Murder case of Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley to be tried behind closed doors — lawyer to Sputnik
 
The trial in this case begins today; the defendants in the case are four Russian soldiers, a lawyer defending the interests of the injured party told Sputnik.
 
According to the investigation, on April 8, Bentley was physically assaulted and tortured, resulting in his death. On the same day, a car with Bentley's body was blown up with a bomb.
 
The correspondent went missing in mid-April and was subsequently confirmed to have been murdered. Russia's Investigative Committee has completed the preliminary investigation into Bentley's homicide and has identified the suspects.
 
Bentley joined the DPR militia in 2014. He said that he went to Donbass because he admired the courage and steadfastness of the local population. Bentley was also a recipient of DPR awards.

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🇷🇺🪖 Key statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:
 
◻️ Ukrainian losses in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's area of responsibility amounted to 515 militants, a tank and a Bradley armored vehicle;
 
◻️ The Russian Zapad Battlegroup repelled six counterattacks; Ukrainian forces lost up to 560 servicemen and a Leopard tank;
 
◻️ Ukrainian forces lost up to 330 soldiers in the area of responsibility of the Russian Yug Battlegroup;
 
◻️ Russian air defense systems struck Ukranian aerodromes and a drone production site;
 
◻️ Ukrainian losses in the Russian Dnepr and Sever Battlegroups' area of responsibility amounted to 110 militants.

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🇸🇾 Russia is closely monitoring what is happening in Syria and is in constant dialogue with Damascus, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“Depending on the assessment of the situation, it will be possible to talk about the degree of assistance that is necessary for the Syrian authorities to cope with the militants and eliminate this threat,” Peskov added.

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Russian FM Sergey Lavrov has arrived at the OSCE Foreign Ministers Meeting in Malta, Sputnik correspondent reports

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🪽Gain wings and go
 
Indian student Medhansh Trivedi has designed a unique drone capable of supporting a person weighing up to 80 kg, over a distance up to 4 km, and at a speed up to 60 km/h. He spent three months and about 350.000 rupees on its development.
 
In the future, Medhansh plans to use the drone to develop air taxis and improve transportation in agriculture.

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❗️ Ukrainian Colonel Pavlo Rozlach led strikes on Russia's Kursk region with cluster munitions containing poisonous substances of suffocating effect, the Russian Investigative Committee has said.

A criminal case has been opened against him. The Investigative Committee reported that the shelling took place in August - as a result, at least 20 people were injured. Rozlach has been placed on the international wanted list.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 At the initiative of the Russian side, a telephone conversation took place on November 27 between the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov and his US counterpart Charles Brown.

During the conversation, the United States was informed about exercises in the eastern Mediterranean Sea with shooting and launching of high-precision missiles.

The purpose of Gerasimov's conversation with Brown was to prevent incidents involving US and NATO ships near the area where Russian military exercises are taking place, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

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🎥🎥 Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds presser after OSCE Ministerial meeting

👉 Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

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Key statements of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the presser after OSCE ministerial meeting:
 
◻️ Any initiatives for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine should take into account both security issues and human rights concerns
 
◻️ Fantasies about sending foreign troops to Ukraine only aggravate the situation; their initiators do not hear Putin's warnings
 
◻️ Russia does not want to attack anyone

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❗️Key statements by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the possible appearance of nuclear weapons in Ukraine:

▪️Kiev's statements, which can be interpreted as a request to revise Ukraine's non-nuclear status, cannot but cause concern;

▪️Kiev's acquisition of nuclear weapons would contradict Ukraine's commitments under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and violate the non-proliferation regime;

▪️Russia is not threatening with nuclear weapons, but is warning about the risks of a direct military clash between nuclear powers in the context of the crisis in Ukraine;

▪️If Ukraine receives nuclear weapons, this will be a violation of the obligations under the NPT of those who transfer them to it;

▪️Any insinuations about Russia's alleged violation of the Budapest Memorandum's obligations distort its content and meaning.

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❗️Ukrainian losses in Russia's Kursk region amounted to more than 300 soldiers, three tanks and three infantry fighting vehicles over the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

In total, during the military operation in the Kursk region, Ukrainian losses have amounted to more than 38,235 militants and 232 tanks.

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🇵🇱❌ Russia is closing Poland's Consulate General in St. Petersburg in response to the closure of its own consulate in Poznan, Russia's Foreign Ministry has said.

