POV: Western air defenses try to intercept Russia's 'cutting-edge' Oreshnik missile

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❗️There are dead and injured after Ukrainian shelling of Russia's Rylsk in the Kursk region and the exact numbers are being established, according to preliminary data announced by Russia's Investigative Committee

The committee has opened a criminal case for terrorism in connection with the shelling.

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❗️The strike on Rylsk was carried out with HIMARS MLRS, said the acting head of the Kursk region Alexander Khinshtein.

According to him, the Ukrainian Armed Forces deliberately choose civilian objects as targets. Thus, as a result of today's attack, the buildings of a cultural center, college, school, and fire department were damaged.

Ukrainian forces are making repeated attempts to launch missile attacks on Russia's territory of the Kursk region, acting Governor Khinshtein said.

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Trump's victory fits into three brown boxes

US electoral protocols from the different states have been delivered to Capitol.

On January 6, Congress will approve the election results and the new president will take office on January 20.

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What's the US deep state and how could BRICS stop it?

The US deep state is "essentially a philosophy where a few profit at the expense of the majority, expressed in various ways," Lillie Ferriol Prat, a project/research assistant at the BRICS Research Institute of the Durban University of Technology, South Africa, who is conducting research on this mysterious entity, tells Sputnik.

She traces its origins back to the establishment of the US Federal Reserve System, which was authorized to print money, while its co-founders, American and European financial dynasties, laid the groundwork for future liberal globalism.

"In modern times, one of the key foundational components has been the establishment of the Fed and the resulting debt-driven monetary mechanics, which paved the way for dollar dominance and aggressive globalization—an ideal scenario for a few selected individuals," Ferriol Prat explains.

Given that the dollar's dominance ensures the enrichment of the US elite, it seems one of the deep state's roles has long been to preserve this hegemony.

However, the weaponization of the dollar is prompting some global players to seek alternatives to the greenback and the Western-centric clearing system controlled by the US. The BRICS bloc is championing the idea of an independent financial and settlement payment system.

"The paradigm shift led by BRICS (and now BRICS+) towards an inclusive and just multilateral system must be supported by alternative financial institutions and settlement instruments to structurally prevent a top-down approach and instead promote a structure where each country can decide what is most convenient for its people," says Ferriol Prat.

Apparently, the US deep state now faces a painful dilemma whether to ramp up its destructive policies, adapt to new conditions, or become a relic of the past.

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❗️At least six people, including a child, were killed in Russia's Rylsk in the Kursk region as a result of a missile strike by Ukrainian militants, acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein said.

Ten people, including a 13-year-old child, were taken to hospital with injuries, Khinshtein added.

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❗️Russia to raise issue of Ukrainian strikes on Rylsk on Friday at UN Security Council meeting, Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova tells Sputnik.

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Deceased Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley's widow, Lyudmila, said that she is pleased that the trial of those accused of his murder is focused on finding out the truth.

She spoke to journalists after a closed court session in Donetsk, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

Earlier, on November 25, at the first court session, the judge ruled to carry out the trial in a closed-off format. At the session on December 5, the court rejected the defense's motion to open sessions to the press.

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Erdogan warns West to halt Israeli operations in Syria and signals potential Turkish invasion

Turkish President Recep Erdogan has suggested that Turkiye may intervene in northern Syria to eliminate what Ankara considers to be threats from Kurdish groups, according to the Times of Israel. He has also urged the West, particularly the US, to halt Israel’s military actions in Syria.

While Turkiye controls parts of northern Syria, the Israeli Defense Forces entered a buffer zone in the Golan Heights, claiming its presence is temporary until a new regime ensures compliance with the 1974 disengagement agreement.

Erdogan's comments follow clashes between Turkish-backed fighters and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Turkish president vowed to neutralize "terrorist organizations" in Syria and prevent recruitment to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is coined a terrorist organization in Turkiye.

Erdogan also welcomed improved relations with Syria’s new leadership and announced plans for Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to visit Syria soon.

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Macron's empire crumbling: Why France fails to solve Mayotte's crisis

French President Emmanuel Macron extended his stay in Mayotte, France's poorest overseas department in the Indian Ocean, following the devastating impact of Cyclone Chido on December 20.

Anger in Mayotte

▪️The French president's arrival on December 19 was met with anger from the local population due to what they perceive to be authorities' inability to deal with the consequences of last week's natural disaster in a timely manner.

▪️The disaster has claimed the lives of at least 31 people and left over 2,000 injured, with local officials fearing the actual death toll may be much higher. Around 100,000 of the island's 320,000 inhabitants have been left homeless.

Why was the island unprepared for the disaster?

▪️Media attributes the problem to the exceptional poverty of Mayotte. An estimated 77% of the population live below the poverty line, with many residing in shantytowns.

▪️Mayotte was colonized by France in 1843 and remained a French territory following a popular referendum in 1974, while the nearby Comoros gained independence.

▪️While being administered by France, Mayotte suffers from poverty, illegal migration, gang crime, water shortages, a housing crisis, and youth protests.

▪️In July, the island experienced weeks-long protests and blockades over crippling social issues.

Why can't France solve Mayotte's problems?

▪️British conservative magazine The Spectator stated in May that "Macron’s empire is falling apart," referring to the social and economic disasters affecting Mayotte, New Caledonia, and France's other overseas territories.

▪️The magazine suggests that France cannot afford to manage its overseas possessions as it struggles with growing budgetary deficits. Meanwhile, other former French colonies are pushing it's troops out.

Why is France still clinging to Mayotte?

▪️Mayotte is strategically located in the Indian Ocean, a major sea route of the global economy, handling 30% of global trade and 40% of France’s exports outside the EU, according to The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

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Oreshnik vs Western missile defenses: who would win?

