Seymour Hersh: Only 6 Out of 8 Bombs Planted Under Nord Stream Pipelines Were Detonated

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said on Tuesday that only six out of eight bombs planted under the Nord Stream pipelines went off as US President Joe Biden postponed the special operation and the bombs were under water for too long.

Last week, Hersh published a report saying that US Navy divers during NATO Baltops exercises in the summer of 2022 planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines, which Norway activated three months later. According to the report, Biden decided to sabotage the Nord Streams after more than nine months of secret discussions with the national security team.

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🙅‍♂️ 🇺🇸 More than half of registered Democrats want US President Joe Biden to refrain from running for president in 2024, makes him less popular with Democrats than his predecessor is with Republicans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

📌 Of Democrats polled, 52% said Biden should not seek a second term, compared to 40% of Republicans who don't want former US President Donald Trump to run again, according to the poll, which tallied responses from nearly 4,500 adults between February 6 and February 13 of this year.

▪️ Though both Biden and Trump garnered the highest percentages with respective polled party members, neither of the potential candidates grabbed enough support from a majority of voters, with Biden taking 35% of the votes from Democrats and Trump 43% of votes from Republicans, according to the poll.

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Bolsonaro Planning to Return to Brazil in March to Lead Opposition Against Lula

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he was planning to return to Brazil in March to lead political opposition against incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and defend himself against accusations of inciting January's attacks on the government buildings by protesters.

"The right-wing movement is not dead and will live on... Losing is part of the electoral process... I’m not saying there was fraud, but the process was biased," Bolsonaro said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, adding he would work with supporters in Congress and local governments to promote what he called pro-business policies, fight abortion, gun control, and other policies that contradict family values.

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Hungary, Other EU Countries Have Different Views on Achieving Peace in Ukraine: Szijjarto

The positions of Hungary and other EU countries regarding a peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine differ, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said.

“We absolutely agree on one thing: both Hungary and France would like peace... But it is also clear that our approaches differ in how, what tactics and what steps can be taken to achieve peace,” Szijjártó said after talks with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna.

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🇷🇺 Russia has been doing "everything possible" for the protection and safety of Ukrainian children, who were forced to flee the country because of "atrocities" of Ukrainian troops, the Russian Embassy in the United States said on Wednesday.

💬 "Russia accepted children who had been forced to flee with their families from the shelling and atrocities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We do our best to keep minors in families, and in case of absence or death of parents and relatives, to transfer orphans under guardianship. We ensure the protection of their lives and well-being," the embassy said on Telegram.

▪️ The embassy also said that Washington should give "adequate assessment of the actions of the Kiev regime," which "kills and injures children" in the course of the conflict.

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📹 Russia's Armed Forces fire at Ukrainian targets and sheltered positions using Grad multiple-launch rocket systems (video courtesy of Russian MoD)

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🙅 🇹🇷 The Turkish Directorate of Communications said on Wednesday that social media reports showing a strange light trail in the sky shortly before devastating earthquakes were not filmed in Turkiye.

▪️ According to the Directorate's Disinformation Bulletin, several videos were published on social media showing a bright glow in the sky.

💬 "These videos have nothing to do with the earthquakes in Turkiye. The original video was filmed on September 21, 2022 in the Kazakh city of Balkhash, this is the launch of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft on the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle from Baikonur," the agency said in a statement received by Sputnik

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❗️ Russia’s updated foreign policy concept will be focused on suspending West’s dictate, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says

📹 Two Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers carried out a scheduled flight in airspace over international waters in the Chukchi and Okhotsk Seas (video courtesy of Russian MoD)

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❗️ Key statements made by Russia’s FM Lavrov during his address to State Duma:

▪️ The West is lying about what really happened to Nord Stream pipelines;

▪️ Russia’s updated foreign policy concept will be focused on suspending West’s dictate;

▪️ Attempts to isolate Russia will fail;

▪️ The purpose of the West's hybrid war against Russia is to turn it into a “rogue state”;

▪️ Russia and China are working to strengthen their strategic partnership;

▪️ The Western policy of turning Ukraine into an anti-Russian foothold has recently reached the point of no return;

▪️ The course taken by the President of the Russian Federation to defend national interests firmly is proving its effectiveness.

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❗️Russia’s Federal Assembly calls on the world's parliaments to urge the US Congress to disclose information about military projects under the guise of "medical and biological activities" on their countries’ territories

⚡️Nicola Sturgeon to resign as Scottish First Minister, British media reports

❗️Russia is preparing a special meeting of UNSC over the Nord Stream pipelines explosions

🇪🇺 EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell admitted on Wednesday that the collapse of the Russian economy from the impact of European sanctions did not happen as initially predicted in the European Union.

💬 "It is true that the Russian economy has not collapsed and that the GDP is not what has been forecast, and it is true that last year it got extraordinarily high revenues that came from oil and gas," Borrell said during a speech at the European Parliament plenary session.

▪️ Western countries have been seeking ways to limit Russia's income from oil and gas exports, as well as their dependence on Russian fuel since the country launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

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😷 🦠 The World Health Organization (WHO) has quietly suspended the second phase of a scientific investigation into the origins of the coronavirus causing COVID-19, citing inability to carry out research in China due to world politics complications, UK scientific journal Nature reported, citing epidemiologists.

🗣 "There is no phase two," Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Lead at the WHO Health Emergencies Programme Maria Van Kerkhove told the journal.

▪️ The epidemiologist also said that the WHO planned to conduct the study in phases, but "that plan has changed" because "the politics across the world of this really hampered progress on understanding the origins," according to the report.

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⚡️ Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announces her resignation after 8 years in office

💊 Russia has the capacity to produce own version of Viagra after US pharmaceutical company Viatris suspended deliveries of the erectile dysfunction treatment in 2022, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade told Sputnik.

The ministry added that in order to ensure local production, the government supported a project designed to organize and conduct clinical trials of the drug based on the same component — sildenafil — in the form of pills.

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