🔸Ex-DoD analyst: Biden's decision is 'unnecessary escalation,' if true

🔸Madness Unlimited: French politician weighs on Biden’s alleged decision to escalate Ukrainian crisis

🔸German economy minister is ready to give Taurus to Ukraine if he becomes Chancellor

🔸NATO supplied weapons to Ukraine under the guise of training since 2014 - ex-SBU employee

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Allowing Ukraine to strike deep into the Russian territory with Western weapons will not affect the course of the special military operation in any way, but this factor will be taken into account, Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian Duma Defense Committee, told Sputnik.

He noted that Russian air defense systems can operate very effectively on all types of Western long-range ammunition.

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Swastika-carrying neo-Nazis march in Ohio, US

A gang of black-clad, masked demonstrators marched through the city of Columbus, Ohio, yelling through a bullhorn at passers-by, while brandishing black flags emblazoned with large red swastikas.

The Columbus incident echoes a disturbing trend of Nazi-related occurrences that have sprouted up across the United States in the past 18 months. Eyewitness accounts on social media reveal that, shockingly, no arrests were made during the neo-Nazi march.

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Western intel agencies have been bankrolling NGOs in Abkhazia to whip up nationwide instability, revealed Anri Bartits, Abkhazia’s Minister of Justice.

"For the past four years, we have been sounding the alarm that Western intelligence services are financing certain non-governmental organizations. The objective of this funding is to foment chaos and damage our country's reputation on the international stage," he said in an interview with the Abkhazian State Television and Radio Company.

Recently, the country has faced protests and opposition movements, culminating in demonstrators surrounding the Parliament building and demanding the resignation of the current president.

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Any political party you want as long as it's West-backed: EU mulls depriving Georgia of $100 mln aid after elections
 
The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has proposed to the EU foreign ministers to deprive the Georgian authorities of 100 million euros of aid and redirect this money to support "civil society."
 
Earlier, general elections were held in Georgia where the ruling Georgian Dream party, which opposes anti-Russian sanctions and advocates closer relations with Moscow, was declared the winner. After the announcement of the election results, opposition supporters took to the streets and held several rallies, destabilizing the country.
 
Subsequently, Josep Borrell called on Georgia's political forces for government reforms aligned with "the basic principles of European integration."

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💬Allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western long-range weapons, if accepted and brought to the Kiev regime, means a new round of tension, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
 
The outgoing US administration intends to take steps to continue the provocation of escalating tensions in Ukraine, he added.

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❗️Russian troops liberated the settlement of Novoalekseyevka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry announced

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🇷🇺🪖 Key statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

▪️Ukrainian forces suffered losses of 450 militants in Battlegroup Zapad’s zone of responsibility.

▪️Ukrainian forces lost up to 695 soldiers in Battlegroup Yug’s area of responsibility.

▪️Ukraine suffered losses of 500 servicemen in Battlegroup Tsentr’s zone of responsibility.

▪️Ukrainian forces lost as many as 135 militants in Battlegroup Vostok’s zone of responsibility.

▪️The Russian Air Defense shot down four Hammer bombs, four HIMARS missiles and 106 drones in one day.

▪️Battlegroup Sever trounced 50 Ukrainian militants during the day.

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 70 militants in the zone of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr.

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❗️Ukrainian losses amounted to 420 militants in Russia's Kursk region and 24 of Kiev's soldiers surrendered, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Ukrainian forces also lost two Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), a Marder IFV, and four armored combat vehicles.

In total, during the fighting in Kursk region, Ukrainian losses now amount to more than 33,670 soldiers, 213 tanks, and 140 infantry fighting vehicles.

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🇬🇷Protesters hurl Molotov cocktails at police in Greece
 
A march of thousands took place tonight in Athens, Greece, in honor of the 51st anniversary of the student uprising at the Polytechnic University against the junta of "black colonels."
 
The protesters had planned to approach the US embassy, but the police did not allow this, so the demonstrators threw bottles of combustible mixture at the security forces.
 
The Greeks accuse the United States of supporting the military junta regime in Greece from 1967 to 1974. Traditionally, on the anniversary of the uprising, students go to the US Embassy with a bloody Greek flag in the afternoon and hold a mass demonstration in the evening. According to many politicians, without the support of the United States, the junta would not have lasted a day.
 
About 25 000 people participated in the march; 150 of them were detained.

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❗️Germany has been informed of US permission for Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike deep into Russia, but this will not change German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's position on not supplying Taurus missiles to Ukraine, according to the German government.

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🌐❓Biden’s nod for Ukraine’s strikes deep into Russia: How world reacts

Politicians, journalists and entrepreneurs have reacted to outgoing US President Joe Biden’s reported nod for Ukraine to use American long-range missiles to strike Russia.
 
Who condemned the decision?
 
