❗️ Investigators in standoff with Presidential Security Service over Yoon's detention – reports

Investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) are attempting to execute a warrant to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed attempt to impose martial law. Yonhap reported that the investigators have entered a standoff with the Presidential Security Service (PSS) outside the presidential residence.

A police official told the news agency that the standoff began after investigators moved past the gates of the compound, where they had an earlier confrontation with a military unit stationed on the premises.

On Friday, prosecutors and investigators presented warrants for Yoon’s detention and a search of the residence. However, PSS chief Park Chong-jun refused entry, citing security restrictions on the premises.

The CIO has until Monday to execute the detention warrant, which accuses Yoon of insurrection and abuse of power linked to his brief imposition of martial law on December 3.

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🇨🇳 Time for US to stop using 'Taiwan card' – Chinese Ambassador to Russia

The United States must stop using the "Taiwan card" and destabilizing the region, as it will lose facing the "force of China," Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui told Sputnik.

💬 "Playing with fire leads to self-immolation. It is high time for the US to stop using the 'Taiwan card,' which is destined to lose," Zhang said in an article written for Spuntik.

Some high-ranking US officials "ignore facts and substitute lies for the truth," openly supporting Taiwan's independence, he added.

💬 "The US made it clear in the 1978 Sino-US joint communique on the establishment of diplomatic relations and in the August 17, 1982, joint communique that the US 'recognizes the government of the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate government representing all of China,'" the article read.

Zhang also said that Washington supports the aspirations of Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te for independence "despite the risk to undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is completely contrary to their political promises."

💬 "At the heart of this is the desire to hinder China's development and maintain the fading dominance of the US. Facing a unified force of 1.4 billion Chinese, they are destined to be defeated," the ambassador said.

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The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ 155th Mechanized Brigade, which was trained in the West, began to fall apart even before arriving at the front in the Krasnoarmeysk area, Forbes writes.

The brigade should have had about 5,800 soldiers, but 1,700 of them fled during training in France and Poland, according to the publication.

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🇨🇳 China is closer than ever to achieving the goal of reunification with Taiwan, and Beijing has the strength to definitely achieve this, the Chinese ambassador to Russia told Sputnik.

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South Korean investigators have decided to halt the execution of an arrest warrant for the president due to security concerns, local website Daum reported.

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📹 The suspect in the New Orleans terror attack is part of a phenomenon of homegrown violent extremists that the US has seen develop and emerge over the past 10 years, US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.

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US approves sale of missiles to Japan for $3.64bln - Pentagon

The US State Department has approved a possible sale of advanced AIM-120D-3 and AIM-120C-8 air-to-air missiles and related equipment to Japan for $3.64 billion, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

Japan has requested the purchase of 1,200 AIM-120 missiles, the statement noted.

Militarization of the Asia-Pacific has been unfolding, Brian Berletic, a geopolitical analyst and former US Marine earlier told Sputnik, referring to the creation of the Quad group, which took place under Trump. “Under the Biden administration, it was expanded along with the creation of AUKUS. Both groupings represent efforts toward what could be characterized as a ‘Pacific NATO’," as per the analyst.

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Study reveals Pfizer COVID vaccine contains DNA contamination up to 470 times above safe limits, according to FDA lab research

Student researchers, conducting studies under the guidance of FDA scientists, have uncovered alarming levels of DNA contamination in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, with some samples exceeding safety limits by as much as 470 times.

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Israel to send negotiators to Qatar to resume deadlocked Gaza ceasefire talks

Representatives from the Israel Security Agency (ISA), the IDF, and Mossad, will travel to Doha, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced.

This comes after a Hamas delegation met with mediators in Egypt, according to the group’s spokesperson Jihad Taha, cited by Xinhua. As a result of the talks, a proposal was worked out that would be presented to Israel in a last-ditch attempt to secure a deal before January 20, a source told the outlet.

Talks have stalled over issues such as demands for Hamas to provide a list of hostages for release before a ceasefire, Israel’s refusal to approve the release of some of the Palestinian prisoners requested by Hamas, and Tel Aviv’s desire for a deal that does not include stopping the war and withdrawing fully from Gaza.

Hamas must either release hostages soon or suffer “blows of a magnitude not seen in Gaza for a long time,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.

Donald Trump has also threatened that there will be “all hell to pay” if Hamas doesn’t release the remaining hostages before his inauguration.

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The US has demanded that the Kiev regime urgently lower the age of connoscription for mobilization to 18 years. Kiev has already prepared a decision and will make it in the near future, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said.

The West has not ruled out the imminent collapse of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defenses, the SVR added.

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Eastern Europe is preparing for new waves of Ukrainian refugees, according to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

Eastern European countries bordering Ukraine are preparing to receive new waves of refugees who don’t want to fight, the SVR said.

According to the intelligence service, Eastern European nations believe that residents of the areas controlled by Kiev will be ready to do anything to "escape the clutches of the Ukrainian ruling regime, which sold their lives for a pittance to the overseas masters."

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The new Syrian authorities are sending signals that they are interested in Russia's continued presence, although there are no specifics yet, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said.

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🔥 Welcome to the collection: US-made MaxxPro armored personnel carrier captured by Russian forces

Russia’s Vega special forces unit captured a Ukrainian International MaxxPro armored personnel carrier and a Kozak combat armored vehicle near the town of Krasnoarmeysk.

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📹 Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has thwarted an attempt by a Ukrainian special services agent to carry out a terrorist attack in the Zaporozhye region.

The Ukrainian citizen preparing the terrorist attack was wanted "for committing particularly serious crimes, including attempted murder of a law enforcement officer," the FSB said.

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‘Threat from within’: FBI’s take on New Year’s violence overlooks US army trace, fmr CIA analyst says

“These were two US citizens, both,” and both Army-linked, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson told Sputnik, commenting on the media’s initial push to tie the New Year’s Day massacre in New Orleans to illegal immigration, and the FBI’s “curious and ironic” push to link the suspect to ISIS.*

“One [the New Orleans attacker] is a former member of the US Army. The other [the Las Vegas Cybertruck blast suspect] is a current active-duty member of the US Army. So it is not an of threat from outside. It's a threat from within,” Johnson emphasized.

*A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

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📹 German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, accompanied by her delegation, arrived in Damascus dressed in body armor.

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New Year’s Day violence may have been designed to sow chaos ahead of Trump’s inauguration - Larry Johnson

“I can't rule out the possibility that this individual was acting as part of a broader effort to create chaos and instability in the United States prior to the inauguration of Donald Trump in order to prevent Trump from being inaugurated,” former CIA analyst Larry Johnson told Sputnik, commenting on the twin violent incidents that rocked New Orleans and Las Vegas on New Year’s Day.

Trump, Johnson pointed out, “is seen as an existential threat – a potential existential threat to organizations like the FBI, the CIA” and the Justice Department.

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❗️Russian Defense Ministry briefing on the weekly progress of the special military operation in Ukraine

🔸 The Russian Armed Forces launched a massive series of 12 strikes using precision-guided weapons and attack drones, targeting energy infrastructure that supported Ukraine's defense industry, a plant producing artillery powder charges, military airfield infrastructure, ammunition depots, drone assembly workshops and mercenary deployment locations.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 12,455 militants. Seventeen Ukrainian tanks were destroyed, including three German-made Leopard tanks. 46 Ukrainian militants were captured at the front line. 559 drones were shot down, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed 11 unmanned boats.

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Former CIA vet on Vegas Cybertruck blast: ‘What contacts did he have with Ukrainian intelligence?’

The suspect blown up outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day was an active-duty Green Beret officer with an apparent penchant for Ukraine. That’s an angle worth exploring instead of being swept under the rug by the media and the FBI, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson says.

“It appears there have been social media pictures identifying him in [a] Slava Ukraini* [T-shirt]. So he was a big pro-Ukrainian guy,” Johnson told Sputnik.

“I’d want to find out what if the individual driving that Cybertruck was ever in Ukraine? What contacts did he have with Ukrainian intelligence services?”

The incident definitely could have a Ukrainian intel trace, Johnson emphasized. With the symbolism of the Trump Tower meaning “they recognize Donald Trump is going to potentially bring an end to this war.”

* ‘Glory to Ukraine’ – a slogan associated with Ukraine’s WWII-era Nazi collaborators and modern-day Ukrainian nationalists.

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