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The United States is planning to deploy nuclear weapons to the UK for the first time in 15 years, The Telegraph reported Friday, citing Pentagon documents.

The report comes amid heightened tensions between NATO and Russia over the Ukraine conflict, and calls from some Western politicians to prepare for a potential armed clash with Moscow.

The British newspaper cited procurement contracts for a new facility at the Royal Air Force station at Lakenheath in Suffolk, which point to Washington’s intention to bring nuclear weapons to the base. RAF Lakenheath is expected to house B61-12 bombs that are three times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, the Telegraph said. The US sent F-35 nuclear-capable fighters to the base last year.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last year that Moscow would be compelled to enact “compensatory countermeasures” if American nuclear warheads were to return to Britain. Russia has accused the West of stoking tensions in Europe and maintains that the eastward expansion of NATO is one of the root causes of the Ukraine conflict.

High-ranking European officials, including German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, have spoken of the need to brace for a potential war with Russia. Last week the chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, urged the bloc to be “readier across the whole spectrum” for direct confrontation.

The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, dismissed the claims that Moscow was planning an offensive against NATO as “information warfare” aimed at justifying “hybrid aggression.”

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https://www.rt.com/news/591355-us-redeploy-nukes-uk/

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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its first ruling on South Africa’s case against Israel on Friday, ordering the Jewish state to take all necessary actions to prevent genocide in Gaza. The court did not, however, order Israel to cease its military operation against Hamas.

A panel of 17 judges agreed that the court, based in The Hague, has jurisdiction to hear South Africa’s case, and passed seven “emergency measures” requested by Pretoria. In addition to demanding that Israel refrain from committing genocide, the judges ordered the Jewish state to punish members of its military who commit genocidal acts, as well as officials who publicly call for the genocide of the Palestinians. Israel must also preserve evidence of any genocidal acts already committed, the ruling stated.

The judges also ruled that Israel “shall take immediate and effective measures to address adverse conditions to life in the Gaza Strip.”West Jerusalem was further ordered to report back to the court in a month with an update on what it is doing to comply with these measures.

The ruling falls short of South Africa’s full list of demands, which included a measure ordering Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” 

However, it also comes as a blow to Israel, which demanded that the court throw out the entire case, describing it as “spurious and specious.” 

While the ICJ’s rulings are final and legally binding, the court lacks any method of enforcing them. Nevertheless, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry hailed Friday’s verdict as an “important reminder” that no state is above the law.

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said on Friday that her country’s aim was “to highlight the plight of the innocent in Palestine”and “draw attention to the lack of justice and freedom.” Regardless of how the case plays out, Pandor told Ubuntu Radio that Pretoria has already achieved these goals.

South Africa lodged its case in late December, arguing that Israel was breaching the UN Genocide Convention by “killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.”

Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking nearly 250 to Gaza as hostages. Israel responded by declaring war on the Palestinian militant group and placing Gaza under a near-total siege. After three weeks of aerial bombardment, Israeli ground forces entered the enclave in late October, where they remain engaged in combat with Hamas.

The Israeli operation has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, roughly two-thirds of whom were women and children, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry. Around 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been destroyed and a quarter of its population are starving and unable to access drinking water, according to a UN report published earlier this month.

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https://www.rt.com/news/591325-israel-gaza-genocide-court/

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Federal agents are not planning to dismantle the razor wire installed by Texas on a portion of the US-Mexico border, Fox News reported, citing a senior Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official.

The news comes as the deadline set by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Texas to “remove any and all obstructions” to access into Shelby Park in Eagle Pass expires on Friday.

“Bottom line: Border Patrol has no plans to remove infrastructure (c-wire) placed by Texas along the border,” the official said. “Our posture remains the same. If we need to access an area for emergency response, we will do so. When that happens, we will coordinate with Texas DPS [Department of Public Safety] & TMD [Texas Military Department].”

The tensions between the White House and Texas over immigration intensified on Monday when the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government can take down the concertina wire erected by Texas Governor Gregg Abbott to stop illegal border crossings.

Abbott is accusing President Joe Biden of refusing to enforce immigration law and has described the surge of migrants attempting to cross the border as an “invasion.”

“Texas will continue to exercise its constitutional right to protect and defend our southern border,” Abbott wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday. “In President Biden’s absence, we will hold the line to keep Texans – and Americans – safe.”

In an open letter published on Thursday, 25 Republican governors backed Abbott saying that the federal government had “attacked and sued Texas for stepping up to protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and terrorists entering our country.”

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre described Abbott’s actions as a “political stunt,” and accused him of creating “a dangerous situation” at the border. The governor is preventing Border Patrol from doing what “they need to save lives,” she told reporters this week.

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https://www.rt.com/news/591351-texas-border-cbp-mexico/

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Sending federal agents to confront the Texas National Guard on the Mexican border would be “the biggest mistake the Biden administration could make,” Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told Fox News on Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security has demanded access to the border by the end of the day.

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled that federal agents could begin dismantling a razor wire fence installed by Texas along Eagle Pass, a popular crossing point for illegal immigrants entering the country. 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott – who installed the fence in 2021 and stationed national guardsmen along the border to stem what he called an “invasion” – vowed to defy the ruling, arguing that President Joe Biden’s administration has failed to enforce federal immigration law, and that his duty to protect his constituents supersedes any federal laws.

“The biggest mistake the Biden administration could make would be confronting law enforcement or our military, our national guard at our border, when we are actually doing the job that the American people want,” Patrick told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

“If they come down and create a situation, all of America already knows now [and] they will clearly see that the Democrats are willing to take on a state that is operating under our constitutional right to protect our people and protect this country,” Patrick added.

In a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security demanded the immediate removal of razor wire and “unrestricted access” for its agents to the border via Shelby Park, a 2.5-mile stretch through which the frontier can be reached, but which has been blockaded by the Texas National Guard. The letter ordered Paxton to comply by Friday.

“They’re trying to make this a fight,” Patrick told Ingraham. “We’re trying to protect our border, we’re trying to protect American lives and Texas lives.”

