🌏High time to build new Eurasian security system

Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin has called for building a new, fairer security system and economic cooperation on the Eurasian continent during his New Year address.

"A lot has been done, but more needs to be done in the future. I am sure that the unfolding crises in the world and global turbulence in general should unite our countries and peoples in the face of common challenges and threats, give an impetus to the development and deepening of cooperation in all directions. The time has come to jointly build a new, fairer system of security and economic cooperation on the Eurasian continent," Kopyrkin said.

The ambassador praised Russian-Armenian relations, noting that despite challenges, efforts have strengthened their strategic partnership. He highlighted ongoing dialogue at all levels and recalled recent agreements signed during an intergovernmental meeting in December.

Kopyrkin also emphasized Russia's role in promoting stability in the South Caucasus and its efforts to normalize Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, including negotiations during the BRICS Summit in Kazan. He reiterated Russia's commitment to helping Armenia and Azerbaijan reach agreements to unblock regional transportation routes.

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Yemen's Houthis from the Ansar Allah movement launched a hypersonic ballistic missile at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, a spokesman for the rebels' armed forces, Yahya Saria, has said.

"The Yemeni armed forces' missile forces carried out a military operation, attacking Ben Gurion Airport in the occupied Jaffa area with a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile," said the movement's spokesman, whose statement was broadcast by the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV channel.

According to Saria, the Houthis also attacked a power plant in the Jerusalem area with a Zulfiqar ballistic missile. "The Palestine-2 and Zulfiqar missiles successfully hit their targets," he added.

The operations on occupied Yaffa coincided with another joint operation targeting the aircraft carrier "USS Harry Truman," according to Yemeni media.

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Russia, China and North Korea refuse to bow to Western pressure – Part 1👉Part 2

Agreements between Russia, North Korea and China show that they're not going to fall apart over sanctions or bow to pressure from the US, EU or UK, and Russia will come out stronger working with these countries, Thomas W. Pauken II, a veteran China, trade and economics expert, tells Sputnik.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea in June and held talks with his counterpart Kim Jong Un, which resulted in them signing the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty.

How North Korea exposed the weakness of the ‘mighty’ West

🟠The agreement Moscow and Pyongyang signed this year led the West to “see North Korea somehow coming out stronger,” Pauken says, with Russia also being perceived as benefitting from “this type of comprehensive strategic partnership.”

🟠The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and North Korea ended up exposing the weakness of the West which started “worrying about a small country,” Pauken stresses.

“This overreaction [of the West] just makes me very curious. And it exposes the Western side [as being] very weak for overreacting to this type of partnership they have,” Pauken notes.

“Any time the US hears about Russia gaining strength or winning partnerships with other countries, well, of course they're going to get nervous,” he adds.

Part 1👉Part 2

#2024Overview

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Russia, China and North Korea refuse to bow to Western pressure – Part 2 👉Part 1

President Vladimir Putin visited China in May to meet Xi Jinping to further strengthen strategic relations between Moscow and Beijing.

🇷🇺🇨🇳Russia and China: Stronger together

🟠The fact that China refused to abandon Russia and side with the West in the Ukrainian conflict “is a good sign for Russia,” Thomas W. Pauken II, a veteran China, trade and economics expert, tells Sputnik.

🟠Russia-China trade should get stronger considering the fact that China may find itself embroiled in major trade wars while Europe is “getting involved in trade protectionism and putting some higher tariffs on Chinese imports,” Pauken says.

What’s next?

Pauken forecasts that India may draw closer to China and Russia, with New Delhi and Beijing holding discussions on their bilateral border issues ostensibly being the first sign of this growing rapport. He points out that this discussion already yielded “a better understanding” between the parties involved.

“If that happens next year, that's actually a bigger story than if North Koreans dropped comprehensive strategic partnerships. That is a huge story. That is something really to look at if it indeed happens,” he muses.

Part 2 👉Part 1

#2024Overview

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Several airstrikes have hit the Yemeni Defense Ministry of the Houthi-led government in center of the capital of Sanaa, a local government source told Sputnik.

