🗣‘This will have serious consequences for all of us in the EU’ – Slovak PM

With Ukraine's Naftogaz contract for Russian gas transit having expired, Gazprom halted supplies on January 1. Slovakia faces a potential 500-million-euro annual loss in transit fees due to alternative routes.

In response, PM Robert Fico has warned of cutting energy supplies to Ukraine unless a solution is reached.

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📹Most festive traffic violation: Father Frost caught red-handed

In a hilariously festive twist, Father Frost (Russian Santa Claus) was spotted cruising through downtown in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk!

Adorned with twinkling lights and ornaments, the "tree-mobile" spread holiday cheer and chuckles among passersby. However, local traffic authorities weren’t quite as jolly, raising eyebrows at this merry motorist's creative transport choice.

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🔍Suspect in Las Vegas explosion near Trump Tower identified as former US army veteran

Police have identified the driver behind the explosion near Trump Tower in Las Vegas as 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, according to reports from KTNV-TV.

Livelsberger, who detonated a Tesla Cybertruck in the incident, is believed to have served in the US Army for 10 years.

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🔊The disruption of Russian gas supplies through Ukraine weakens Europe's economic potential and has a profoundly negative effect on living standards, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

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Main statements by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

🔊Transit halt: Ukraine refused to renew contracts with Gazprom and stopped transit of Russian gas to Europe as of January 1, 2025.

🔊Impact on Europe: The halt weakens Europe's economic potential and severely impacts the living standards of European citizens.

🔊Gazprom's compliance: Despite fulfilling its contractual obligations, Gazprom's gas supply was stopped due to Kiev's decision.

🔊Geopolitical motivation: The decision is geopolitical, with the United States benefiting from the redistribution of energy markets.

🔊Germany's economic struggles: Germany, Europe's largest economy, has suffered significant industrial losses due to higher gas prices following the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines.

🔊Broader EU impact: Other European Union nations are now expected to face economic hardship as part of the fallout.

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❗️The Russian Armed Forces shot down a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 fighter jet, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian MoD daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:    

▪️Ukraine lost up to 240 servicemen in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost over 160 troops in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 130 soldiers in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr and Sever.

▪️Russian air defence systems shot down six HIMARS missiles and 97 Ukrainian drones.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 210 servicemen in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

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🛰Trailblazer in space: Soviet Luna 1 pioneering Sun orbit

On January 2, 1959, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 made history as the first man-made object to escape Earth’s gravity and orbit the Sun.

What was the Luna 1?

The sphere-shaped spacecraft was equipped with mercury-oxide batteries, silver-zinc accumulators, four antennas, radio equipment, a tracking transmitter, and telemetry systems.

What was its mission?

Luna 1 was designed to impact on the Moon and carried a suite of scientific instruments:

📍Magnetometer: Measured magnetic fields
📍Micrometeorite Detectors: Gathered data on small particles
📍Ion Traps: Measured solar wind and plasma
📍Geiger and Scintillation Counters: Monitored cosmic radiation levels

The Vostok-L 8K72 rocket launched Luna 1 from the USSR’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. To break free of Earth’s gravity, the rocket was fitted with a third stage, Block E, which also released a glowing sodium cloud visible from Earth to study gas behavior in outer space.

What happened?

A delay in the Block E engine burn caused Luna 1 to miss its intended target, the Moon. Instead, it flew past the Moon and entered a heliocentric orbit around the Sun, becoming a pioneer in interplanetary exploration.

Luna 1’s legacy:

📍Delivered key data on Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, held by the planet’s magnetic field.
📍Proved the Moon lacks a detectable magnetic field.
📍Measured solar wind properties.
📍Paved the way for the Luna 2 mission, which became the first spacecraft to impact on the Moon’s surface on September 14, 1959.

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🔍Investigation launched after Jeju Air crash in South Korea

South Korean authorities conducted a search at the airport where a Jeju Air plane recently crashed, according to Yonhap News Agency. A case has been opened on suspicion of negligence resulting in loss of life.

Investigators are reportedly looking for documents and recordings of communications between air traffic controllers and the plane's pilots as part of the ongoing investigation. More details are expected as the case unfolds.

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🎤President-elect Donald Trump to host pre-inauguration rally in Washington

Trump is set to hold a high-profile rally in Washington, D.C., on the eve of his inauguration on January 20.

The event will take place at the Capital One Arena, home to the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals, which boasts a seating capacity of around 20,000 attendees, CBS News reported.

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Turkish prosecutor seeks 7.5 to 15 years for five foreigners linked to Crocus terror attack

The Istanbul prosecutor is demanding prison sentences ranging from seven-and-half to 15 years for five foreigners arrested over the March 2024 Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in Russia, the Anadolu Agency reports.