Some 25 Republican governors issued a joint statement of solidarity with Abbott on Thursday. “We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border,” the letter read. “We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally.”

Border Patrol agents encountered more than 300,000 illegal immigrants crossing into the US in December, an all-time high for a single month. At least 7.5 million people – more than the population of the state of Arizona – have entered the US illegally since Biden took office in 2021 and dismantled former President Donald Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.

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https://www.rt.com/news/591330-biden-texas-border-mistake/

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Ukrainian troops have shot down a Russian military plane carrying Ukrainian soldiers in order to derail an upcoming prisoner swap, Moscow told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

The Il-76 cargo aircraft crashed in Russia’s border region of Belgorod on Wednesday morning, killing everyone on board. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the plane was transporting 65 Ukrainian POWs slated for exchange that was to take place later that day.

”All currently available data points to a deliberate, premeditated crime,” Russian deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said. “The Ukrainian leadership was well aware about the route and means by which [the Ukrainian] soldiers would have been transported to the agreed exchange point.”

”It was not the first such operation. However, for some inexplicable reason, the regime in Kiev had decided this time to sabotage [the swap] in the most barbaric way,” the diplomat said. 

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

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https://www.rt.com/russia/591296-lavrov-un-plane-pows/

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NATO is a “walking war machine” that has been spreading chaos across Asia since its formation, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told reporters on Thursday, accusing the bloc of using the specter of a dominant Beijing to foment regional conflict.

Wu appeared to be referencing comments made by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during the World Economic Forum last week, in which the bloc’s leader attempted to frame its buildout in Asia as a response to purported Chinese aggression.

“It should be said that NATO is a walking ‘war machine,’ and wherever it appears, it brings disorder everywhere,” Wu said, referencing “inappropriate statements by the NATO Secretary General regarding China.” 

“This is not about NATO moving into Asia, but instead about the fact that China is coming close to us,” Stoltenberg told attendees at the exclusive Davos gathering, insisting the US-led alliance remains “regional” in its focus.

Wu cautioned NATO against deliberate provocations, urging the bloc to treat China and its military development “objectively and rationally, and do something beneficial to world peace,” according to Xinhua.

Despite its moniker seemingly limiting its sphere of influence to the North Atlantic Ocean, NATO has openly courted Asian allies in an effort to counter China’s growing power. Its members already include countries thousands of kilometers from the Atlantic, such as Türkiye and Bulgaria, although Article 6 of its charter specifies that the mutual defense agreement at its core only applies to territories in Europe and North America, plus islands north of the Tropic of Cancer.

In August, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan explicitly denied Washington was seeking to create a “NATO for the Pacific”with the establishment of a trilateral defense partnership with Japan and South Korea, even as President Joe Biden heralded a “new era”of collaboration with Washington’s regional allies. Last July, NATO indefinitely postponed the controversial planned opening of a liaison office in Tokyo.

Russian General Viktor Sobolev argued in September that the US planned to “drag” Tokyo and Seoul into NATO by 2030, rather than spawn a copycat organization. In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington and its allies of fomenting discord with “unprecedented” activity in the region in a doomed bid to stave off the decline of the US-centric world order. 

NATO members issued a joint statement in July framing China’s “stated ambitions and coercive policies” as a “challenge” to the alliance’s own interests, security and values, accusing the Asian superpower of attempting to “subvert the rules-based international order.” However, the bloc insisted Beijing was not an enemy, claiming doors remained open for “constructive engagement.” 

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https://www.rt.com/news/591290-nato-war-machine-chaos-china/

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The Russian IL-76 heavy transport plane was carrying 65 captured Ukrainian military personnel when it crashed in Belgorod Region some 90km (55 miles) from the Ukrainian border. The Russian Defense Ministry has claimed that the aircraft was brought down by Kiev’s forces.

Here is what we know so far about what happened.

1. The plane crash On Wednesday at 11:15 Moscow time, reports came in that an IL-76 military transport plane carrying Ukrainian POWs had crashed and exploded in a field near the village of Yablonovo in the Korochansky district of Belgorod Region, which neighbors Ukraine.

Several people captured footage of the crash and shared videos of the incident on social media.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the plane was flying from the Chkalovsky airfield to Belgorod and was transporting the Ukrainian personnel for a prisoner swap with Kiev. Aside from the POWs, there were also six crew members and three accompanying personnel.

All those on board the aircraft were killed in the crash, according to the governor of Belgorod Region, Vyacheslav Gladkov. However, the crash did not cause any damage to structures or people on the ground, landing five to six kilometers from the nearest village.

According to Russian officials, another plane carrying an additional 80 Ukrainian POWs was also in the air at the time of the incident. After the first plane crashed, the second aircraft was diverted, according to MP Andrey Kartapolov.

2. What was the cause? Following the incident, the Russian Defense Ministry released a statement accusing Kiev’s forces of shooting down the plane using an anti-aircraft missile system. The ministry claimed that Russia’s Aerospace Forces radars recorded the launch of two Ukrainian missiles from the village of Liptsy in Kharkov Region.

The ministry has also stated that the Ukrainian side was informed of the flight ahead of time and was aware that it was carrying POWs, noting that the prisoner exchange was supposed to take place later in the afternoon at the Kolotilovka checkpoint.

3. Ukrainian media reports Shortly after the crash, the Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainskaya Pravda released a report claiming that it had received confirmation from Kiev's military that the its forces had shot the plane down and that it had been told that the aircraft was believed to be carrying S-300 missiles.

Shortly after, however, the outlet redacted that statement, stating only that Kiev had confirmed that it was aware of the plane crash but could not confirm it was carrying Ukrainian POWs.

Meanwhile, other Western media outlets such as US-state funded Radio Liberty have confirmed from sources within the Kiev government that a prisoner exchange with Russia was indeed scheduled for Wednesday, but no further comments have been provided.

4. Kiev’s intelligence A representative of the Ukrainian Intelligence Service, Andrey Yusov, has also confirmed the scheduled prisoner exchange. 

