and enhanced the capabilities of the two countries' air forces through joint training and operations," he said in a statement on WeChat.

💬 "These joint Russian-Chinese strategic air patrols are a routine part of our annual cooperation plan. They are not directed against any third country and are not linked to the current international and regional situation," the spokesman added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Syrian air force launched a series of strikes on a convoy of militant armored vehicles on the M-5 Aleppo-Damascus highway, disrupting their advance.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔸 Syrian Army strikes terrorists near Aleppo

🔸 Trump threatens BRICS with ‘100% tariffs’ unless members abandon de-dollarization plans

🔸 Norway establishes NATO amphibious assault training center in Arctic – reports

🔸 Freudian slip? ‘EU is a bulwark against the Kremlin’ – US State Department

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⛔️Ukraine’s NATO aspirations grow dim as Russia steadily advances - reports

The Kiev regime’s prospects of joining NATO “seem even dimmer” with President-elect Donald Trump about to take office, The New York Times speculated.

Trump and his team have reportedly signaled reluctance to support Ukraine’s membership in the bloc. Throughout his campaign, the Republican repeatedly vowed to settle the Ukraine conflict if reelected and threatened to cut aid to the Volodymyr Zelensky regime.

NATO members have been wary of extending an invitation to Kiev amid concerns that the bloc would become an “active participant in the fighting,” the publication noted.

Zelensky recently floated the idea that the “hot phase” of the conflict could end if Ukraine were taken “under the NATO umbrella.” His remarks, made in an interview with British media, are seen as an indication that Kiev is “warming up” to the possibility of peace talks with Moscow, the outlet said.

As Zelensky continues his unrequited pining for NATO membership, Russia’s Armed Forces are pressing ahead with steady advances, inflicting catastrophic losses on the enemy. The situation is “precarious” for the Ukrainian troops in Donetsk and on the approaches to the strategic city of Kurakhovo in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the article also said.

Ukraine’s military, plagued by severe lack of personnel, ammunition, and plummeting morale, has been retreating from Kurakhovo, which served as a critical logistical hub for Ukrainian defenses in the region. Russia’s liberation of Kurakhovo would open the way towards the Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) rail hub and facilitate further gains.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian troops liberated the settlements of Petrovka and Ilyinka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔸 Russian forces hit the infrastructure of Ukrainian military airfields, drone production workshops and drone storage depots.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 500 soldiers in the area of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Zapad.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 100 troops in the area of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Vostok.

🔸 Russian aviation shot down 55 Ukrainian drones.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 115 soldiers in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroups Dnepr and Sever.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💵US’ trillion-dollar nuclear spending spree signals ‘current capabilities falling behind perceived adversaries’

“The US has fallen significantly behind Russia and even China for that matter in terms of delivery systems including both intermediate range ballistic missiles as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles,” former US Marine-turned geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic told Sputnik, commenting on the Pentagon’s trillion dollar plus push to modernize its nuclear arsenal, details on which were broken down by a recent Roscongress Foundation report.

“Of course, existing US nuclear arms are more than capable of deterring any attack on the US itself, and instead, the US seeks to enhance its ability to menace other nations with nuclear weapons within their own borders and within their respective region of the world,” Berletic suggested, adding that the move “represents the strategic pivot” by the Pentagon in its “desire to pivot back toward ‘great power’ competition” after “decades of ‘small wars’.”

“It is unlikely the US will catch up to either Russia or China in many areas of nuclear or even conventional weaponry,” the observer believes, arguing that “the US has confined itself both to an irrational geostrategic doctrine and a dysfunctional economic system incapable of prioritizing purpose over profit even in terms of supposed national security imperatives.”

💬 “The same sort of limitations the US faces in ramping up the production of munitions as simple as artillery shells will avail themselves as the US pursues large-scale modernization of its nuclear arsenal,” Berletic said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🐧 Which countries have territorial claims to Antarctica?

The Antarctic Treaty was signed in Washington on December 1, 1959 by the 12 countries whose scientists had been active in and around Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-1958. The treaty bans “all activity relating to mineral resources, other than scientific research.” The total number of parties to the treaty is now 57.

Nations with historical claims to the southernmost land mass:

🔸 UK: The British Antarctic Territory (BAT) is the oldest territorial claim, dating back to 1908 via the Falkland Island Dependencies Letters of Patent. The claim partially overlaps with those of Argentina and Chile.

🔸 Argentina: Its claim dates to 1946 and is founded on its presence at a base on Laurie Island in the South Orkney Islands since 1904.

🔸 Chile: The Chilean Antarctic Territory (CAT) was established in in November 1940. Its claim is based on historical documents dating back to the Spanish Empire.

🔸 France: The historical claim from 1938 was made on the basis of 1840 discoveries made by French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville.

🔸 New Zealand: Its area was originally part of the UK's claims in the Antarctic and was formalized in 1923 following a British Order-in-Council providing for the government of the Ross Dependency sector.

🔸 Norway: The 1939 claim to Dronning Maud Land was based on early exploration of the coastal area.

🔸 Australia: The Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) is the largest claim, which was formalized by the Australian Antarctic Territory Acceptance Act in 1933.

What about Russia and US?

🔸 The United States and Russia (then Soviet Union) each reserved the right to make claims in the future, without recognizing the claims of others.

🔸 Washington has three year-round research stations.

🔸 Moscow operates 10 research stations at the South Pole: Five year-round facilities and five seasonal stations. They are used for environmental and climate observations, coastal water and sea ice studies, research covering the intensity of cosmic radiation, seismic fluctuations of the lithosphere, and biodiversity.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇸🇾 President Bashar al-Assad promised to defeat terrorism in Syria regardless of who its sponsors are, saying these people do not represent the nation or state institutions.

"Terrorism understands only the language of force, and this is the language we will use to crush and destroy it, regardless of its supporters and sponsors," state news agency SANA quoted him as saying.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📑Who is Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to head the FBI?

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Kash Patel for the position of director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As the current chief of the FBI, Christopher A. Wray, still has three years of his 10-year term left, he will either have to resign or Trump will have to fire him for the nomination to happen.

What to know about Kash Patel:

⚪️Kashyap Patel, a former public defender and federal prosecutor, was a national security aide during Trump’s first term.

⚪️Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution,” Trump wrote in a social media post Saturday night.

⚪️He is an ardent advocate of “housecleaning" in the Justice Department and FBI. The Bureau’s headquarters in Washington, DC, should be dismantled and turned into a “museum of the deep state,” he said in a podcast interview in September.

⚪️Patel denounced the FBI for its 2022 search warrant of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, which resulted in charges being brought against the former president for retaining classified documents.

⚪️Patel has accused the “the deep state” of being “the most dangerous threat to our democracy.” He applied the term to political leaders, Big Tech tycoons, media, and “members of the unelected bureaucracy.”

⚪️Appearing on the “War Room” podcast hosted by Steve Bannon last year, Patel vowed to “go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media” who “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections” in 2020.

Kash Patel’s appointment would be subject to Senate confirmation. The announced pick sparked mixed reactions from lawmakers.

💬 Patel “needs to prove to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he has the right qualifications and […] will put our nation’s public safety over a political agenda focused on retribution,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons wrote on X.

💬 “He’s been on side against some of the worst abuses of the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] system. Kash Patel can help clean up all the things that we’ve seen that are wrong,” ex-Congressman Matt Gaetz said in a video message on X, adding that “Kash has guts!”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt