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A Maine Coone from Stary Oskol in eastern Russia is thought to be the world’s largest kitten at just under 2 years old — with perhaps years more before he stops growing. Owner Yulia Minina bought the alabaster tomcat named Kefir — after the creamy cultured milk drink — two years and many pounds ago. “But when strangers come to the house, everyone first confuses him with a dog,” she added. In fact, Kefir weighs more than the average toddler, with 2-year-olds typically clocking in at 26 to 28 pounds, according to BabyCenter.com.

"[American leaders] don’t think the balance of power matters any more…. If you think we’ve had trouble with the Russians, just wait for the trouble we are going to have with the Chinese. I am very popular in China. I go to China quite often. I usually start my talks by saying, ‘It’s good to be back among my people.’ Because when I get to China I’m intellectually more at home there than I am in Washington…." PROFESSOR JOHN MEARSHEIMER, 2016 Will there be a war over Ukraine? Have recent negotiations opened a path to peace? Unfortunately, the diplomats have...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with his Russian counterpart in Switzerland this week as tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalate over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, the State Department said Tuesday. The State Department said Blinken will travel to Kyiv on Wednesday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, move on to Berlin and then meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday. The hastily arranged trip aims to show U.S. support for Ukraine and impress on Russia the need for de-escalation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki underscored the urgency. “We’re now at a...

WASHINGTON — The White House believes Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine at any moment, press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday, warning that an “extremely dangerous situation” is building along the Ukrainian border. "We believe we're now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack on Ukraine. I would say that's more stark than we have been,” Psaki said during her daily press briefing.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Ukraine to meet with the country’s president and foreign minister amid heightened tensions between Kyiv and Russia. Blinken will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday “to reinforce the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Tuesday. Price noted that Blinken will also discuss "the Department’s efforts to plan for contingencies" with U.S. Embassy’s staff and their families. Blinken will later travel to Berlin, Germany to meet with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and hold a...

Senators to meet with Ukraine president to reaffirm US support A bipartisan group of senators is traveling to Ukraine this week to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials amid escalating tensions between Kyiv and Moscow. Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) announced the trip on Monday. They said they are traveling to Ukraine and holding discussions “to reaffirm the U.S.’ commitment to Ukraine, which continues to face an increasingly belligerent Russia.” Meetings with Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials were slated...

Canadian special forces operators have been deployed to Ukraine amid rising tensions between the NATO military alliance and Russia, Global News has learned. The deployment of a small contingent from the Canadian Special Operations Regiment comes as diplomatic talks aimed at staving off an armed conflict in Ukraine have faltered, and an estimated 100,000 Russian troops remain camped on Ukraine’s border. Sources told Global News that the Canadian special operations presence is part of an attempt by NATO allies to deter Russian aggression in Ukraine, and to identify ways to assist the Ukrainian government. The unit has also been tasked...

Two British C-17 transport aircraft carrying weapons to Ukraine were forced to fly around German airspace after Germany refused to supply defensive weapons to Ukraine. Tens of thousands of Russian troops are positioned close to the Ukrainian border, according to the UK Defence Secretary, “Their deployment is not routine, and they are equipped with tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, rocket artillery, and short-range ballistic missiles”. This build-up has resulted in Ukraine requesting assistance from allies, with two British transport aircraft heading to Ukraine with anti-armour weaponry.

Move likely to stoke invasion fears as war games also planned near borders of Nato members Poland and Lithuania Russia has begun moving troops to Ukraine’s northern neighbour Belarus for joint military exercises, in a move likely to increase fears in the west that Moscow is preparing for an invasion. The joint military exercises, named United Resolve, are to take place as Russia also musters forces along Ukraine’s eastern border, threatening a potential invasion that could unleash the largest conflict in Europe for decades. Wendy Sherman, Jens Stoltenberg, the Russian deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, and the Russian deputy defence...

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s Environment Minister said Thursday a clandestine oil deal that would have turned a scuba divers’ paradise into a waypoint for Emirati oil headed for Western markets has effectively been blocked.... ...The secret deal would have significantly increased the number of oil tankers docking and unloading in the Israeli resort city of Eilat. It was struck last year between the Europe-Asia Pipeline Company, the Israeli government-owned corporation, and MED-RED Land Bridge, a joint Israeli-Emirati venture, following the historic agreement establishing formal diplomatic ties... ...Senior officials in former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — including his...

