❗️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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Trump takes credit for Bitcoin breakthrough

The US president-elect, who has repeatedly expressed support for cryptocurrencies, congratulated Bitcoin owners on its record growth, as well as taking credit for the boom.

"Congratulations, Bitcoiners!!! $100,000!!!! You're welcome!!! Together, we will make America Great Again!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.

Earlier, the Republican announced that he would nominate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is expected to make the regulator's policy more friendly towards cryptocurrencies in comparison with the outgoing Biden administration.

Shortly after Trump's statement, Bitcoin updated its historical maximum and its value now exceeds $100,000.

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❗️Hezbollah to support Syria in fight against terrorists, movement leader has said.

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💰 Trump’s choices for top government positions look more like a billionaires’ club

It appears that many of the people tapped by US President-elect Donald Trump for his upcoming administration have at least one thing in common – they are rich. Filthy rich.

▪️Elon Musk, SpaceX founder and X owner who will lead Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has a net worth of over $335 billion.

▪️The net worth of Trump’s pick for the NASA administrator, Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman, is estimated at $1.9 billion.

▪️Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur who also was tapped for DOGE, has approximately $1 billion to his name.

▪️Businessman and former Soros Fund Management partner Scott Bessent, nominated for Treasury secretary, also has a net worth of $1 billion.

▪️The family of Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law and likely future US ambassador to France, has a net worth of $7.1 billion.

▪️World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon, Trump’s choice for secretary of education, has a net worth of about $3.2 billion together with her husband Vince McMahon with whom she is currently separated.

▪️The net worth of financier Howard Lutnick, who may become the next secretary of commerce, has been estimated by US media to be at least $2.5 billion, and possibly even more.

The combined net worth of the Trump 2.0 administration has been estimated by media outlets such as the New York magazine at over $340 billion – a massive increase from the $6 billion his previous cabinet was worth.

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🇫🇷 The resonant resignation of the French prime minister was preceded on Thursday by mass demonstrations across the country, including in Paris, Sputnik's correspondent reports.

Thousands of public sector workers took to the streets in the capital – they are unhappy with the government’s “austerity” budget, which was expected to be adopted for 2025. According to media reports, employees are complaining about low salaries and layoffs.

The resignation of Barnier and the cabinet could have eased the situation – this means that instead of the proposed 2025 budget, the current conditions will continue to apply.

But de facto little has changed – employees are still wary of the government’s policies and are afraid that things will only get worse. The demonstrators chanted “Macron resign!” and the slogans on their posters expressed contempt for the country’s leadership.

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📑 Budapest Memorandum row: much ado about nothing?

On December 5, 1994, Russia, Ukraine, the US, and the UK signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances to Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine’s return of its nuclear weapons to Russia. The Zelensky regime has repeatedly invoked the memorandum to urge the US and its NATO allies to provide more military assistance, while the West and Ukraine regularly accuse Russia of breaching the agreement.

What does the memorandum say, and why are Western arguments hypocritical?


Is the document legally binding?

✍️ Western perspective: Yes, it is legally binding under the 1969 Vienna Convention and is subject to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
🇷🇺 Russian Perspective: It was never ratified by the parties; the US and Russia do not recognize the court's jurisdiction.


Did it provide security and territorial integrity "guarantees"?

✍️ Western Perspective: It provided significant, politically binding security assurances.
🇷🇺 Russian Perspective: The document's language is vague and does not explicitly mention "guarantees"; instead, it "reaffirms" "commitments" and "obligations."


Could Ukraine have retained the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal?

✍️ Western Perspective: Ukraine agreed to relinquish it but could have remained a nuclear state.
🇷🇺 Russian Perspective: Under Ukraine's Declaration of Sovereignty of 1990, it is non-nuclear; both the US and Russia sought to remove nuclear weapons from Ukraine.


Did Russia violate the Budapest Memorandum?

✍️ Western Perspective: Yes, twice, in 2014 and 2022.
🇷🇺 Russian Perspective: No, in both cases, Moscow acted within the UN Charter’s framework, including as regards the rights of peoples to self-determination and self-defense.

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