🇷🇺🤝 Putin declares 2026 Year of Unity for the Peoples of Russia

✍️ The Russian president has signed a decree declaring 2026 as the "Year of the Unity of the Peoples of Russia."

👉 Russia is home to over 190 ethnic groups, the majority of which are indigenous. The Russian Constitution officially recognizes the country’s multiethnic character.

2025, on the other hand, was named the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland, honoring the 80th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and expressing gratitude to veterans and participants of the special military operation.

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🚨 NATO’s dreams of blockading Russia’s Kaliningrad show weak-mindedness — Russian MFA spox

💬 "The most rabid Western politicians" talk about turning the Baltic Sea into NATO's internal sea via blockading Russia’s Kaliningrad region, which prompts Russia to use all its tools to protect its territory and interests in the Baltics, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

NATO's statements are nonsense that shows feeble-mindedness, she added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated Russia will eliminate threats to the Kaliningrad region if they emerge, stressing a possible blockade may lead to a full-scale conflict.

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🗣 'For the Lord is their judge': Russian presidential aide on Ukraine ceasing Orthodox Christmas

👉 Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation at the Istanbul talks, lashed out at the Ukrainian regime's decision to move Christmas from January 7 to December 25, a law signed by President Zelensky in July 2023.

💬 "The current actions of the Ukrainian authorities is to impose other denominations. For the Lord is their judge. The Lord sees everything. Such things can not be forced on people," Medinsky said.

➖ Earlier, Verkhovna Rada reported that the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers had approved Zelensky’s decree on celebrating Programmer's Day on January 7 instead of celebrating Orthodox Christmas.

➖ For centuries, the Eastern Orthodox Church, including the Russian, Serbian, and Jerusalem Churches, has followed the Julian calendar, which celebrate Christmas on January 7. Meanwhile, many Catholic and Protestant denominations, including the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant groups, observe Christmas on December 25, according to the Gregorian calendar.

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🔸 2025 in retrospect: Revisiting the year's historic events

🔸 Putin sent Christmas greetings to Trump

🔸 Russia’s ‘responsible stewardship’ led ruble to outshine weaponized dollar

🔸 ‘They’re only interested in money’: Russian MFA spox slams Europe for war profiteering 

🔸 As AI reshapes the world, Putin calls on Russia to get ready

🔸 Russia’s record-breaker: A closer look at the Tu-95MS bomber

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🇩🇰🇺🇸Danish MP proposes buying US states as Washington eyes Greenland

🔊Denmark’s economic growth is strong enough to start buying US states, Rasmus Jarlov, a conservative Danish MP and former minister of business, tweeted on December 25.

👉In the comments section, Jarlov said that he personally had always liked New Hampshire and reminded American netizens — who tried to belittle Denmark’s economic performance — of their country’s multi-trillion-dollar debt.

📍The tweet apparently came in response to Jeff Landry, President Donald Trump’s new special envoy to Greenland, who said he would make Denmark’s autonomous territory part of the US. “We need [Greenland] for national security. We have to have it,” Trump later reiterated.

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🥴Hunter Biden brands Ukraine ‘vipers’ den’ mired in corruption

During his appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show, Hunter admitted that “it was absolutely a mistake” for him to join the board of directors of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma in 2014, when his father was vice president in the Obama administration.

👉He immediately insisted, however, that what made this appointment a mistake was the fact that it became “the toe in the door” to label his family as “the Biden crime family” due to the ensuing allegations of corruption and influence peddling.

🗣“I believe it was a mistake because I was very, very naïve about what a vipers’ den Ukraine is,” Hunter added, describing the level of corruption there as “staggering.” “Because they are part of a kleptocracy, of a greater kleptocracy.”

❓The ex-president’s son made these admissions after the current US President Donald Trump moved to void all the preemptive pardons made by Joe Biden, including the one protecting Hunter Biden from the fallout from all his shenanigans – including his potential involvement in rampant Ukrainian corruption.

❗️Hunter’s appointment to the Burisma board was also one of the causes of speculation that his father’s stalwart support of Ukraine stemmed from the Biden family’s alleged corrupt dealings in this East European country.

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🇮🇱 IDF kills two in southern Gaza 'to remove the threat' — statement

The Israel Defense Forces reported that troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip identified two people it described as “terrorists” who crossed the “yellow line” and approached their position, which the military said posed an immediate threat.

The IDF said the troops killed the two “in order to remove the threat,” adding that forces in the Southern Command remain deployed in line with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to act to remove any immediate threat.

