📈 Latest US anti-Russian energy sanctions threaten to destabilize global markets: here’s how

Washington’s latest sanctions on Russian energy companies try "to cause at least some damage to the Russian economy, even at the risk of destabilizing world markets on the eve of the end of President Joe Biden’s inglorious tenure in power,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

Failing to secure a “strategic defeat of Moscow” or undermine the Russian economy, the US is ready to “sacrifice” the interests “of both the United States’ European allies, forced to switch to more expensive and unsteady American supplies, and its own population,” the ministry said.

How can Biden’s moves destabilize world markets?

🔸 Interrupting Russian oil supplies, and forcing Russia to find alternative routes, making deliveries more expensive.

🔸 As financial analyst Tom Luongo told Sputnik, Russia is too big to simply be priced out of the market.

🔸 Specifically, Russia accounts for some 11% of global crude oil production (10.75 million barrels a day), consuming only 3.68 million bpd.

🔸 Oil prices are already up after the sanctions announcement, WTI by 3.58%, Brent 3.69%, and the OPEC basket 1.13%.

What do higher oil prices mean?

🔹 Higher prices for gasoline, and over time, everything that requires gasoline to be transported, from food and household goods to construction materials.

🔹 Higher production costs - especially in regions that don’t have a major source of energy of their own – like the EU. The high energy prices the bloc is already paying thanks to its conflict with Russia has already left it facing recession and deindustrialization unseen since WWII.

🔹 A lack of available, cost-sustainable energy can also fuel wars for energy, as the US and NATO-led or backed conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Syria have shown.

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Ukrainian authorities are planning to make subjects like physics, biology and chemistry optional for high school students, national media quoted the Ministry of Education as saying.

Foreign literature, world history and geography are also set to become non-mandatory, while "History of Ukraine" will remain a compulsory subject.

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❗️ The German chancellor candidate from the AfD party, Alice Weidel, has pledged to restart the Nord Stream gas pipeline if elected.

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🇷🇺 Russia's best-in-the-world Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center marks 65th anniversary

On January 11, 1960, the Cosmonaut Training Center was established, playing a vital role in getting future cosmonauts ready for their first ventures into space.

It's where Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, trained for his iconic flight on April 12, 1961. Later, it was renamed in honor of this pioneering Russian cosmonaut.

The Center develops now and contains top-notch equipment for an aspiring cosmonaut:

🔸 a 18 meter, 300 ton centrifuge,

🔸 the world’s largest, Zero-G training aircraft,

🔸 mockup models and simulators of all of the USSR and Russia’s space vehicles, from Soyuz and Salyut to Mir, and the Buran Space Shuttle,

🔸 medical observation and testing facilities.

“It can be said with confidence that our [cosmonaut] flight preparation system is the best in the world. Our foreign colleagues also recognize this,” Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov said in a congratulatory message Saturday.

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🔸 Russia just freed Donbass lithium mine EU wanted to colonize: here's what it means

🔸 Mineral wars: global conflicts fueled by West's search for rare resources

🔸 Latest US anti-Russian energy sanctions threaten to destabilize global markets: here’s how

🔸 Can Andrew Tate Make Britain Great Again?

🔸 Russia's best-in-the-world Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center marks 65th anniversary

🔸 Bitcoin may smash new record highs in anticipation of Trump’s crypto-friendly policies

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🎤 Erdogan reveals possibility of running for President of Turkiye for another term

💬 "If you are for it, then I am for it," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded when asked if he would consider running in the upcoming presidential elections.

🗣"We received a promise from him," famous Turkish folk pop singer Ibrahim Tatlises told the audience.

This exchange occurred during Erdogan's speech at a Justice and Development Party (Ak Parti) congress in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkiye. The moment was captured in a video published by state-run broadcaster TRT Haber on Telegram.

Earlier, Mehmet Ucum, a senior advisor to Erdogan and Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Legal Policies Council, mentioned that Erdogan might run again if early elections are scheduled for the second half of 2027.

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🔥 LA wildfires death toll rises to 13 – reports

The wildfires in Los Angeles County are only 11% contained, with the death toll climbing to 13, NBC News reported. Officials warn that the ongoing drought and high winds are expected to persist through Wednesday, potentially worsening as winds are forecast to pick up again.

Extent of the devastation:

🔻 Approximately 39,000 acres have been scorched

🔻 Around 12,000 structures have been destroyed

🔻 At least 153,000 residents were under evacuation orders overnight

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📞 First Presidential Medal awarded by… phone

In a uniquely remote ceremony days before his term concludes, President Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction to Pope Francis.

This made the pontiff not only the sole recipient of this top honor during Biden’s presidency but also the first ever to receive it by phone. The departure from tradition was necessitated by Biden cancelling his final official trip to Rome due to the wildfires in Los Angeles.

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