❌ Donald Trump Jr.: “Imbeciles” from the military industrial complex seeking to unleash the Third World War “before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives."

❌ GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene: "On his way out of office, Joe Biden is dangerously trying to start WWIII by authorizing Ukraine the use of US long-range missiles into Russia.”

❌ Elon Musk: “The problem is that Russia will respond reciprocally.”

❌ Venture capitalist David Sacks: Trump wins a “clear mandate to end the war in Ukraine” as Biden is “massively escalating” the situation and trying to “hand” the President-elect “the worst situation possible.”

❌ US journalist Jackson Hinkle: Volodymyr Zelensky is a “dead man walking", who “has just sealed his fate” and whose world “will soon implode, just like every other US puppet eventually does.”

❌ Spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the US Liu Pengyu: Beijing condemns possible ATACMS missile strikes on Russian territory and actions that could lead to an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.

❌ Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro: The purported move means that America “has entered a phase of madness of North American imperialism.”
 
Who applauded the escalation?
 
☑️ EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he supported the idea of allowing Kiev to strike deep into Russian territory with Western long-range weapons, and this issue will be discussed at the EU Foreign Ministers Council.

☑️ German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock: Berlin supports Biden’s decision; the use of long-range weapons is within the right of self-defense.

☑️ Alex Soros, son of billionaire George Soros: “This is great news.”

☑️ US Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss: Biden's decision on Kiev’s ATACMS use is a “long-awaited progress.”

☑️ Member of the European Parliament Thijs Reuten: “Finally! Now Ukraine needs more ATACMS to attack the positions from where it is being attacked.”

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Biden’s APEC Summit visit results in ‘one more backhanded slap in face to Western empire’

Outgoing US President Joe Biden was unable to score a diplomatic breakthrough of any kind last week during his appearance at the annual APEC Summit in Peru. The meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping was pure formality, argues Jeff J. Brown, author of “The China Trilogy” and founder of Seek Truth From Facts Foundation.

“The Chinese know that Biden is the quintessential lame duck. Being very Confucist and wanting to respect protocol, position and tradition, they met. But that is about all,” Brown says.

According to him, what Xi told Biden during the meeting basically amounted to reiterating what the former previously told Donald Trump by phone earlier this month: “cooperation is mutually beneficial for both sides; as two leading world powers, humanity depends on us to do the right thing, and trying to limit China’s progress and development is bound to fail.”

“Uncle Sam has never honored a treaty unless the terms benefit it. Trump is more “in your face” than Biden, thus more transparent, but the results will be the same: Beijing will know what is being done to attack them,” Brown remarks.

Brown also suggests that the way Biden was treated by the hosts of the summit, i.e. not getting a red carpet reception upon arrival and being sidelined in the summit’s annual family photo, was “just one more backhanded slap in face to Western empire.”

“The rest of the human race is holding out great hopes that APEC, BRICS, African Union, CELAC and other multipolar groupings can usher in a fair, peaceful and win-win world order,” he says.

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🇷🇺🇧🇷Russian FM Sergey Lavrov's delegation arrived in Rio de Janeiro for the G20 summit, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced, posting a video on her Telegram page

"There are beaches from the window of the motorcade, an accompanying helicopter in the sky, and work ahead," she added.

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🤖🌘Spider-Bot: Mission the Moon
 
Chinese engineers from Shanghai University are designing a hexapod robot with six legs for future exploration of the moon's surface.
 
When the hexapod walks, it lifts three legs at once, while the remaining three form a stable triangular base to support the body. This allows the robot to maintain stability even if one leg is damaged.
 
One of the remarkable capabilities of the robot is its function as a guide for a visually impaired person.
 
But the question remains: why teach the machine to play curling?🤔🥌

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Gaza markets going empty: Basic goods dry up as inflation rockets to 700%

The escalating costs and scarcity of goods have taken their toll, dissolving markets and shops in the Gaza Strip. What remains are only small-scale traders operating at impromptu markets. A Sputnik correspondent recently visited one of these markets in Khan Yunis, and spoke with vendors and local residents to find out the current situation.

"Previously, an instant coffee packet like this cost half a shekel. Now it skyrocketed to 4 shekels. Why? [Because of] the staggering 700 % inflation hike! The markets are empty. There are no basic goods, and prices are extraordinarily high. People can't buy anything," Samir Latif, a local small trader, revealed.

The local vendor also pointed out that UNRWA schools can’t seem to provide the Gazans with any help, even with basic goods.

Ahmad Qadih, a displaced person looking for temporary shelter in Khan Yunis, asserted that the main reason for the current humanitarian disaster was Israel’s ban on delivering goods there, noting:

"People roam the streets day and night searching for a can of beans, or something very simple like this, to feed the children in the morning."

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