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🌌 Flash in the night: Who will see the Northern Lights on New Year’s Eve?

Due to solar flashes, the Northern Lights are expected to light up the areas where this natural phenomenon is not normally spotted, including part of Russia, a raft of US states and northern Europe. Let’s find out where exactly these mesmerizing ribbons of light will appear just in time for the New Year.

Russia

🇷🇺There’s a chance for stargazers to enjoy the Northern Lights, also known as the aurora borealis, on the Crimean Peninsula on New Year’s Eve, astronomers say. Forecasters have meanwhile warned that cloudy weather will most likely prevent citizens of Moscow and the Moscow region from tracking the lights.

🇷🇺On the whole, the lights are not uncommon in a whole array of areas in northern Russia, such as Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, the Republic of Karelia, the Republic of Komi, Yakutia (the Republic of Sakha), as well as the Chukotka and Nenets Autonomous Regions.

Europe

🌍The aurora borealis is expected to be visible across Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland “in the early part of the night," the Met Office said in a statement.

🌍Apart from the UK, the New Year's Eve’s Northern Lights may also be spotted in Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Greenland.

US

🇺🇸The “bright and active” Northern Lights will likely be visible in at least 17 US states on December 31, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts.

🇺🇸These include Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

What is the aurora borealis?

The lights, which range in color from green to pink and scarlet, typically occur when the Sun emits huge clouds of particles called “coronal mass ejections,” which hit the Earth's magnetic field and lead to a geomagnetic storm. If the storm is strong, the Northern Lights become visible.

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📹Russian troops use an FPV drone to destroy a camouflaged mortar position of the Ukrainian forces in Sumy region

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Wikipedia WOKEpedia: Co-founder of the site has lost its neutrality
 

"Wikipedia made a real effort at neutrality for, I would say, its first five years or so, and then it began a long, slow slide into what I would call leftist propaganda," Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger said.

 
Sanger added that the site has followed the MSM and gradually gotten rid of almost all conservative news sources as sources for their articles.
 

"So as the news media has shifted and as the establishment, frankly, has shifted more to the left, the content of Wikipedia has followed suit," he concluded.

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🇨🇳⛄️🧊Kingdom of snow and ice: International exhibition of snow sculptures opens in Harbin, China
 
On the territory of the park, craftsmen have placed more than 260 snow sculptures and installations on 1.5 million square meters in six themed landscape zones.
 
It took 150,000 cubic meters of snow to create the figures, which became a new record for the exhibition.

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Scott Ritter: ‘US should get the hell out of Ukraine’ to resolve the conflict

The best option that US President-elect Donald Trump can use to help resolve the conflict in Ukraine is to curtail all American activities there, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter has told the Dialogue Works YouTube channel.

“Trump has to understand and somebody really needs to sit down and whisper to him that the best way to solve this thing is to shut up and just get the hell out of there [Ukraine] with minimal fuss,” Ritter pointed out.

He said that Trump needs to “jettison this Ukrainian problem that has cost America hundreds of billions of dollars and weakened the US globally.”

Referring to the Ukraine conflict, the ex-US Marine Corps intelligence officer argued that “nothing's going to stop Russia from winning this [proxy] war [with NATO] and that's the hard truth that Donald Trump's going to have to confront.”

The remarks come after US media reported that the Kiev regime is "starting to believe" that the Ukraine conflict may end in 2025 amid more active discussions of peace settlement after Trump’s election as US president.

Trump, for his part, earlier told reporters that Volodymyr Zelensky should be prepared to make a deal to end the conflict, and that Trump’s team is going to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky about ending the conflict.

The US has provided the Zelensky regime with a whopping $61.4 billion in military assistance since the start of the special military operation – aid that Moscow warns will only add to prolonging the conflict and result in more casualties among Ukrainian soldiers.

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Mysterious ‘stealth jets’ and massive assault ships: China shows off its new weapons PART 1 👉 PART 2

Beijing has reminded the world this month that its armed forces are not just some of the most numerically superior in the world but also have cutting-edge military tech at their disposal.