Russia has three ways to influence the US. One of them is a nuclear warning strike on a test site in Nevada. You can even use missiles strategically.This proposal was made on the air of the National Course YouTube channel by State Duma deputy from United Russia Yevgeny Fedorov.“This is a training ground where the US military is located , there are no civilians there, and if you warn two or three days in advance, then it’s quite a good action to demonstrate the seriousness of intentions, ”the deputy expressed his opinion.Fedorov noted that Russia can afford such actions and...

Russia again expects the US and EU countries to provide written responses to demands for security guarantees related to NATO's refusal to expand to the east. In particular, this was stated by Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov, who shared his own assessment of the results of his country's dialogue with the United States in an interview with Newsweek. "It must be admitted that the discussions held last week with the United States and NATO have not yet yielded any significant results. We expect written responses from Washington and Brussels to our draft agreements. Based on them, we will make...

Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the United States was in a “new cold war” with Russia. Discussing Russia gathering troops on its border with Ukraine, McCaul said, “I’m seeing tough rhetoric but not a lot of action. I talked to Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman prior to her negotiations that. You know, you have to put things on the table, like sanctions. You have to talk about more arms sales, weapon sales to Ukraine, and this Nord Stream.”

The World Situation In A Nutshell British Intelligence puts out a news release about a Chinese spy in Parliament. A News Release!!! I guess the real problem is that Russia is about to invade Ukraine you read about it every day at least???? John F. Kennedy drew a red line over Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962 in territory near the US and Russia is drawing a red line over NATO expansion and offensive capabilities near its territory in 2022... Politics I See The Wagons Circling Is That A Sign Of War! Lindsey Graham, Senator from South Carolina, Boeing etc....

Russia has dismantled ransomware crime group REvil at the request of the United States in an operation in which it detained and charged the group's members, the FSB domestic intelligence service said on Friday. The arrests were a rare apparent demonstration of U.S.-Russian collaboration at a time of high tensions between the two over Ukraine. The announcement came as Ukraine was responding to a massive cyber attack that shut down government websites, though there was no indication the incidents were related. read more The United States welcomed the arrests, according to a senior admininstration official, adding "we understand that one...

But the Minsk Agreement is only one element of Putin’s ultimate plan, which American policymakers don’t seem to fully grasp. Quite simply, Putin’s grand strategy is to dominate and implode the West.(...) But already during the pro-Western Russian presidency of Boris Yeltsin, pro-Soviet Russian diplomats led by a former top KGB agent, Yevgeny Primakov, sought to restore Russian pride with a new strategy of “de-Americanization.”

Europe’s largest economy, Germany, is expected to become a net importer of electricity in 2023 for the first time since 2002 due to retiring coal plants and the nuclear phase-out, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. Germany plans to switch off all its remaining nuclear power generators by the end of 2022, while it will also retire a large portion of its coal-fired capacity fleet between 2022 and 2024. Recently, the country has said it would aim to phase out coal by 2030 – eight years ahead of earlier plans. The coal exit for Germany could be more...

As the predictably useless U.S.-Russia security talks in Europe are wrapping up this week, Putin is launching another huge live fire drill on the border of Ukraine. In addition to the 100,000 combat-ready troops that were pre-positioned in the area, Russia deployed additional 3,000 troops, 300 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, ground attack fighter jets, transport and attack helicopters, and other weaponry. The Russian strongman’s answer to President Biden’s naïve pleas to “de-escalate” the crisis in Ukraine is to keep messing with the Americans’ heads (morochit golovu). On Sunday, after the high-level US-Russia meetings kicked off with a two-hour working dinner...

The powerful American nuclear submarine of the Virginia class named USS New Mexico has approached Russia’s territorial waters. USS New Mexico is a powerful US nuclear submarine carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles that has been discovered in northern Norway and is believed to be on its way to Russia’s territorial waters The purpose of the appearance of this nuclear submarine is not clear yet, but analysts say it is related to negotiations between the US and Russia on Ukraine. It is not excluded that Russia will send anti-submarine reconnaissance aircraft to “monitor” US nuclear submarines when they approach their territorial waters....

Ukrainian government servers were hit by a "massive cyberattack" overnight that saw government websites taken down, including the homepage for the Foreign Ministry, which temporarily displayed a message warning Ukraine's people to "be afraid and expect the worst." Just hours before the latest digital sabotage, Ukraine's ambassador in Washington told CBS News that her country believed a cyberattack would precede any major military action by Vladimir Putin's forces. There was no claim of responsibility for the cyberattack, but Ukraine has blamed groups with links to the Russian government for similar previous sabotage.