None of the currently-available Western missile defense systems are capable of intercepting Russia’s Oreshnik, military analyst Alexey Leonkov tells Sputnik.

▪️The vaunted US THAAD and the Israeli Arrow 3 missile defense systems, which probably could take on first-generation Russian hypersonic missile such as Kinzhal and Zircon, have a snowball’s chance in hell to intercept Oreshnik, a second-generation hypersonic weapon, he says.

▪️Air defenses such as the German IRIS-T, French SAMP-T or the US-Norwegian NASAMS would be powerless against Oreshnik as well, even if they were to fire their entire payload at it, Leonkov adds.

▪️As for the famous Patriot, Leonkov recalls how one such air defense system in Kiev ended up firing all of its 32 interceptors at an incoming hypersonic Kinzhal missile and failing to hit it before being destroyed by that same Kinzhal.

▪️While Western air defenses can guide their interceptors towards targets flying at a speed of about Mach 2.5, Oreshnik dives at its target at Mach 12. These weapons could thus ‘see’ Oreshnik but still be powerless to do anything about it.

▪️The fact that Oreshnik constantly maneuvers at hypersonic speed while approaching the target makes predicting its trajectory virtually impossible for enemy air defenses, Leonkov explains.

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US welcomes "promising messages" from Syria's interim authorities, but looking for actions, according to Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf following her visit to the country.

Leaf said the US will now drop the bounty on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's (HTS) leader's capture.

HTS' leader promised the US that terrorist groups won't pose a threat inside Syria or externally.

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Could European Peacekeepers Really be Deployed to Ukraine?

Few European countries would risk sending their soldiers to Ukraine as part of some kind of a peacekeeping force, former Swedish military officer and politician Mikael Valtersson told Sputnik.

He outlined two potential scenarios of peacekeeper deployment in the Ukrainian conflict zone, with the basis for both being “a ceasefire along the current front lines and no Ukrainian NATO membership in the foreseeable future.”

The first scenario involves an international peacekeeping force comprised of troops from countries or regions unaffiliated with the participants of the Ukrainian conflict, such as “Turkiye, India, Latin America, Africa, ASEAN and maybe European countries like Hungary and Slovakia.”

The second scenario, where EU troops would be sent as peacekeepers, would likely result in Russia perceiving it as a breach of any ceasefire and would restart the fighting “long before the Western forces reached the front lines.”

As a result, Europe would be left with a conflict “involving several European countries, but without the backing of NATO or the US,” so it is small wonder that, as Valtersson put it, “it would be impossible to get unity within Europe about such a mission.”

“Instead, the fighting probably will continue during 2025, without US support, until Ukraine realises that they must accept the situation on the ground. But then the conditions might be even more severe for Ukraine,” Valtersson mused. “They lost a great opportunity to get a good deal during the Istanbul negotiations and risk gambling away even more now.”

“A much more plausible scenario for European military involvement on the ground in Ukraine is that some of the more hawkish nations send support units and 'instructors' to Ukraine,” Valtersson warned. These European troops would become prime targets for Russia, he added, without actually having “much impact” on the outcome of the conflict.

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Pepe Escobar on Putin's art of compromise and Oreshnik duel

"President Putin’s end of the year Q&A contains enough substance to be unpacked for weeks, if not months," writes Pepe Escobar, a geopolitical analyst and veteran journalist, in his Sputnik column.

According to Escobar, the US-driven "forever wars" in West Asia and Ukraine have now been united in "an omni-war", which fails time and again to render Russia defeated.

"Putin brushed aside the notion that Russia has been weakened by Assad’s downfall in Syria," Escobar notes. "Instead, he practically proposed that the Russian bases could provide humanitarian aid [to Syrians]."

The Russian president "reminded everyone that politics is the art of compromise," Escobar stresses.

At the same time, "Putin increased the tone on Tel Aviv..., directly condemned Israeli invasion and annexation of sovereign Syrian territory; and confessed he does not know what 'ultimate goals' Israel is pursuing in Gaza," the journalist continues.

When it comes to Ukraine, "Putin is adamant that Russia is always ready to negotiate with Kiev" the analyst highlights, adding that Moscow has already articulated its conditions for that.

Putin also busted Western speculations about BRICS, stressing that “BRICS is not a tool for countering the West" but a group aimed at propping up development and generating "more economic growth."

According to Escobar, "the whole Forever Wars riddle directly links with BRICS, because this is a hegemon war against BRICS... inscribed in the big picture of Eurasia v. NATOstan war."

"Arguably the prime cliffhanger of the Q&A was Putin proposing to test the hypersonic Oreshnik [missile] against NATO’s Aegis Ashore [air defenses]," the journalist notes, adding that it wouldn't happen since "collective West cowards" would "flee from being totally humiliated."

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🚒🔥Large fire at former Virginia Intermont College campus in the US

Firefighters were called to Moore Street in Virginia state's Bristol early on December 20 to fight a blaze at the former Virginia Intermont College campus, local media reported.

Thick smoke can be seen in the area, according to footage circulating on social media.

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😫 Someone was left without a New Year's gift...

Zelensky has repeatedly demanded that the US give Ukraine the technology and license to produce Patriot air defense systems, but still can't get a yes or no answer.

"And nobody seems to mind. Nobody has ever said to me, ‘No, we're not going to give you one.’ But so far, we haven't received anything," he complained.

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A sudden surge of energy or...?

Outgoing US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have both suddenly interrupted their planned Christmas holidays - Biden returned from Delaware and Harris cancelled her trip to California at the last minute, according to reports.

Neither of them has made a public statement explaining the reason for such a rapid comeback, leaving many to wonder whether the bustle over the government funding is the real cause, newspaper suggest.

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