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for matters regarding prisoners of war has refused to confirm the planned swap, only stating that it was “collecting and analyzing all the necessary information” while urging the media and its citizens to refrain from speculating on the incident. The body also noted that Russia is “actively carrying out special information operations” aimed at destabilizing Ukrainian society.

5. Russia’s reaction The head of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, has suggested that the IL-76 was shot down using Western Patriot or Iris-T air defense missiles. He has also proposed calling off any further prisoner swap negotiations with Kiev and insisted that Ukraine should officially be branded a terrorist state and its government a terrorist cell.

State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin has called on Russian lawmakers to make a formal address to the US and Germany, urging them to stop actively supporting the “Nazi regime” in Kiev, which has stooped to killing its own POWs.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that Kiev had once again “shown its true colors” by committing this “terrorist act” against its own citizens in an attempt to slander Moscow's forces.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that this act of “mindless barbarism” puts into question the possibility of reaching future agreements with Kiev, noting that “there is no doubt” that the Ukrainian authorities will eventually violate any guarantees that they give.

The ministry also stressed that the regime of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, which was propped up by the US and its NATO allies, has once again proven to be a threat not only to Russia, but to “Ukraine itself, its citizens and the whole world.”

Former Russian President and current deputy chairman of the National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that the downing of the IL-76 may have been the result of internal political turmoil between “neo-Nazi elites in Kiev.” He suggested that “it’ll be even worse in the future” as the Ukrainian government will continue slaughtering its own troops and POWs and bombing its own cities to protect its power and money.

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https://www.rt.com/russia/591220-russia-il76-crash-recap/

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In addition to the waves of human beings crossing America’s southern border every day, another crisis is unfolding. Thousands of dogs are being abandoned by the illegal border crossers who bring their pets only to learn that the dogs can’t come in.

These dogs that are left behind are then breeding which only makes the problem worse.

Back in December, we told you about one reporter who rescued a puppy that had been abandoned.

We clearly need more people to rescue these poor dogs.

TMZ reported:

DOGS ABANDONED BY MIGRANTS … Reporters & National Guard Caring for Pups

There’s a crazy thing happening along the southern border — migrants attempting to enter the United States with their dogs are forced to leave them behind, and it’s creating a whole other crisis.

FNC reporter Matt Finn is on the ground in Eagle Pass, Texas and joined us Thursday on “TMZ Live” to reveal what he’s seeing firsthand … and how he and other TV crews are getting involved, and taking some of the dogs in themselves.

Matt says tons of migrants are trying to cross the border with their dogs, only to be told they can’t bring the pups with them to federal processing centers … resulting in strays roaming the border.

The circumstances leave dogs in need of food, water and shelter … and Matt says troops with the National Guard are taking care of some of the doggos … and he and his producer have helped out too.

If you’re a dog person, this will make you crazy.

So many border pups. Anyone want this guy in Eagle Pass? He’s in rough shape but so sweet. pic.twitter.com/B5QSw7aO2k

— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) January 17, 2024

Border Pupdate Today we spotted a dog we took to the vet last year (L) for flea & tick meds. He seems healthy, not scratching & sunbathing by river. pic.twitter.com/wmrefRRcOe

— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) January 17, 2024

Here’s a great update from the journalist who rescued the puppy at the border in December.

One month since rescuing Bella from the border. She is doing great and this is her happy dance when it’s time to feed her. pic.twitter.com/5EkGRtYvSY

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 20, 2024

What kind of person could leave behind an innocent dog?

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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/other-border-crisis-thousands-dogs-are-being-abandoned/

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At least 89 people have died in weather-related incidents across the United States in recent days, a report by CBS News said on Sunday, as dangerously cold conditions continue to impact various parts of the country.

Tens of millions of people across the US once again faced bitterly-cold conditions this weekend as a blast of frigid Arctic air traveled southwards from Canada, sending temperatures plummeting to record lows and blanketing sections of the country with thick layers of ice and snow.

How cold it is varies by region but in Chicago, for example, wind chills dropped the temperatures to -30 degrees Fahrenheit (-34 degrees Celsius). Elsewhere, in states like Texas, Alabama and Georgia, temperatures hovered in or around 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-6.6 degrees Celsius) last week.

Tennessee’s Department of Health has confirmed at least 25 fatalities associated with the weather conditions over the past several days, CBS said, while another 16 have died in various incidents in Oregon in the western US. This includes three people who were killed in the state when a tree fell on their car.

Oregon has declared a state of emergency after more than 45,000 people were left without power as a result of storms.

Deaths have also been reported in various other states, including Illinois, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Washington, New York, New Jersey and more. Various other fatalities – including a person killed in a five-car crash in Kentucky – are being investigated to identify if the adverse weather conditions were the primary cause.

In the state of Mississippi, officials have told residents to be aware of hazardous conditions on the roads, and to “drive only if necessary.”

Bitterly cold, below average temperatures are expected to extend into the coming week, forecasters say. “Arctic air will combine with moisture from the Gulf to create an icy mess from Oklahoma to Illinois,” meteorologist Molly McCollum said. “Travel will be treacherous on Monday.”

The eastern half of the United States will likely see its coldest weather yet this season early in the week, with dangerous wind chills and a hard freeze warning – where temperatures stay at or below 29 degrees Fahrenheit (-1.6 degrees celsius) for an extended period of time – issued as far south as northern Florida.

There is some respite in sight, however, as temperatures are expected to rise by midweek – though, according to the Weather Channel, this could swiftly thaw ice and snow, leading to an increased risk of flooding in some areas.

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https://www.rt.com/news/591047-us-weather-cold-fatalities/

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Nearly 5,000 people died in the UK last winter due to living in cold and damp homes as they could not afford the rising energy costs, the latest report from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition has claimed.

The surge in excess deaths underscores the need to upgrade the UK’s housing stock and implement measures to bring down energy bills, the coalition has warned.

The End Fuel Poverty Coalition includes Greenpeace, WWF, Green Alliance, Save the Children, and Age UK, among others.

Meanwhile, a study by the Warm This Winter campaign noted that excess winter deaths climb when the temperature in the UK drops below four degrees Celsius.