Sixth-generation jets?

Images of two different mysterious aircraft flying in Chinese skies have emerged on social media this month, raising speculations that these might have been China’s new sixth-generation combat aircraft.

One of these planes, dubbed J-36 by the public, is a tailless flying wing aircraft that has an estimated length of around 22 meters and a wingspan of around 20 meters and appears to be powered by three engines.

The other is also a tailless plane that, unlike the first, features a design similar to a lambda-wing and is powered by two engines.

These, however, are merely observations based on videos of these aircraft in flight and virtually nothing is known about their actual capabilities.

KJ-3000

In December, China’s new KJ-3000 early warning aircraft performed its first flight. KJ-3000 has a payload of 66 tons, which is 16 more than its predecessor, the KJ-2000, and has equipment capable of detecting both conventional and stealth aircraft.

Its onboard communications and control equipment allow the KJ-3000 to operate as an airborne command center and coordinate operations of Chinese ground forces, air force and navy.

Sichuan

CNS Sichuan is China’s first Type 076 next-generation assault ship and the largest vessel of this class in the country. It was launched in Shanghai last week.

With a displacement of 40,000 metric tons, Sichuan is capable of ferrying troops, helicopters, amphibious landing craft and even fixed-wing aircraft wherever Beijing desires.

The ship is expected to be fitted with an electromagnetic catapult that would allow it to launch aircraft, China Daily notes, also quoting an unnamed Chinese shipbuilding researcher as saying that “it is highly likely that the ship will carry large combat drones and act like a 'lightweight aircraft carrier'.”

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China’s military buildup necessary to ‘confront US aggression’ PART 2 👉 PART 1

The speed at which this vessel was constructed, going “from a proposal in 2020 to afloat at the end of 2024,” highlights the “tremendously faster construction rates of Chinese warships versus their American counterparts,” notes veteran geopolitical analyst and former Marine Brian Berletic.

“America class amphibious assault ships began construction in 2008 with the first of its class commissioned in 2014 and as of late 2024 only 2 have been completed,” Berletic tells Sputnik. “While the Type 076 is entirely new, the Type 075 amphibious assault ship class began construction in 2018 with three already completed.”

The fact that Type 76 is likely going to operate drones “represents another step in the direction of larger quantities of expendable systems reflecting the reality of modern warfare against peer adversaries,” he adds.

Unlike the United States which “prioritizes the projection of military power around the globe,” China’s military “has been shaped by the prioritization of China’s territorial defense,” Berletic notes.

“The building of a powerful missile, naval, and air forces by China is required to both deter US encroachment and confront US aggression. China’s ability to outbuild the US in terms of aircraft, ships, and missiles ensures any conflict that erupts will end in China’s favor with the hope that US policymakers will realize this even before fighting begins,” he argues.

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Israel carried 136 attacks on hospitals in the Gaza Strip in the nine months since the conflict began, according to a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on attacks on hospitals in Gaza.

"Between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024, OHCHR documented strikes on at least 27 of the 38 hospitals in Gaza, and strikes on an additional 12 other medical facilities (clinics), totalling 136 strikes. These strikes placed patients, medical staff and internally displaced persons at significant risk of death and injury," the report says.

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Western media hint at possible Ukrainian concessions in peace talks

Russia and Ukraine may clinch a peace deal in 2025, which could envisage Moscow retaining territories it earlier liberated, the Financial Times has reported.

“[Under the possible deal] Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy will agree to de facto but not de jure Russian control of the land it currently occupies, with some land swaps, in return for European security guarantees with US support, while Ukraine’s NATO accession is ultimately put on ice. [Russian President] Vladimir Putin will calculate that European resolve will eventually falter,” according to the newspaper.

This was echoed by Germany's Die Welt weekly, which insisted that territorial concessions to Russia are the only option for the Kiev regime in terms of peace negotiations.

