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RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin is reportedly in the final stages of making a deal with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on building a new pipeline that could further worsen Europe's gas crisis. The agreement would double exports to China, transporting up to fifty billion cubic metres more natural gas every year via a major new planned pipeline - Power of Siberia 2. This comes as the rest of Europe reels from a major energy crisis, with prices climbing to a new record last week, up almost 800 percent since the start of the year. The EU's energy crisis has intensified...

Arguably the most frightening for Ukraine’s beleaguered defenders, hunkering in their trenches, are the Russian army’s TOS-1 rocket launchers. If the Russians roll west, the TOS-1s could shoot first, targeting the Ukrainians’ earthworks with their 220-millimeter thermobaric rockets. Thermobaric munitions are uniquely destructive. They burst over their targets, spreading a fuel vapor, before exploding and igniting the fuel and creating a pressure wave that’s twice as powerful as that from a conventional artillery shell. “A fuel-air explosive can have the effect of a tactical nuclear weapon without residual radiation,” Lester Grau and Timothy Smith explained in a 2000 article in...

Norway' Minister of Defense, Frank Bakke-Jensen, on Friday signed an agreement with the United States allowing for, among other things, construction of hangar and fuel supply infrastructure for U.S. Navy P-8A maritime patrol aircraft at Evenes airport and the nearby Ramsund naval station. “This agreement will strengthen the United States and NATO’s possibilities to defend Norway,” said Minister of Defense, Frank Bakke-Jensen in a phone interview with the Barents Observer. The new deal widens the opening for transatlantic military cooperation further. At Evenes airport, inside the Arctic Circle, new infrastructure will be built and paid by the United States, aimed...

The Israeli embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, on Saturday condemned a torchlight march of Ukrainian nationalists who celebrated the birthday of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.“Israel condemns the nationalist march in honor of Stepan Bandera. Any attempt to glorify those who supported Nazi ideology defiles the memory of Holocaust victims in Ukraine. We are demanding a thorough investigation of the antisemitic manifestations that took place during the march in accordance with the law adopted in Ukraine in 2021,” the Embassy said in a stern statement.The march drew special attention in light of the threat of a Russian invasion. Andriy Tarasenko, leader of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday, delivered three strong signals that he intends to invade Ukraine. Addressing military commanders and intelligence chiefs at the Defense Ministry, Putin offered a preemptive casus belli to justify invading Ukraine in order to address an existential threat to Russia. The Russian leader warned that the United States "will supply Ukraine with hypersonic weapons," which would reduce the nuclear strike launch-to-target time against Moscow to "five minutes." This, Putin insisted, would pose "the most serious threat" to Russia's security. One that means "we simply have nowhere to retreat further." Note the explicitly existential nature of...

An Arab citizen living in Lod was arrested over the weekend after a building lighter of Jewish residents in the Jewish neighborhood of Ahisamakh in the city of Lod was documented. Lod Mayor Yair Revivo responded, "Thanks to the building's cameras, and the municipal cameras that were installed only this month in the neighborhood, the suspect was caught within a few hours and is under police investigation. This is a Lod resident of Arab descent who lives downtown." The mayor added, "According to city cameras, he arrived by car directly at your building without walking around the neighborhood and it...

In, “Disloyal: How the Military Brass is Betraying Our Country”, the David Horowitz Freedom Center had warned that the Countering Extremist Activity Working Group imposed by the Biden administration and headed by Bishop Garrison (pictured above), a racist who constantly accused Republicans of racism for the most frivolous reasons, was preparing to purge conservatives from the military.Now the purge has arrived.The first task of Garrison’s CEWG was to develop a new definition of extremism. The newly added definition, which takes effect immediately, doesn’t actually define extremism. Since extremism is inherently relative to someone else’s moderation, it can’t be legally defined....

Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö on Saturday reiterated his country’s right to join Nato if it wants to, in a dismissal of Russian demands for no further expansion of the Western military alliance near its borders. “Finland’s room to manoeuvre and freedom of choice also include the possibility of military alignment and of applying for Nato membership, should we ourselves so decide,” President Niinistö said in his New Year address. Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin sought guarantees that Finland would not join Nato. In a statement released by the Kremlin, President Putin said Russian wants “international legal security guarantees” ruling...

It’s a new year, but the news about Iran is not new. The timing of recent rhetoric throughout the Middle East is directly related to renewed nuclear negotiations with Iran. Nobody thinks the Iranians are honest players or can be trusted. But there are world leaders who think that continuing to negotiate, even if the same outcome is likely, is a goal in and of itself. Included in the rhetoric recently was a blunt statement from Israel’s otherwise diplomatic president that Israel reserves the right to do whatever is needed to keep the Iranians from getting nuclear weapons, and that...

