On Christmas Eve, the Ukrainian Armed Forces hit city hospital No. 6 in Donetsk.

As a result of the attack, some of the patients received minor injuries. The hospital’s staff organized an evacuation of the patients to a shelter in the basement and provided all necessary care to them.

The glazing and facade of the building were damaged, while window frames and doors were blown out.

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The head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, explains to Sputnik what sets Russia apart from the regime in Kiev, which blatantly targeted civilians in Belgorod and Donetsk during its recent attacks.

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🇨🇳 China has sanctioned five US defense industry companies in response for new US arms sales to Taiwan by freezing those entities' property in China and barring organizations and individuals in the Asian nation from transactions and cooperation with them, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.

The US weapons sales to Taiwan violate the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques, the statement read. Moreover, the "illegal unilateral sanctions" that the US has imposed on Chinese companies and individuals "under various false pretexts," harm China's sovereignty and security interests, the statement said.

"We urge the United States to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations, stop arming Taiwan, and stop targeting China with illegal unilateral sanctions. Otherwise there will be strong and resolute response from China," the statement added.

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🇰🇵🇰🇷 Any form of provocation towards North Korea will prompt an immediate military response, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said.

"I make myself clear once again that the safety catch of the trigger of the Korean People's Army (KPA) had already been slipped," she said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.

"As already declared, the KPA will launch an immediate military strike if the enemy makes even a slight provocation," Kim said.

These statements were made following reports from South Korea's military indicating that North Korea had fired over 60 artillery rounds near the disputed maritime border on Saturday. It follows a similar barrage of more than 200 rounds the day before.

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What’s behind latest hair-trigger escalation of tensions between North and South Korea?

For the third day in a row, Seoul accused Pyongyang of firing artillery shells near the disputed sea boundary near South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. “Residents are advised to be careful about outdoor activities,” authorities warned on Sunday. South Korean forces held drills in the same maritime area earlier in the week.

Kim Yo Jong, senior aide and sister to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, warned Seoul and its allies against any provocations, saying that “misjudgment, conjecture, perversity and miswriting will precipitate irretrievable calamity.”

South Korea and its US allies launched their own provocative live fire drills along the border earlier in the week. An ROK military spokesman said Saturday those drills were aimed at establishing a “joint war-fighting posture that can punish the enemy immediately.”

Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have deteriorated significantly between 2021 and 2022 with the election of new governments in the US and South Korea which did away with the personalized diplomacy of their predecessors aimed at easing tensions along the highly militarized peninsula.

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🇭🇺🇪🇺 European Council President Charles Michel has decided to leave his post early. If the EU leaders do not have time to choose a successor, then Viktor Orban will become the interim head of the European Council.

Michel will stand in the European Parliament elections in June, he told three Belgian media outlets. If he is elected, EU leaders will have to quickly agree on a successor to fill his vacated council post. If they fail to do so, the meetings will be led by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose country will take over the rotating presidency of the EU Council in July, a mediating role usually performed by the European Council president.

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🇮🇱 Israel is ready to resolve the conflict with Hezbollah through political means, but if they do not help, “other” options will be used, Netanyahu said.

His statement comes after Hezbollah fired 62 missiles at northern Israel as a "response to the crime of assassinating the great leader Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri."

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How BRICS could create own grain exchange and abandon dollar

"Eventually there will be a redistribution of [grain] markets. There will be a complete removal of the outgoing players – the United States and the European Union," Vladimir Petrichenko, CEO of the analytical company ProZerno, told Sputnik.

BRICS countries represent a huge part, and in some cases more than half, of the market for grain crops, according to the expert. Having added Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2024, BRICS has almost equalized the production and consumption of key grain crops within the group creating the preconditions for forming its own huge grain market and, potentially, a dollar-free grain exchange.

"[Russia] has already considerably displaced the US and the EU in the wheat market. Brazil has greatly pushed the US in the corn market," the expert says, adding that the West will fight tooth and nail for its market share.