“Ukraine is significantly weakened militarily: troop morale is falling and the number of deserters is rising. […] Volodymyr Zelensky would be forced to give up Ukrainian territory for a ceasefire [talks]”, Die Welt pointed out.

This followed US President-elect Donald Trump arguing that Zelensky would like to "make a deal" to end the conflict in Ukraine. Putin, for his part, previously put forward initiatives for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, which, in particular, stipulate that Moscow will immediately cease fire and declare its readiness for negotiations after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the territory of Russia's new regions.

Kiev should also declare that it is abandoning its intention to join NATO and should carry out demilitarization and de-Nazification, as well as accept a neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status. Plus, the West’s anti-Russian sanctions must be lifted, Putin underscored.

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Fuel prices in Europe surge amid looming end to Russian gas transit through Ukraine

Gas prices in Europe have shot up to $536 per 1,000 cubic meters during ICE trading, the highest since November 27, 2023, amid expectations of halted Russian gas transit through Ukraine starting January 1. Prices rose by over 4% since the day's start.

February futures at the Dutch TTF hub exceeded $536 per 1,000 cubic meters (€50 per MWh).

The current transit agreement, allowing the transport of 40 billion cubic meters annually through Ukraine, expires on January 1. Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that no new agreement would be signed before the New Year, and Kiev announced plans to halt Russian gas transit at 8:00 a.m. Moscow time on January 1.

Ukraine, however, is open to resuming transit upon the European Commission's request, provided it is non-Russian gas. Putin suggested contracts with third-party suppliers, including Turkish, Hungarian, Slovak, or Azerbaijani companies.

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Hezbollah warns of renewed action if Israel stays in southern Lebanon post-ceasefire

Hezbollah Political Council Deputy Chief Mahmoud Komati warned that the group would resume action after the 60-day ceasefire with Israel if its forces remain in southern Lebanon, declaring, "day 61 will be different."

In an interview with Al Manar TV, Komati stressed that Israel's withdrawal is essential to avoid further conflict.

As of day 34 of the ceasefire, signed on November 27, the agreement requires Israel to withdraw, Hezbollah to move north of the Litani River, and 5,000 Lebanese Army troops to ensure compliance.

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Russian FPV drones a 'huge problem' for Ukraine

Kiev's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov has admitted that Russia's fiber-optic FPV drones are a "huge problem" for Ukraine's forces, as they cannot be countered using electronic warfare. He noted that efforts are underway to find a technological solution to counter these drones, which become a major trend in 2024.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to increase drone production nearly tenfold, aiming for 1.4 million units. He emphasized the need to fully meet the military’s demand for drones by ramping up production, improving technical specifications, and modernizing designs based on combat experience.

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2024 exposed: Lies on Biden’s pardon, Trump’s win, and Ukraine

Irish journalist Chay Bowes has summarized 2024 for the Western public on social media, accusing elites of lying to people about Hunter Biden’s pardon, Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden’s health, Donald Trump’s election win, and Ukraine’s “victory.”

Hunter Biden faced criminal charges for failing to declare previous drug use when purchasing a firearm, which legally disqualified him from owning a gun. Despite earlier promises to accept the court's decision and not pardon his son, President Joe Biden signed a pardon in December. President-elect Donald Trump called the move an abuse of justice. Reports suggested Biden leaned toward the pardon after Trump’s victory in the November 5 election.

The US presidential election saw Trump defeat Democratic candidate Kamala Harris early in the night, winning all key swing states. Despite earlier skepticism, Trump’s victory was confirmed by major news outlets.

Meanwhile, claims about the effectiveness of Western sanctions on Russia increasingly diverged from reality. Russia consistently stated it would withstand pressure and criticized the West for failing to acknowledge the sanctions' failure. Russian President Vladimir Putin argued that the sanctions harmed the global economy and aimed to worsen life for millions of people.

Putin also addressed personal attacks from the West, dismissing them as a sign of weakness. Regarding Ukraine, he reiterated Moscow’s readiness for unconditional dialogue while highlighting Kiev's reliance on Western financial support and its inability to shift the battlefield situation.

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