According to Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, as many as 8.3 million adults in the UK are living in poorly insulated, cold, damp homes and, as temperatures drop, conditions go from being uncomfortable to “downright dangerous.”

“While households struggle, ministers are sitting on their hands and leaving matters of life and death to chance. Instead of taking action on energy bills, they have allowed energy firms to restart using the courts to force households onto prepayment meters and have now ruled out reform to energy tariffs to help those most in need,” he told Euronews on Friday.

Meanwhile, with energy bills set to remain far above pre-pandemic levels this year and beyond, such health dangers are expected to persist this winter following a series of cold snaps, experts warn.

The coalition criticized the British government for a lack of “meaningful” action to help households struggling with elevated energy tariffs. Experts noted that officials “would rather play politics with a ridiculous Oil & Gas Licensing Bill that will do nothing to improve energy security or lower bills.”

“We are very concerned at the level of disinterest shown by the government in the welfare of older people at a time when the temperature is dropping well below freezing,” Jan Shortt, General Secretary of the National Pensioners’ Convention, which is part of the Warm This Winter campaign, said.

The coalition’s report also censured the UK government for its refusal to set up a “help to repay” scheme for those in energy debt and also for its unwillingness to implement a proposed emergency energy tariff aimed at bringing down energy bills for vulnerable households.

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https://www.rt.com/business/591075-uk-excess-deaths-winter/

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UK police have set up a new unit to combat espionage threats allegedly posed by states including China, Russia and Iran, a counterterrorism official has announced. The unit has been tasked with mitigating potential risks ahead of the general election expected in the UK in the second half of the year.

Matt Jukes, the assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told reporters on Friday that intelligence suggests that the threat posed by hostile states is “greater now than since the days of the Cold War.” 

“I don’t want to be coy,” Jukes said in the media briefing. “We are talking about parts of the state apparatus of Iran, China and Russia.” 

The UK last year passed the National Security Act, designed to provide its security services with additional measures to tackle state-backed sabotage. The legislation reformed London’s existing espionage laws, originally introduced when Britain faced threats from German spies during World War I.

The new counter-espionage unit will use the powers afforded by the act to ensure that it “will be the most overt part of the UK security community stepping up its response to those hostile state actions,”Jukes added on Friday.

He also stated that police have determined that the scale of misinformation being tracked online surpasses that of any previous election year in the UK. He noted that authorities have expressed concern over plots to kill political figures, referencing more than 15 direct threats he claimed were linked to the Iranian state in the past two years.

“This is not simply rhetoric,” Jukes continued. “In my seat, you tend to look at dashboards of indicators and there are particular indicators that we will be focused on. And right now, there are needles on that dashboard that are moving in the wrong direction.” 

In December, a Chechen-born Austrian citizen, Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, was jailed for three-and-a-half years by UK authorities after he was observed by security guards carrying out “hostile reconnaissance” of an Iranian media company in London. Examination of his phone reportedly suggested he had been recording the building’s security arrangements before his arrest.

During Dovtaev’s trial, the court was told that the TV station in question had been critical of the Iranian government, and had accused it of human rights violations. Dovtaev said he had been “set up” by an unknown contact, and had been recording the building because he liked its architecture.

The UK’s next general election is expected to take place later this year, and must be held before January 28, 2025, at the latest.

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https://www.rt.com/news/591026-uk-counter-espionage-unit/

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The shelling by Ukraine of the Russian city of Donetsk on Sunday, which claimed the lives of at least 25 civilians and wounded 20 others, was “a barbaric terrorist act” carried out with the support of the West, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said.

Sunday's bombardment of a busy market in the capital of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic was inflicted with weapons supplied to Kiev by the US and its allies, the ministry said in a statement.

“This again confirms [the West’s] direct involvement in the conflict and makes it complicit in the criminal acts of the Zelensky regime, which has once again displayed its inhumanity and hatred towards innocent people,” it said.

“The West’s unrestrained desire to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia through the hands of their Ukrainian puppets, whom it is eager to support mindlessly and without limit, is pushing the Kiev regime to increasingly reckless steps, including acts of terrorism, massive violations of international humanitarian law, and war crimes,” the ministry added.

Russia has called on governments and international bodies to condemn this “treacherous attack on the civilian population,” it stated. Failure to do so would be a sign of “silent approval of the murders of civilians” that would only encourage Kiev “to commit even more bloody atrocities,” it also pointed out.

All those involved in the shelling of Donetsk and in other “terrorist attacks” on Russia will face “an inevitable punishment,” the ministry warned, adding that the “desperate strikes” clearly demonstrate the lack of political will on the part of the Ukrainian authorities to search for peace through diplomatic means.

“The need to achieve all of the goals and objectives of Russia’s military operation is obvious. Security threats and acts of terrorism shouldn’t be committed from the territory of Ukraine,” it said.

Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, wrote on Telegram that the attack on Donetsk, which he described as a “another heinous crime” by Ukraine, will “undoubtedly” become one of the main topics of discussion during the UN Security Council meeting on Monday. Russia had requested the UNSC meeting several days ago, to discuss deliveries of Western weapons to the Kiev government.

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https://www.rt.com/russia/591027-donetsk-ukraine-west-weapons/

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The cost of supporting Ukraine's troops as a proxy force against Russia is miniscule compared to the overall US military budget, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has sai. He added that such an investment in security also benefits the US military industrial complex.

Unlike Washington's other “allies,” Kiev is not even asking for American troops on the ground, Kuleba argued in an interview with Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We kind of offer the best deal on the global security market... Give us the weapons, give us the money, and we will finish the job,” Kuleba stated. “So you save the most important, you save the lives of your soldiers.” 

The Ukrainian diplomat also claimed that Kiev “does not steal any money from American taxpayers,” arguing that “the sum of money allocated to Ukraine is to say the least a very little part” of the US military budget.

“Moreover, a vast amount of this money stays in the United States because it is invested in the production of weapons that go then to Ukraine,” he told reporters, adding that “it needs to be explained to the American taxpayers that their communities benefit from it.”