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🇻🇪🤝🇷🇺 Venezuela thanks Russia for support in 'defending sovereignty'

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil said Caracas is grateful for Russia’s backing after Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova strongly condemned the buildup of the US military presence in the Caribbean.

💬 “On behalf of President Nicolás Maduro, we want to express our sincere gratitude to the Government of the Russian Federation for its valuable support for President Maduro’s efforts in defending the sovereignty and the interests of the Venezuelan people in the face of threats and illegal, warmongering actions by the US Administration in the Caribbean,” the message said.

Gil also emphasized Russia’s “unwavering support” for preserving the Caribbean as a zone of peace and for promoting economic, political and social stability in the region.

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🚨 US carried out 'deadly strike' on ISIS targets in northwest Nigeria — Trump

US President Donald Trump said the United States launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against what he described as “ISIS*” targets in northwest Nigeria.

💬 “I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said the US military carried out “numerous” strikes and suggested more could follow if the violence continues.

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

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🚨 ‘More to come’ — Hegseth on US strike in Nigeria

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the US action in northwest Nigeria followed President Donald Trump’s warning that "the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end.”

In a post on X, Hegseth said the Department of War was “always ready,” adding that “ISIS* found out tonight — on Christmas.” He also thanked Nigerian authorities for their “support & cooperation,” and said “more” operations could follow.

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

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🗣 Trump comments on Epstein files, denies links and blames political opponents

US President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he had distanced himself from Jeffrey Epstein “long before it became fashionable,” and rejected any suggestion of ties to the late financier.

Trump said that people who associated with Epstein later “falsely claimed they had nothing to do with him,” and argued that ongoing scrutiny around the Epstein files is part of what he described as a “Radical Left Witch Hunt.”

💬 "Now the same losers are at it again, only this time so many of their friends, mostly innocent, will be badly hurt and reputationally tarnished," he warned.

💬 "Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas!" Trump concluded.

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🚀🇷🇺 Russian Soyuz-2.1a launches from Plesetsk — Defense Ministry

Russia’s Aerospace Forces launched a Soyuz-2.1a medium-class carrier rocket with a Defense Ministry spacecraft from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia’s Arkhangelsk region on December 25, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The MoD said the launch and delivery into the planned orbit “were carried out in normal mode.” The spacecraft was placed into its target orbit on schedule, remains in stable contact with ground systems, and its onboard equipment is “functioning normally.”

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📹 US Department of War shares video of strike in northwest Nigeria

The official account of the US Department of War published a video showing missiles being launched from a US warship, alongside a quote from President Donald Trump about what he described as ISIS* targets in northwest Nigeria.

In the post, Trump said the strike was carried out “at my direction as Commander in Chief” and described it as a “powerful and deadly” operation.

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

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🇻🇪 Venezuela warns US Caribbean deployment is a 'direct threat' — Foreign Minister

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil said the US-led “Operation Spear of the South” constitutes a threat involving the use of force, according to a video statement shared by TeleSUR.

Gil said Washington ordered its largest Caribbean deployment in a decade, including a nuclear submarine near Venezuela’s coast, arguing that the move is “forbidden by the United Nations Charter” under Article 2 and violates the region’s status as a zone of peace and nuclear-weapon-free zone.

💬 “Venezuela has done nothing that justifies this military operation,” he said.

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🔥🇩🇿 Algeria brands French colonisation a crime, demands apology and reparations — reports

📄 Algeria’s parliament has unanimously passed a law declaring French colonisation a crime, demanding an official apology and reparations for decades of abuses under French rule, according to The Guardian.

💬 Lawmakers hailed the vote as a matter of national memory, with parliament speaker Ibrahim Boughali saying it sends “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable.”

✍️ The legislation lists the “crimes of French colonisation,” including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, “physical and psychological torture,” mass deportations, and the systematic plundering of resources. It states that “full and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people.”

🩸 France ruled Algeria from 1830 to 1962, a period marked by mass killings and large-scale deportations that culminated in a brutal war of independence. Algeria estimates the death toll at 1.5 million, while French historians cite around 500,000, most of them Algerian.

🇫🇷 Paris reacted coolly. While President Emmanuel Macron has previously called aspects of colonisation a “crime against humanity,” French officials declined to comment on the vote, with the foreign ministry dismissing it as a domestic political matter, The Guardian reported.

📌 For Algiers, the message is blunt: colonial crimes don’t fade with time — and France’s past isn’t something to be quietly archived away.

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