The suspects, charged with membership in ISIS*, were named as Hofizjon Usmonov, Muteullo Usoev, Rahmatullo Salikov, Muhammadrahim Fayzov and Hamza Muhammed.

The suspects reportedly gave instructions to the Crocus attackers, promising them 800,000 rubles and new passports. They were living in an apartment on the outskirts of Istanbul.

*a terrorist organization banned in Russia

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🇨🇳 China imposes export controls on 28 US firms

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce added 28 US companies to its export control list on Thursday, banning the sale of dual-use goods to them.

The ministry stated that the restrictions, effective from January 2, were designed to safeguard national security and interests, as well as fulfill international nonproliferation obligations. It also mandated the immediate cessation of any ongoing export activities related to these entities.

In December, the ministry revealed that Beijing had tightened export controls on dual-use items to the United States, including a ban on the export of gallium, germanium, antimony, and superhard materials.

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💸Swindling, scam and war racket: West turned Ukraine into a cesspit of corruption

Ukraine has become a cesspit of corruption and crime under NATO’s puppet leader Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the Strategic Culture Foundation.

The think tank noted that the failed state:

▪️is a center for swindling, operating global scam phone networks;
▪️launders money through lucrative NATO arms deals;
▪️holds Europe “hostage without gas.”

While propping up Zelensky, who has no mandate to continue in office, European “puppets of Western imperialism” could not care less that anti-Russia sanctions have backfired, triggering crippling energy costs and tanking their own economies.

📍New twist: Zelensky has effectively shut off decades-old Ukrainian transit land pipes – the last supply route to Europe for Russian gas.

Ukraine’s refusal to extend the contract between Naftogaz and Russia’s Gazprom was slammed as a brazen “act of sabotage” supported by Europe’s leaders, who are “deranged by Russophobia.”

📍What will happen next: Europeans will face more soaring energy costs as American exporters rejoice at the prospect of lucrative profits.

Only European leaders such as Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have called out this scam.

Since the West has failed to inflict “a strategic defeat” on Russia, Zelensky has for more human cannon fodder to be sent to fuel this “transnational imperialist scam,” the think tank warned.

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🛰🛰🛰🛰 Year of turmoil: 2024’s bitter lessons for the Middle East (PART 1 👉PART 2)

2024 proved the old axiom that the Middle East is the perpetual home of instability and strife, with a series of militia vs. state, state vs. state and bloc vs. bloc conflicts plaguing the region, virtually all of them involving Israel.

⚔️Israel vs. Hamas

The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7, 2023, continued through 2024, with ceasefire talks stalled. The war has claimed over 45,000 mostly civilian lives in Gaza and caused hundreds of IDF casualties.

“I think that the coming year will be a year where the Israeli regime will face a world which sees it as increasingly illegitimate because of its genocidal behavior and its genocide in Gaza,” renowned Iranian-American political analyst Mohammad Marandi told Sputnik.

“It’s been going on for almost 15 months now, and the West fully supports it. They continue to provide weapons, ammunition, political cover and media support for these outrageous and barbaric attacks,” Marandi said.

⚔️Israel vs. Hezbollah

2024 saw Israel escalate its conflict with Hezbollah, launching a massive bombing campaign and ground incursion in southern Lebanon, targeting militia leaders with boobytrapped electronics and killing Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a September airstrike.

“It reminds me [of the situation] after the Beirut port explosion which took place in August 2020,” Beirut-based political analyst Yeghia Tashjian recalled to Sputnik about the pager attacks. “There was panic in the streets. People were not aware of what had happened until late in the night.”

“This was not just targeted assassinations, but preparation for a war. First they started with a psychological attack, intelligence penetration, and then it was all-out war. Beirut’s southern suburb was almost destroyed. In south Lebanon, the border villages were completely destroyed,” Tashjian said.

The Israeli invasion, which started on October 1 and paused with a ceasefire on November 26, resulted in over 2,700 Lebanese deaths (mostly civilians), 60-95 Israeli troops killed, 42 UN peacekeepers wounded, and up to 1.4 million Lebanese displaced.

#2024Overview

👉PART 2

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🛰🛰🛰🛰 2024 in the Middle East: a region in turmoil (PART 2 👉PART 1)

⚔️Israel vs. Iran

The past year saw the first-ever direct clash between Iran and Israel, with an attack on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus on April 1, 2024 triggering a massive Iranian drone and missile response, and the murder of Hezbollah, Hamas and IRGC figures later in the year prompting a second retaliatory attack in October, with dozens of missiles finding their targets at Israeli military bases and intel sites.

“At this stage, we are waiting for the Iranians to retaliate once again. The conflict between [Iran and] the Israeli regime and the United States supporting it has been going on for many years. But the direct and open strikes on Iran began with the bombing of the Iranian Embassy,” Dr. Marandi said.