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🇷🇺🇮🇷 Russian and Iranian national wealth funds are planning to establish joint investment committees for realization of different oil, gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, high-tech and other projects, the Iranian National Development Fund’s Deputy Director of Foreign Investment, Hossein Eivazloo, has said.

"We decided … to establish joint investment committees between the two national wealth funds of Russia and Iran and review projects under proposal … Both Iran and the Russian side will invest 50% each," Eivazloo said, as quoted by the IRNA news agency.

Tehran and Moscow have been cooperating on the issue for a long time and have held a number of meetings and exchanged agreements, the official said, adding that both countries approved models of cooperation and that Iran was waiting for the approval of the Russian National Wealth Fund’s board of trustees, according to the report.

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🇷🇺 Over the past five years, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces carried out more than 20 intercontinental ballistic missile launches to test promising missile systems and training, the Russian Ministry of Defense has reported.

As the ministry noted, they plan to conduct seven more launches in 2024.

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🇷🇺🪖 Key points of Russian MoD briefing on progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️ In the Kupyansk area, four Ukrainian attacks were repelled, over 50 military personnel were killed,

▪️ In the Krasny Liman region, enemy losses amounted to up to 55 people;

▪️ In the Donetsk area, the enemy’s total losses amounted to more than 300 military killed and wounded. Four armored combat vehicles, 20 vehicles, a Caezar self-propelled gun, an American M119 howitzer, as well as an ammunition depot were hit;

▪️ In southern Donetsk, Ukrainian forces and terrestrial defense brigades were attacked, Kiev lost up to 130 military personnel. A tank, three Polish Krab installations, two British FH-70 howitzers, and an ammunition depot were hit;

▪️ Ukraine's losses in the Zaporozhye area amounted to up to 40 military personnel, one tank and two armored combat vehicles.

▪️Russian air defenses shot down two Ukrainian air force aircraft. In addition, 14 rockets from the HIMARS and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems and six Neptune anti-ship missiles were intercepted during the day.

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Russia has an advantage in the electronic war with Ukraine

Moscow is increasingly using electronic warfare to throw Ukrainian-supplied precision-guided munitions such as HIMARS missiles and Excalibur artillery shells off course, the Financial Times has noted.

One Ukrainian soldier complained about the lack of electronic warfare equipment in his unit, which was almost completely destroyed.

“What electronic warfare? (...) We had nothing. I don’t even want to think about those days in the trenches. Our guys dropped like flies,” the serviceman added in an interview.

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🇯🇴 King of Jordan warns Blinken of catastrophic repercussions of Gaza war

"His Majesty King Abdullah, during a meeting on Sunday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, warned of the catastrophic ramifications of the continued war on Gaza, stressing the need to end the tragic humanitarian crisis in the Strip," the royal office said in a statement.

The monarch also pointed out Washington's major role "in pushing towards an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the protection of civilians, while guaranteeing the sustainable delivery of sufficient humanitarian and relief aid" to the Palestinian enclave, the statement read.

Blinken embarked on a trip to the Middle East on Thursday to discuss immediate measures to boost humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip and raise the need to take steps to deter the Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, among other things.

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🇮🇷 Iran arrests all suspects believed to be behind Kerman terror attack

All suspects allegedly involved in planning and carrying out the Kerman terror attacks have been arrested, Kerman region Prosecutor Mahdi Bakhshi has announced.

“32 people have been arrested in [connection with the] Kerman crime case and are going through preliminary interrogations,” Bakhshi told local media.

This reportedly includes two other would-be suicide attackers who were exposed “before the assignment of tasks in the ceremony.”

Along with the two bombs that went off in Kerman, 16 additional explosive devices were discovered throughout the province by the security services and disarmed, the prosecutor said. In addition, he said, “over the recent months, as many as 23 Daesh terrorists ready to carry out suicide attacks have been arrested across Kerman province.”

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NATO is already losing the Ukrainian conflict, French historian Emmanuel Todd believes

He likewise concluded that the defeat would eventually culminate in Russia's reconciliation with Europe and its rapprochement with Germany, contrary to the wishes of the United States.

