Keith Kellogg will visit Ukraine before January 20 - reports

Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, will travel to Kiev, Paris and Rome before Trump's inauguration, Reuters reports, citing sources with knowledge. The trip will reportedly not be aimed at active negotiations, but at fact-finding for the future administration.

Keith does not plan to visit Moscow during the trip, the sources said.

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🤨 Pentagon official uses Jedi mind trick to distract journalists from drone issue

Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder quoted Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars when a reporter asked him about drones.

"I would probably have to think back to the words of a very wise prophet Obi-Wan Kenobi, who said, 'These are not the droids ... the drones you're looking for,'" Ryder said.

In the movie, Obi-Wan Kenobi uses this phrase to fool the guards who were searching for the "droids".

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💰 Top US universities face lawsuit over wealth-based admissions

A lawsuit against 17 universities, including Georgetown University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, alleges that the schools consider applicants' family wealth and giving potential when deciding who to admit.

The new lawsuit argues that colleges should be "need blind" and not consider family income.

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✅ Trump officially secures presidency with Electoral College votes

Donald Trump officially wins the presidency as Texas electors give him 40 votes, pushing him over the required 270. Since every elector voted for the candidate, Trump won 312 to Harris's 226.

Congress will count the votes on January 6th and declare Trump and JD Vance as President and Vice President.

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❗️ Netanyahu stalling to derail Gaza deal - official

Mediators in Qatar and Egypt are now working hard to reach an agreement before Trump's inauguration, but the problem for the talks is posed by the Israeli side, Mashour Abdel Halim, a member of Hamas' political leadership, told Sputnik Arabic.

"The problem is that Netanyahu is trying to stall and impose new conditions to thwart efforts to reach an agreement. But any prisoner swap deal must lead to an end to the aggression in Gaza, the return of displaced people and a guarantee of humanitarian aid," he said.

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⚡️ Azerbaijani President: Turkiye base is not necessary in the country

Media reports about Turkiye's alleged plans to establish a military base in Azerbaijan are political speculations, as there is no need for its creation, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told VGTRK and RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

"Taking into account that such information appears from time to time in some media, I must say that there is no necessity [to establish a Turkish base]," Aliyev said.

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🗓 Starliner crew stranded on ISS will not return to Earth until March 2025

SpaceX Crew-10 with crew will go to the ISS in late March 2025, and it will also return the Starliner crew, NASA said.

🔄 Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who originally went on an 8-10 day trip to the space station via the Boeing-built "Starliar" in June, remained there due to problems with the capsule.

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CIA-linked US cybersecurity firm blacklisted for spying on Russia - top prosecutor

The Prosecutor General's Office has labeled the activities of the American non-governmental organization, Recorded Future, as undesirable. The agency reports that this cybersecurity and data analytics firm, bankrolled by US corporations, is engaged in the collection and analysis of information regarding the operations of the Russian Armed Forces.

Specializing in cyber threats, Recorded Future maintains active collaboration with the CIA and intelligence agencies from various countries.

Recorded Future offers Ukrainian specialists complimentary access to "programs used to prepare and conduct offensive information operations against Russia," the Prosecutor General's Office stated.

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❗️Two suspects in the murder of General Igor Kirillov have been apprehended, a law enforcement source told RT.

The suspects were identified through footage captured by surveillance cameras. However, the source noted that it is too early to determine whether these individuals are directly connected to the terrorist attack.

One of the suspects is believed to have delivered the booby-trapped scooter to the entrance of General Kirillov's residence.

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⚡️The perpetrator of the terrorist attack, which killed General Kirillov, was taken into custody, the FSB reported.

The bomber is a citizen of Uzbekistan, he said that he was recruited by the Ukrainian special services.

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⚡️The individual responsible for the terrorist blast that killed General Kirillov had planted the explosive device on an electric scooter.

Additional details have emerged:

▪️To conduct surveillance, the bomber rented a car-sharing vehicle and equipped it with a Wi-Fi camera. The captured footage was transmitted to the organizers of this terrorist plot in Dnepropetrovsk.

▪️Once the video confirmed that the military officers were exiting the building, the perpetrator remotely detonated the booby-trapped explosive device.

▪️In exchange for his involvement in the murder, the Ukrainian security services promised the Uzbek citizen a reward of $100,000, as well as relocation in the European Union.

▪️The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has vowed to identify and hold accountable all Ukrainian intelligence agents involved in orchestrating this act of terrorism.

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Kiev murdered Gen. Kirillov for exposing West’s hand, dirty money in Ukraine biolab scheme - ex-CIA officer

Ukraine was “absolutely behind” the assassination of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, retired CIA intelligence official Larry Johnson told Sputnik.

The head of Russia's Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops was “exposing the West's role in these biolabs throughout Ukraine,” he pointed out.

“There's a lot of money involved with that. Whenever you get a lot of money like that involved, you can guarantee that there's going to be organized criminal activity, and so I think he hurt some major financial interests and this may have well been part of payback,” said the former US intelligence official.

Kiev undeniably consulted with Western intelligence, when plotting the hit on Kirillov, Johnson maintains. He added that it was “a sophisticated operation, and it had a level of support.”
The top Russian general had regularly accused Ukraine and its US bosses of operating biolabs and orchestrating false flags using toxic substances, presenting solid evidence to substantiate the claims. However, this “incredibly incriminating” information has received virtually no coverage in the West, the former intelligence official emphasized.

He added that never in his almost 40 years of professional experience in the world of intelligence had he seen “anything comparable to the number of biological labs that were set up and operating in Ukraine with the direct participation of the United States.”

“This was a massive strategic effort. And you got to step back and say, well, what was the purpose? Why?” he pointed out.

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❗️The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has published footage of the interrogation of an Uzbek citizen, who perpetrated the terrorist attack that killed General Kirillov.

"I came to Moscow on a mission for the Ukrainian special services. I arrived, bought a scooter and a few months later the materials for the bomb arrived. I took it. Then we got everything ready and put it near General Kirillov's house. And when he came out of the house, I pressed the button. Why did I do this? For what [reason]? I was offered 100,000 dollars and a European passport."

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💥 One-way ticket to Kursk: US-made Abrams tank destroyed by Russian drones

Operators of the Crimean paratroopers' UAV unit ferreted out a US-made Abrams tank. With a precise strike from an FPV drone, the operator successfully hit and immobilized the Ukrainian tank. Following a second hit from his comrades, the vehicle was completely destroyed.

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Azerbaijan’s president slams Macron regime for illegally occupying Mayotte & New Caledonia

In a recent interview with Russia’s VGTRK and RIA Novosti, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that France unlawfully occupies Mayotte and New Caledonia, emphasizing that Baku "wholeheartedly supports disenfranchised peoples."

Aliyev highlighted the violence in New Caledonia, noting that 13 individuals were killed during the riots, over 100 were injured, and more than 1,000 were arrested. He condemned the French government's actions, stating, "The leaders of the popular protests were taken to France and are being imprisoned. This is the reality of the Macron regime."

In May, Paris accused Baku of supporting proponents of New Caledonian independence. That said, Azerbaijan has, in turn, repeatedly castigated France's meddling in Azeri internal affairs and French weapons supplies to Armenia.

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❗️Russian troops liberated the settlements of Trudovoye and Starye Terny in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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