⚔️Israel vs. Houthis

2024 also saw the continuation and expansion of the David vs. Goliath struggle between Israel and Yemen’s Houthi fighters, whose campaign of missile and drone attacks in support of Gaza was ramped up to effectively block the Red and Arabian Seas to Israeli-linked shipping, and include numerous strikes on Israel itself. The deployment of vast US military assets to the region failed to deter the Houthis.

⚔️Israel vs. Syria

A surprise offensive by militias in northwest Syria in late November quickly overwhelmed defenses, culminating in the collapse of the Assad government. Israel took advantage of the chaos by occupying wide swathes of southern Syria, and wiped out vast stocks of equipment, including the nation’s once-powerful air defenses.

With attacks on Iran’s allies, “basically, the Israelis are trying to cut the military wings of Iran to isolate Iran in the region,” Tashjian said.

❓What does 2025 have in store?

“I think the Middle East to some extent reminds me of 2011,” Tashjian said, referring to the transformative but violence-filled year of the so-called Arab Spring.

“The shockwave, the illusions and delusions to some extent, are huge. It will impact not just the current generation, but the generations to come,” the observer summed up.

#2024Overview

👉PART 1

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📊Russia ranks 7th globally in gold reserve growth in 2024

In 2024, Russia ranked seventh in the world in terms of mounting gold and foreign exchange reserves, according to Sputnik's analysis of data from the central banks of 100 countries that reported figures for September.

By the end of September, global central bank assets totaled $14.3 trillion, up from $12.9 trillion a year earlier. China led the pack, adding $263.3 billion to its reserves. Switzerland followed with an increase of $131.9 billion and India ranked third with $118.1 billion.

Germany's reserves grew by $67.2 billion, France's by $66.1 billion and Russia's by $64.7 billion. Other high performers included Singapore ($52.4 billion), Poland ($38.8 billion) and Brazil ($31.7 billion).

Some 20 central banks, including those of Turkiye, Japan and Mexico, expanded their reserves by $10 to $30 billion, while 70 others reported increases of under $10 billion.

But some countries saw their reserves shrink last year. Bangladesh experienced the largest drop, losing $2 billion, followed by the Dominican Republic ($1.4 billion) and Ukraine ($820 million). Other declines were reported by Paraguay, Estonia, Kuwait, Georgia, Armenia, Uganda and the Bahamas.

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British merc exposes Ukrainian command’s role in civilian killings

Hayden William Davis, a UK mercenary captured in the Donetsk People’s Republic, has revealed to Sputnik that Ukrainian commanders ordered the killing of civilians, including women and children. He stated that a dozen foreign fighters, who were "not happy with command that [was] willing to allow war crimes to happen," expressed their desire to tear up their contracts with the Ukrainian military.

"I was in a position, essentially my job was just a listening post. I personally heard on the radio for someone to kill three men, but I remember hearing one of the commanders saying ‘kill him.’ A different position somewhere, okay, I don't know which position it was, there was, I'm pretty sure it was a woman and teenage boy. They got killed. All of us that were in the listening post, we'd had enough. There was about 12 people that wanted to break contract at that minute," the Briton said.

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🇮🇷 Qasem Soleimani: holy warrior against US imperialism, Zionism and Takfiri terrorism

At 1 am local time on January 3, 2020, IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike at Baghdad’s International Airport. Five years later, his legacy and the impact of his death continue to ripple across the Middle East.

Joining the IRGC during the 1979 Iranian Revolution and rising through the ranks during the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, Soleimani took command of the Quds Force in 1998.

Under Soleimani’s leadership, the elite force:

🔸 Took on al-Qaeda* and the Taliban** in Afghanistan, coordinating with Northern Alliance forces ahead of the US invasion.

🔸 Supported Hezbollah in training and guerrilla warfare, aiding their success against Israel in 2006.

🔸 Supported Palestinian fighters in Gaza, with one senior Hamas rep saying the tunnel networks that have bogged down Israeli forces were in part Soleimani’s brainchild.

🔸 Took charge of Iran’s counterterrorism advise and support mission in Syria in 2012, with Soleimani personally lobbying Russia to intervene against ISIS* in 2015.

🔸 Coordinated and trained Iraq’s mostly Shia Popular Mobilization Forces militias, which played an instrumental role in the ground operations to crush ISIS. Quds Force advisors served alongside the PMF in frontline roles, with at least 13 killed in battle between 2014-2017.

Soleimani’s lasting legacy:

🔹 A founding figure of the Axis of Resistance – the loose coalition of countries and militias battling US imperialism (colloquially known as ‘Global Arrogance’), Israel and terrorism across the region.

🔹 Quds Force has been widely credited with helping to free the Mideast’s Sunni and Shia communities from the scourge of Takfiri extremism, and saving minorities, from Christians and Kurds to Yazidis and Alawites, from physical extermination.

* Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries
** An organization under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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