Russia has estimated that Kiev has received more than $203 billion in foreign assistance since the outbreak of the conflict. The US alone has sent Kiev over $75 billion, including more than $45 billion in direct military aid, representing 5% of the Pentagon’s proposed 2024 budget.

Moscow has also repeatedly accused the US and its allies of using the Ukraine crisis to wage a “proxy war” against Russia and turning the battlefield into a testing ground for Western military equipment. Even the Pentagon and a former UK defense secretary have referred to Ukraine as a “battle lab” and a “military innovation laboratory.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry has described Kiev’s losses throughout the conflict as catastrophic, estimating that the Ukrainian military has lost nearly 400,000 troops – killed and wounded – since February 2022, including over 160,000 during its failed counteroffensive last year.

Kiev has never officially disclosed its casualty figures, but the heavy losses have been indirectly corroborated by its ever-widening mobilization effort. Late last year, President Vladimir Zelensky claimed the country’s military had asked him to round up another 500,000 recruits to bolster the ranks, although a new mobilization bill has yet to be passed.

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https://www.rt.com/russia/591011-ukraine-proxy-best-deal/

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The US is preparing for a “sustained” bombing campaign in Yemen after ten days of airstrikes failed to undermine the ability of Houthi fighters to target ships in the Red Sea, the Washington Post has reported, citing unnamed officials.

The administration of President Joe Biden does not expect a protracted operation such as the US campaigns in Iraq or Afghanistan, but at the same time it cannot provide a timeframe for when Houthi military capabilities will be adequately diminished, the newspaper reported on Saturday.

Washington’s strategy is to curb the ability of the Shiite militant group to target ships off the coast of Yemen, or at least create safe conditions for shipping companies to resume sending vessels through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, sources added.

The Houthis have launched dozens of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the area in recent months, declaring support for Gaza amid Israel’s military operation in the Palestinian enclave.

The militants have also vowed revenge against the US and the UK, who have been carrying out strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen for more than a week.

“We are clear-eyed about who the Houthis are, and their worldview. So we’re not sure that they’re going to stop immediately, but we are certainly trying to degrade and destroy their capabilities,” one US official told the Post.

Washington is “not trying to defeat the Houthis. There’s no appetite for invading Yemen,” a diplomat familiar with the situation explained. Instead, the US wants “to degrade their ability to launch these kind of attacks going forward, and that involves hitting the infrastructure that enables these kind of attacks, and targeting their higher-level capabilities,” he added.

President Biden ordered the strikes on Yemen for ideological reasons, rather than economic, as the US seeks to maintain its status as the world’s “indispensable nation,” officials claimed.

The Washington Post expressed concern that the bombing campaign against the Houthis would become a “setback” for Biden’s goal of preventing the spread of the Israel-Hamas conflict to other parts of the Middle East. It could also end up “undermining his attempt to refocus US foreign policy on Russia and China,” the newspaper argued.

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https://www.rt.com/news/591016-us-yemen-biden-bombing/

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An Israeli company has received preliminary approval from the government to sell the world’s first steaks made from cultivated beef cells, the country’s Health Ministry announced this week.

The ministry said the approval was part of a pilot program for alternative protein carried out by the Department of Food Risk Management. It also cited the growing global demand for “products of non-living origin,” adding it is working to approve alternative food sources. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the development “a global breakthrough” and “important news for food security, environmental protection, and concern for animals.”

Aleph Farms, which was granted the go-ahead, will make the beef from cells derived from a fertilized egg from a cow named Lucy, a Black Angus that lives on a California farm. However, it could take months before the product is served to diners as regulators must still approve the company’s labels and conduct a final inspection.

“Addressing common challenges such as food security will be the best way to ensure the prosperity of the Middle East region, as well as other regions around the world that are significantly dependent on food imports, with an emphasis on Asia,” Aleph Farms CEO Didier Toubia was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel.

Creating cultivated, or ‘cell-cultured’ meat, also known as lab-grown meat, could help reduce the environmental impacts of conventional meat production, proponents claim. However, producing such meat on a large scale would mean high costs, experts indicate. 

Singapore and the US have previously approved cultured chicken for sale. More than 150 companies worldwide reportedly have plans to produce lab-grown meat.

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https://www.rt.com/business/590959-israel-cultivated-beef-steaks/

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Germany’s parliament has passed legislation that facilitates the deportation of failed asylum seekers. However, the law has come under fire from both ends of the political spectrum, with conservatives calling the measures insufficient and left-wingers crying foul over their perceived harshness.

In November, Chancellor Olaf Scholz singled out the restriction of “irregular migration” as his cabinet’s objective. He also revealed that Berlin was considering the possibility of processing asylum applications in third countries outside of the European Union.

Around the same time, the Wall Street Journal reported that the German government was considering the African nations of Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, and Morocco as potential partners.

The new piece of legislation approved by the Bundestag on Thursday evening, among other provisions, extends from ten to 28 days the custody period pending deportation, except for families with minors and unaccompanied minors. The latter cannot be put into custody.

This should help prevent situations where failed asylum seekers simply go into hiding when the deportation date approaches and wait until the procedural window closes. Moreover, from now on, the authorities will not have to inform deportees when they are supposed to be removed from the country. The only exception is families with children under 12.

On top of that, the new law gives police more rights in terms of searching migrant accommodations to facilitate the identification of asylum seekers. From now on, officials will also be allowed to access the cell phones of foreigners who claim to have lost their ID, to search for personal details.

The legislation has also expanded grounds for deportation to include those entering Germany with fake documents, committing anti-Semitic crimes as well as participating in criminal groups.

“Those who have no right of stay in Germany must leave Germany,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, adding that the new law aims to make legal immigration and smooth integration more acceptable in society’s eyes.

However, critics from the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and conservative Christian-Democratic (CDU) parties argue that amendments pushed through by the Green party have rendered the new law toothless.

CDU MP Christoph de Vries dismissed the new legislation as a “non-starter” that will not even dent the migrant crisis. The Left party, on the contrary, denounced it as an attack on individuals’ basic rights.