Russia's Vladimir Putin has warned his US counterpart Joe Biden that imposing new sanctions over Ukraine could lead to a complete breakdown in relations. In a phone call late on Thursday, the Russian president said such sanctions would be a "colossal mistake". Mr Biden, meanwhile, told Mr Putin that the US and its allies would respond decisively to any invasion of Ukraine.... ....The build-up has prompted concern in the West, with the US threatening Mr Putin with sanctions "like none he's ever seen" if Ukraine comes under attack.... ...Although the two sides exchanged warnings during the call, Russian foreign policy...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Sky News that the US and NATO are expanding onto Russia's borders - and not the other way around. At his traditional end of year news conference, Mr Putin answered questions from the world's media. And he told Sky News' Russia Correspondent Diana Magnay that his country wasn't threatening anybody and that he didn't want conflict in Ukraine. But he said the ball "is in the West's court". Watch their exchange here in full. (Click link for video)

MOSCOW, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday the Nord Stream 2 undersea gas pipeline would help to calm a surge in European gas prices and was ready to start exports now a second stretch of the pipeline has been filled. Nord Stream 2, completed in September but awaiting regulatory approval from Germany and the European Union, faces resistance from the United States and several countries including Poland and Ukraine, which say it will increase Russia's leverage over Europe. "I'd like to congratulate Gazprom and your partners in Nord Stream 2 on the completion of work...

Two airstrikes on the key port of Latakia, Syria, in the same month have raised eyebrows. A report in The Wall Street Journal noted not only that Syria has accused Israel of the strike on the port this week, but also that a US official indicated that the Iranian presence at the facility “put a big target on civilian infrastructure that would not be targeted otherwise.” The fires at the port burned throughout the day on December 28, showing that whatever was destroyed at the port was flammable and likely composed of munitions or other dangerous cargo transported from Iran...

Morocco's ruling party is conspiring with Israel against Algeria's security and stability, the secretary-general of the Algerian National Liberation Front warned yesterday. Abu Al-Fadl Baadji told reporters that the Makhzen alliance and the Zionist entity aim to "influence Algeria's principled stances in support of just global causes, especially the Palestinian and Saharan issues." Baadji's remarks came during his meeting with the Cuban Ambassador to Algeria, Armando Vergara Bueno. On his part, Bueno stressed that his country was on the "same page as Algeria regarding the Palestinian and Saharan issues, as well as other international and regional matters." He explained that...

News AnalysisThere is a growing belief among some Western analysts that increasingly closer relations between Beijing and Moscow—driven by economics or great-power politics—could eventually blossom into a military alliance.Most, however, are more doubtful that the countries will be able to build, in Joseph Nye’s words, “a serious partnership to challenge the West.”Alliances are based on mutual utility: each partner must be demonstrably useful to the other. And, frankly, Russia offers little advantage to China.In the first place, Russia is barely a great power, let alone a superpower. The most generous economic data give the country a GDP of around US$4.3...

More than 100 are deployed in a training and advisory role with Polish, US and Canadian forces. The move to shape an exit strategy follows Defence Secretary Ben Wallace saying it is "highly unlikely" UK forces will fight Russian troops on Ukrainian soil. Satellite images from US firm Maxar Technologies have revealed a new brigade-level unit, consisting of hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles, situated at an army base in Crimea. Moscow has also published changes in regulations to allow military fatalities to be buried in theater rather than be repatriated to Russia. This is widely seen as an attempt...

The origins of the first Russia dossier go back to 2002 when Don Berlin created Russia collusion stories involving billionaire brothers which were released to the Mainstream Media years later after the brothers became vocal supporters of Brexit. Dan Bongino shared in March 2019 that the Russia collusion scam was actually created a decade before President Trump’s campaign for the Presidency.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday that his country plans to double the number of settlers living in the Golan Heights. The plan was approved by the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday, Bennett’s office said. The move comes nearly three years after the United States, under former President Donald Trump, recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria more than five decades ago. Trump’s declaration was condemned by the rest of the international community as the annexation is not widely recognized. […] Israel conquered the Golan Heights in 1967 and 14 years later, in 1981, annexed the...

The world is heading for a new Cuban missile crisis in Ukraine if the West fails to deal with Russia's security demands 'here and now', Moscow said today. This came amid a new round of major military exercises by Vladimir Putin's troops in an evident bid to warn NATO of the seriousness of the situation ahead of the New Year. Videos showed the latest Russian drills - some close to Ukraine - amid fears Putin will invade if the West fails to meet his demands. Hawkish deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov denied he was exaggerating in comparing the current crisis...

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. Russia has never demonstrated some "imperial ambitions" and it has no plans for reviving the Soviet Union, the speaker of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Valentina Matviyenko told a news conference on Monday when asked for a comment regarding allegations Russia had plans for recreating the Soviet Union. "First, even if somebody might wish to do this, it would be impossible. Second, we have never demonstrated any imperial ambitions. The train is gone. These days it is essential to develop mutually beneficial cooperation on a new basis. We have no such plans and we...