Moscow handed Warsaw a note on December 5 about the closure that takes affect on January 10.

In addition, Russia declares three diplomatic employees of this consulate general persona non grata - they must leave the country.

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South Korean president could be sentenced to death, suspected in insurrection
 
The South Korean police have launched an investigation into the country's president, Yoon Suk-yeol, on suspicion of insurrection, a crime that transcends presidential immunity and can be punished with the death penalty.
 
The opposition also demanded that the investigation be carried out on the same charge against the ex-Minister of Defense, as well as the chief of staff of the army and the head of the Interior Ministry.

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⚡️🚨ORESHNIK: THE ULTIMATE WEAPON ON EVERYONE’S MIND – PUTIN TALKS THE TRUTH YOU NEED TO HEAR

The world is buzzing: is Russia's Oreshnik missile unstoppable? Can it break through any defense system? What happens when it strikes? And can it reach the US?

Putin has the answers to the questions everyone’s asking. Ready to learn the truth?👇

0:02 Has Russia unveiled a weapon powerful enough to change global warfare?

0:35 What makes Oreshnik so deadly?

1:20 Can US air defenses even touch Oreshnik? Is there any hope to stop It?

1:47 What could survive a direct hit from Oreshnik? Could anything?

2:11 Could Oreshnik overwhelm even the most secure bunkers?

3:16 How many Oreshnik missiles does Russia have? Are they ready to strike?

3:42 Do any countries, including the US, have a weapon that can match Oreshnik?

3:52 When and where did Russia first test Oreshnik?

4:55 Is Russia mass-producing Oreshnik? What targets could be next?

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🇵🇰 How much oil and gas does Pakistan have?

Islamabad is ready to see Russian companies explore Pakistani oil and gas fields, it's Minister of Energy Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari tells Sputnik.

Let’s delve into how much oil and gas this South Asian nation possesses.

Pakistan's certified oil and gas reserves increased by 26% and 2%, respectively, by the end of the 2024 financial year, according to official data released by the country’s Petroleum Information Service.

🔸Pakistan’s crude oil reserves reached 243 million barrels by mid-2024.

🔸The country’s gas reserves amounted to 18.47 trillion cubic feet within the same period, the service’s estimates showed.

🔸The 50-million-barrel increase in oil production and the 1.1-trillion-cubic-feet growth in gas reserves compared to last year is widely attributed to “effective exploration” endorsed by Pakistan’s Special Investment Facilitation Council.

As a result, Pakistan discovered a massive deposit of oil and natural gas within its territorial waters in September, in what media claim constitutes the fourth-largest oil and gas reserves in the world and may “change the country’s destiny.”

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❗️🇫🇷 French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has submitted his resignation letter to President Emmanuel Macron but he will remain in office until a new prime minister is appointed. The French president has accepted the letter, according to The Elysee Palace.

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Muhammad becomes most popular baby boy name in England and Wales 🚼

The latest data from the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed the top 100 baby names in England and Wales for 2023, and there’s a major shift at the top of the boys’ list. Muhammad has officially overtaken Noah to become the most popular name for baby boys.

More than 4,600 babies were named Muhammad in the past year, marking an increase of almost 500 compared to the previous year.

In late November, UK PM Keir Starmer accused the Conservatives of running an “open borders experiment” after new figures showed that net migration to the UK hit a record high of nearly 1 million during the period covering Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s administrations.

However, Starmer himself faced criticism in July for failing to handle a crisis that triggered a wave of violent riots in Southport.

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‘This is genocide’: Amnesty International accuses Israel of deliberately destroying Palestinians in Gaza

Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip amounts to genocide against the Palestinian people, Amnesty International concludes in a just-released report. Tel Aviv has rejected the accusations.

The London-based human rights group obtained “sufficient evidence” that:

◾️ The Jewish state unleashed “hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity".

◾️ Israel “committed prohibited acts under the [1948] Genocide Convention, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction” with the “specific intent to destroy Palestinians” in the area.

◾️ The Israeli military staged “direct deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructures where there was no Hamas presence or any other military objectives, the use of heavy explosive weapons with a wide radius of destruction in densely populated residential areas.”

Commenting on the report, Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement that the group’s “damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now."

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💥 Frontal attack

Russia's Sever Battlegroup's first-person view drone was highly accurate in destroying a Ukranian tank in Russia’s border region of Kursk.

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