Throughout 2023, Germany saw a major uptick in new arrivals, aside from the million-plus Ukrainian refugees who have crossed into the country since February 2022.

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https://www.rt.com/news/590998-german-parliament-passes-law-migrant-deportation/

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The presumed Russia-linked group Midnight Blizzard has attacked Microsoft’s corporate e-mail system, including accounts of the company's management, the tech giant claimed in a blog post on its website on Friday.

According to the US tech giant, the hacking group, also known as Nobelium, APT29, or Cozy Bear, hacked some corporate e-mail accounts, including those of the company’s “senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions.”

The attack, reportedly carried out at the end of November, was detected by the company’s security team on January 12. Microsoft said an investigation into the security breach was launched immediately after it discovered the intrusion.

The corporation said that hackers didn’t go after customer data but wanted to get information about themselves. More specifically, they wanted to find out what Microsoft knew about them.

“For Microsoft, this incident has highlighted the urgent need to move even faster. We will act immediately to apply our current security standards to Microsoft-owned legacy systems and internal business processes, even when these changes might cause disruption to existing business processes,” the company wrote.

“This will likely cause some level of disruption while we adapt to this new reality, but this is a necessary step, and only the first of several we will be taking to embrace this philosophy.”

In the West, Midnight Blizzard is widely believed to be a hacking group that is linked to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). It has been responsible for a series of high-profile attacks, such as those against SolarWinds in 2019, the Democratic National Committee in 2015, and many more.

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https://www.rt.com/business/590996-microsoft-russian-hacker-emails/

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Japan has become the fifth country to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon, achieving a soft landing on Saturday despite technical difficulties with its robotic lander’s power source.

The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down shortly after midnight, reestablishing communications with Earth even as its solar panels appeared to be non-operational, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed on Saturday.

“SLIM is now operating only on its battery, and we are prioritizing the transfer of its data onto Earth,” JAXA’s space lab director Hitoshi Kuninaka told reporters. The agency acknowledged the solar panels on the 700-kilogram (just over 1,540 lbs) craft may have been angled incorrectly to make use of the sun’s rays. 

SLIM was nicknamed “moon sniper” for the program’s focus on agility and precision landing. The Japanese agency focused its efforts on landing within 100 meters (328 feet) of its intended target, a notable departure from previous lunar landers’ idea of “accuracy,” which considered landing within several kilometers of a set touchdown point to be acceptable.

Powered by two main engines and 12 thrusters, the SLIM compared input from multiple antennas, radar and cameras to existing satellite photos of the Moon, using this “vision-based navigation” to plot a maximally accurate trajectory, according to JAXA. 

The lander reportedly disgorged two miniature probes upon touchdown: a “hopping vehicle” about the size of a microwave oven and a wheeled rover the size of a baseball.

The space agency has acknowledged it may take as long as a month to determine whether SLIM’s precision-landing goals were met. While Tokyo’s spacecraft have landed on small asteroids twice before, the Moon’s larger size meant SLIM only got one chance to stick the landing correctly, Japanese scientists explained.

Because of the Moon’s uneven polar terrain, precision landing technology is expected to be highly sought-after as private corporations attempt to exploit the satellite. The poles are believed to hold a wealth of oxygen, fuel and water vital to any future commercial operations. 

Earth governments are legally prohibited from claiming ownership of parts of the Moon under the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty, though nothing in the agreement prohibits commerce there. 

No private corporation has successfully pulled off a soft landing on the Moon as yet, though several Japanese startups intend to try and Tokyo hopes to send astronauts to its surface along with the US’ Artemis program. Until this week, only the US, Russia, China and India had landed spacecraft on the celestial body.

JAXA launched the SLIM in September, reporting that the $100-million project “flew as planned” out of Earth’s atmosphere, propelled by the domestically-produced Mitsubishi Heavy H2A rocket. It has been orbiting the Moon since last month.

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https://www.rt.com/news/590999-japan-lands-moon-sniper-slim/

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It’s Washington, not Kiev, that’s interested in the continuation of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Republican US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has said.

Greene took to X (formerly Twitter) on Friday to comment on an article entitled “Zelensky Calls for Peace, Not More Weapons, in Davos,” which had been published by the New York Times earlier this week and reported on the Ukrainian leader’s speech at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps.

“Zelensky is asking for peace talks in Switzerland and the warmongers in Washington are desperately trying to fund $60 billion to keep the war in Ukraine going. This is sick,” she wrote.

Taylor Greene was referring to the ongoing resistance by herself and other hardline Republican lawmakers to attempts by the administration of President Joe Biden to push through another $60 billion in military aid for Kiev.

“This is America’s war and they are proving it,” the Republican Representative said, referring to the conflict in Ukraine. “No more money to Ukraine! Let them make peace!” she stressed.

Zelensky came to Davos to promote his so-called ‘Peace Formula,’ which, among other things, calls for Russia to withdraw from all territories claimed by Kiev, for Moscow to pay reparations, and for the formation of a war-crimes tribunal. Russian authorities instantly rejected the proposal as “unrealistic,” arguing that it was a sign of Ukraine’s unwillingness to look for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

The NYT also acknowledged in its article that Kiev’s demands “are considered, by analysts and even politicians backing the proposal, to be unreachable given the current balance of forces on the battlefield.”

In late November, Zelensky said that the Ukrainian troops were switching to a defensive posture, acknowledging that Kiev’s much-hyped counteroffensive, which had begun in early June and aimed to cut Russia’s land bridge to Crimea, had ended without success. According to Moscow, Russian forces have improved their position in many areas along the frontline since then by carrying out what the country’s defense minister, Sergey Shoigu, described as “active defense.”

Zelensky has been reluctant to engage in direct dialogue with Russia, even signing a decree in the fall of 2022 that officially bans him from negotiating with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that Moscow hasn’t ruled out the idea of peace talks but stressed that all the goals of the country’s military operation in Ukraine must and will be achieved.