This view was expressed to Le Point Magazine during an interview ahead the release of his new book La Defaite de L'Occident (The Defeat of the West).

In the book, he denounces the Western attitude toward Russia, stating that “Avoiding the rapprochement between Germany and Russia was one of the US goals. This rapprochement would have signed the ejection of the United States from the European system of power. Americans have preferred to destroy Europe rather than save the West.”

Todd’s La Defaite de L'Occident excerpt highlights America's waning status as a global superpower and its weak military-industrial complex.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Latest updates on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

▪️The number of people killed by Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip has increased to 22,835, with over 58,416 injured, the enclave's health ministry said.

▪️Negotiations on the release of Israeli hostages have been suspended following an attack on an office of Palestinian movement Hamas in a southern Beirut suburb on January 2, NBC News reported on Sunday, citing US officials.

▪️EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell embarked on a two-day trip to Saudi Arabia to hold talks on a conflict settlement in the Gaza Strip and the "worrying escalation" in the Red Sea, the European External Action Service.

▪️Jordanian King Abdullah II warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during their meeting of the "catastrophic ramifications" brought about by the continued hostilities in the Gaza Strip and stressed the need to end the humanitarian crisis, the royal office said.

▪️Israel is ready to settle the conflict with Lebanon's Hezbollah movement through political means, but if they fail, "other" options will be pursued, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

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🇮🇱🇮🇷 Israel will face a “nightmare” for its short-sighted decision to assassinate a senior member of Hamas’ political leadership, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force chief Esmail Qaani has warned.

“The enemy and the Zionists seek to downplay their heavy defeat in Gaza and the West Bank by assassinating resistance leaders,” Qaani wrote in a letter to Hamas Political Bureau head Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday.

“The world will see how the comrades of Martyr Arouri turn into a nightmare for” Israel, the Iranian commander added.

“Arouri was martyred with a brilliant record in the first, al-Aqsa and al-Quds intifadas,” Qaani said, referring to three Palestinian campaigns of resistance against Israel between 1987-1993, 2000-2005 and the conflict which began in October 2023 with the Hamas attack into southern Israel, but quickly moved to Gaza.

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❗️US President Joe Biden stated on Sunday that Congress has reached an agreement on government funding, preventing a "needless" shutdown.

"The bipartisan funding framework congressional leaders have reached moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities. It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring," Biden said in a statement published by the White House.

The total US government budget for 2024, agreed upon by the Congress, provides almost $1.6 trillion, including $886 billion for defense, US House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday.

"The topline constitutes $1.590 trillion for FY24 – the statutory levels of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. That includes $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for nondefense," Johnson said in a statement.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Military operations in the Gaza Strip will continue until all Israeli hostages are returned, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday.

"Military activities in Gaza will not end until the hostages return home," Gallant stated at a meeting with the families of people held hostage by the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

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“If we want to be peacekeepers in the world, we need a European military,” said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in a newspaper interview Sunday, reviving on-off discussion of a European Union army.

“In a world with powerful players like the United States, China, India, Russia – with crises from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific – Italian, German, French or Slovenian citizens can only be protected by something that already exists, namely the European Union,” Tajani emphasized.

The comment represents a desire for greater European autonomy as the continent’s acquiescence to US-led sanctions on Russia has generated economic strain from Germany to the UK.

It remains to be seen whether most European leaders will continue to support US policy toward Ukraine as the Zelensky regime has increasingly failed in its efforts on the battlefield.

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🇨🇳🇮🇱 Chinese shipping giant COSCO stops calling at Israeli ports

Chinese state-owned company COSCO, one of the world's largest container shipping companies, has decided to stop calling at Israeli ports for reasons yet unknown, Israeli financial newspaper Globes reported.

The company made the decision even though the Houthis are unlikely to attack its ships in the Red Sea because of economic and political ties between China and Iran, which supports the Yemeni rebel group, the report read.

Cosco's decision will significantly affect trade between Israel and the Far East, the newspaper reported, adding that the Israeli shipping company ZIM, which works closely with COSCO, may face higher transportation costs as it will have to increase the number of ships operating on the Far East routes.

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