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https://www.rt.com/news/590989-greene-ukraine-us-zelensky/

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Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has voiced concern that Donald Trump’s plan for swiftly ending the conflict between Kiev and Moscow might not take Kiev’s interests into account.

In an interview with the UK’s Channel 4 News on Friday, Zelensky was asked to comment on the former US president’s repeated claim that if he returns to the White House following this year’s election, he will end the fighting between Russia and Ukraine in just 24 hours.

“I don't know if his message… will have such [a] positive result as he said,” the Ukrainian leader remarked in English. It could be just a “political message” made by a candidate during the “complicated”election period, “but if it's some formula – I have to know it,” he said.

The reporter then asked the Ukrainian leader if he wanted to invite Trump to arrive in Kiev in person to explain his plan.

“Yes, please, Donald Trump, I invite you to Ukraine, to Kiev. So, if you can stop the war during 24 hours I think it will be enough to come, on any day,” he said.

Zelensky then clarified his stance in Ukrainian, saying he was concerned that if Trump takes office again “he’ll make decisions [regarding the conflict] on his own… without both sides, without us. I will now talk about us. Why? Because if he says this publicly, it’s a little scary.”

If Trump’s idea of ending the fighting in 24 hours “which no one has heard about... will not work for us, for our people, then he will do everything to achieve the implementation of his idea anyway. And this is what worries me a little,” the Ukrainian leader stressed.

Addressing a crowd of his supporters in Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday night, Trump said, “I know [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin very well; I know Zelensky well. I’m gonna get them in; we’re gonna get it solved very quickly.”

On Thursday, in his interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the former US president reiterated his other claim that “Putin would’ve never attacked Ukraine” if he was still in office.

When asked about ways to end the conflict in Ukraine last week, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., suggested that “the only way”to persuade Zelensky to engage in talks with Russia was to “cut off the money” that’s being provided to Kiev by Washington.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, Zelensky tried to brush off concerns that US aid to Ukraine would halt if Trump were back in power. “One man can’t change the whole nation,” he argued.

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https://www.rt.com/news/590984-trump-zelensky-ukraine-us/

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Traces of cocaine have been discovered during a narcotics analysis of bathrooms inside Sweden’s parliament, according to a report by the Aftonbladet tabloid.

In its Wednesday piece, the widely read newspaper said that its reporter conducted swab tests of seven bathrooms inside Stockholm’s Riksdag with ‘cocaine wipes,’ which can detect trace amounts of the substance from surfaces that have come into contact with the narcotic.

The daily claimed that the swab tests revealed the presence of cocaine in four bathrooms inside the national legislature.

“In all the samples we received, we found cocaine,” hospital chemist Anders Helander, who performed subsequent analysis on the samples, said according to Aftonbladet.

The newspaper added that the drug was found in bathrooms predominantly used by lawmakers from four political parties: the Social Democrats, Sweden Democrats, Left Party and the Liberals.

Representatives of each of the parties said that they were surprised by the findings of the analysis but added to Aftonbladet that the bathrooms in question are accessible to the public and could have been used by anyone.

“Our 28 toilets are available to everyone who needs them,” Erik Kristow, a senior member of Sweden Democrats, said to the tabloid, adding that people including “journalists, administrative staff and other visitors to our office” have access to the facilities.

A spokesperson for the Social Democrats said the prevalence of drugs in modern society is a “big problem” but stressed of the Riksdag bathrooms that “we cannot control who has access to them.”However, the representative of the party added that it is taking the results of drug tests “very seriously.”

Citing an anonymous source, Aftonbladet wrote that an internal meeting was held within the legislature this week during which officials said they would support anyone who has possible drug problems. However, they ruled out forced drug testing of lawmakers and parliament employees.

Niklas Astrom, head of security at the Riksdag, also said per the newspaper that local police are aware of the issue and an official report is being prepared.

Sweden has for several years held a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to drug prevention as part of a broader plan aimed at reducing both the supply and demand of illegal narcotics within its borders.

Despite this aggressive policy, a port in the country’s south has become a European hub for drugs smuggled to the continent from South America, Swedish customs officials said last year. Between September 2022 and May 2023, some 1.3 tons of cocaine destined for the European market were seized by Swedish customs authorities.

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https://www.rt.com/news/590991-sweden-cocaine-found-parliament/

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The US-led NATO bloc must prepare for a major conflict with Russia, which would require mass mobilization of civilians as well as the rapid expansion of industrial output to sustain the war effort, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, the chair of the NATO Military Committee, has said.

The top official made the remarks after a Thursday meeting of NATO defense chiefs in Brussels, urging the bloc to prepare for a major conflict with Moscow within the next 20 years.

“We have to realize it’s not a given that we are in peace. And that’s why we are preparing for a conflict with Russia,” Bauer stated. “It starts there. The realization that not everything is planable and not everything is going to be hunky-dory in the next 20 years.”

The official warned that the potential conflict would require focused effort not only from the NATO militaries themselves but also from the industries and civilians of member states alike.

“You need to be able to fall back on an industrial base that is able to produce weapons and ammunition fast enough to be able to continue a conflict if you are in it,” he said.

We need to be readier across the whole spectrum. You have to have a system in place to find more people if it comes to war, whether it does or not. Then you talk mobilization, reservists, or conscription.

Bauer’s statements come amid a series of warnings from NATO member states of a purportedly imminent conflict between the US-led bloc and Russia. Earlier this week, for instance, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas claimed the alliance has only three to five years to get ready for the possible confrontation.

Speaking to The Times, Kallas warned that the timeframe “very much depends on how we manage our unity and keep our posture regarding Ukraine.” “What Russia wants is a pause, and this pause is to gather its resources and strength. Weakness provokes aggressors, so weakness provokes Russia,” she asserted.

A similar take on the situation was provided by British Defense Minister Grant Shapps, who predicted a larger-scale conflict between the collective West and Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea within five years. The minister urged the allies to ramp up their defense spending, insisting the West is now facing an “existential threat” from the aforementioned countries.

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https://www.rt.com/news/590955-nato-russia-major-war/

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NATO is set to hold its largest round of war games in decades, with some 90,000 troops from all 31 member states – as well as Sweden – planning to participate. The drills will run for several months, and see training operations held across Europe.

Dubbed “Steadfast Defender 2024,” the exercise will kick off next week and continue into May, the US-led military bloc's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe Christopher Cavoli announced at a Thursday press briefing.

“Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024 will be the largest NATO exercise in decades, with participation from approximately 90,000 forces from all 31 Allies and our good partner Sweden,” Cavoli said, adding that the drills would simulate an “emerging conflict scenario against a near-peer adversary.”

At least 1,100 combat vehicles are also set to take part in the war games – including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles – in addition to more than 50 naval vessels from aircraft carriers to destroyers. Around 80 helicopters, drones and fighter jets will join them.

Cavoli went on to say that the training operations would show NATO’s ability to “reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area via trans-Atlantic movement of forces from North America,” suggesting the drills would rehearse a major US deployment to the continent.

In a separate announcement, the bloc said the drill would demonstrate NATO’s ability to “conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months, across thousands of kilometers, from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe, and in any condition.”

Earlier this week, UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said London would contribute 20,000 military personnel to Steadfast Defender, including troops with the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force. British fighter jets, warships and submarines will also take part.

The last war games to rival the size of the upcoming exercise came in 1988, at the height of the Cold War, when 125,000 Western troops gathered for the US-led “Reforger” drill. The annual operation was meant to simulate a large deployment of forces to West Germany in the event of conflict with the Soviet Union, but was halted in 1993 following the collapse of the USSR.

Last week German media claimed that Berlin was bracing for hostilities with Russia, which it projected could arise as early as summer 2025.

Moscow has for decades voiced concerns about NATO’s expansion towards its borders, viewing it as an existential threat. President Vladimir Putin earlier cited Ukraine’s desire to join the bloc as one of the key reasons for the current conflict.

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https://www.rt.com/news/590921-nato-war-games-steadfast-defender/

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A doomsday cult leader has been charged with terrorism offenses and the murder of 191 children following the discovery of 429 bodies in a forest area near his church in Kenya.

Paul Mackenzie allegedly instructed his followers to starve themselves to death so they would meet Jesus Christ before the end of the world. However, autopsies show that some died from strangulation or suffocation.

He was arrested last April after police rescued 15 emaciated church members and the first bodies were discovered in shallow graves located in the Shakahola forest area in the coastal county of Kilifi.

Exhumations over the course of several months uncovered 429 bodies, including those of 191 children, only 11 of whom have been identified to date, according to the charge sheet.

Mackenzie is alleged to have forced his followers to destroy their identification documents and forbade them from interacting with anyone outside the cult community.

According to Reuters, the mass starvation of members was designed to occur in three phases: first children, then women, followed by young men, and finally older men.

He is currently serving a one-year prison sentence for operating a film studio and producing movies for his preaching without a valid license. He is one of 95 people who will be charged with murder, child torture, and other offenses in relation to the atrocity.

Mackenzie was previously accused of extreme sermons and responsibility for the deaths of two children in 2017 and 2019. In the first case, he was cleared of all charges. He was released on bail pending trial in relation to the second case.

The cult leader has also been charged with “facilitating the commission of a terrorist act.”

He appeared before Kenya’s High Court in Mombasa on Wednesday along with 30 of his followers who are also charged with the murder of 191 children. None entered a plea because the judge granted a request for mental health assessments.

Mackenzie and his co-defendants denied the charges and will appear in court again for a bond hearing on February 8.

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https://www.rt.com/africa/590934-kenyan-cult-leader-charged-crimes/

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Facebook and Instagram users sexually harass about 100,000 children on both platforms every day, the social media brands' parent company, Meta, has reportedly admitted.

The revelation was contained in a legal filing from a lawsuit taken by the state of New Mexico against Meta last month, which was unsealed on Wednesday.

Internal company documents detail unsolicited messages received by underage users including “pictures of adult genitalia,” The Guardian, TechCrunch and other outlets have reported. The documents also show that multiple Meta employees have raised concerns about child exploitation on their respective platforms. 

The social media giant has long been aware of sexual predators targeting its youngest users. One senior executive even testified before Congress last year about how his daughter had been sexually solicited on Instagram – and about his own ultimately futile efforts to end the phenomenon.

Some employees worried the predator problem could have serious consequences for the company too, according to the filing, which describes a 2020 incident in which an Apple executive’s 12-year-old daughter received lewd messages on IG Direct – Instagram’s private-messaging platform analogous to Facebook Messenger.

“This is the kind of thing that pisses Apple off to the extent of threatening to remove us from the App Store,” a Meta employee wrote in one document.

While Meta acknowledged the risks posed by allowing children to receive unsolicited direct messages on Facebook and Instagram, the company declined to implement proposed safeguards and even stood in the way of adopting child-safety fixes because there was no money in it, according to New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez.

“For years, Meta employees tried to sound the alarm about how decisions made by Meta executives subjected children to dangerous solicitations and child exploitation,” Torrez told TechCrunch on Wednesday, accusing management of habitually making “decisions that put growth ahead of children’s safety.” 

“While the company continues to downplay the illegal and harmful activity children are exposed to on its platforms, Meta’s internal data and presentations show the problem is severe and pervasive,” he continued, referring to the newly-unsealed filing.

The state’s lawsuit accused Meta of allowing Facebook and Instagram to devolve into “a marketplace for predators in search of children upon whom to prey,” such that it failed to remove even reported child pornography and other abusive content. Some child exploitation material is “over ten times more prevalent on Facebook and Instagram than it is on Pornhub and OnlyFans,” the suit claimed. 

While Meta responded to the suit by claiming it had spent “over a decade working on these issues,” the newly-public documents show the company deliberately limiting child-safety features even while trying to lure more children and teens to use its direct-messaging function. Executives internally admitted they were losing youth market share to platforms like SnapChat, arguing against scanning messages for “harmful content” lest kids view it as invading their privacy.

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https://www.rt.com/news/590963-meta-child-sexual-harassment-unsealed/

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