December 2020

In California, refrigerators and body bags have been prepared for those killed from complications caused by the coronavirus. ABC7 writes about it.

It is noted that the state ordered five thousand body bags and 60 refrigerators. They will be located near hospitals. California Governor Gavin Newsom explained that the state is currently going through what is arguably the most intense phase since the COVID-19 pandemic began. He explained that on average, the number of daily deaths has quadrupled in a month.

RT in its Telegram channel indicates that funds will be distributed to the hardest hit areas of Los Angeles and San Diego.

In November, it became known that hundreds of bodies of those who died during the outbreak of coronavirus in the spring of 2020 are still stored in refrigerated trucks in the US state of New York. According to the City's Office of the City's Senior Medical Examiner, many of the bodies belong to people whose families have not yet been found or whose relatives cannot afford a proper burial.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reproached the Western media for lack of ethics due to publications about the “poisoners” of Alexei Navalny. He is quoted by RIA Novosti.

According to the minister, this “sensation about the double or triple poisoning of Navalny” speaks of an unwillingness to establish the facts. The diplomat also called the flawed position “since Moscow is silent, it means it is to blame.”

The fact that the blogger Alexei Navalny was tried to “poison” twice was previously reported by the British edition of The Sunday Times, citing anonymous sources in Western intelligence services. The second attempt was allegedly made while Navalny was in a coma. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the publication as bullshit (nonsense).

Navalny became ill on August 20 during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. In the first two days he was treated in an Omsk hospital, and after that he was transported to a clinic in Berlin. German experts announced the poisoning of the oppositionist with a substance from the Novichok group. During the examination, Russian doctors did not find traces of poisons in the patient's body.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejoiced in the defeat of former President Donald Trump in the presidential election. This is stated in a statement published on the website of the politician.

He also explained that one of the reasons for Trump's defeat was the “failure of the economic war” against Tehran.

“The American president did not realize the real power and capabilities of Iran, he acted out of his illusions,” Rouhani said.

In early December, US President-elect Joe Biden announced that he plans to return Washington to an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program – the so-called Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA). He wants to negotiate and conclude follow-up agreements with Iran that would “tighten and extend restrictions on Tehran's nuclear program, and would also affect its missile program.”

Rouhani, in turn, stressed that Iran is not going to negotiate its missile program with the new US administration. Instead, Tehran is demanding adjustments in its policy towards the Islamic Republic, lifting sanctions from it and compensating for the economic damage caused to the country by withdrawing from the “nuclear deal.”

The ambassadors of the 27 EU countries agreed on the extension of economic sanctions against Russia. On Wednesday, December 16, TASS reports with reference to a source in the delegation of one of the European countries in the Council of the EU.

According to the interlocutor of the agency, we are talking about extending the restrictions for six months, which should have expired on January 31, 2021. Thus, anti-Russian sanctions will remain in effect until July 31 next year.

Earlier in December, it was reported that the EU summit had decided to extend economic sanctions against Russia for six months. Prior to this, the Dusseldorf Chamber of Commerce and Industry in its study calculated that the sanctions against Russia annually cost Europe 21 billion euros. The losses to Germany alone due to sanctions were estimated at 5.45 billion euros per year.

Western countries introduced economic sanctions against Russia in 2014 due to the annexation of Crimea and the situation in Donbass. In response, Russia announced a food embargo, which restricts the import of fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat products into the country.

Experts of the European Commission will visit the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (BelNPP) on December 16-18, 2020, the Ministry of Energy of Belarus said in a statement.

“From December 16 to 18, 2020, experts from the European Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulatory Group (ENSREG) will visit the BelNPP construction site as part of a partner review of the national action plan following stress tests conducted in 2018,” says in the message.

As the Ministry of Energy explains, the group will include experts from Belgium, Austria, Germany and Ukraine. The group will be headed by Petteri Tiippana, Director General of the Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Finland (STUK).

The Belarusian NPP with two VVER-1200 reactors with a total capacity of 2.4 GW is being built according to a Russian project near Ostrovets (Grodno region).

On September 21, the Minister of Energy of Belarus Viktor Karankevich said that the commissioning of the first power unit of the Belarusian NPP is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021, the second power unit for 2022.

On October 28, the press service of the House of Representatives of Belarus clarified that the first power unit of the Belarusian NPP will be put into commercial operation in February 2021, the second in May 2022.

A former Ukrainian soldier stole five multifunctional radio stations from a military unit near Lviv and tried to sell them for $ 50,000, the press center of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said.

The military counterintelligence managed to prevent the sale of the equipment. The Ukrainians detained an SBU officer when he tried to sell three portable devices. “The detainee was also found to have software, antennas and other components for military equipment,” the press center said.

It is noted that the former military man probably did not sell equipment alone. Now the SBU is trying to find his accomplices. The criminal case was initiated under the articles “Abduction, appropriation, extortion of weapons by servicemen” and “Theft, coupled with penetration into the premises.” The man has not yet been charged.

Earlier in December, the Ukrainian authorities decided to liquidate the state concern Ukroboronprom due to corruption. The investigation opened a criminal case against the holding over the supply of defective body armor for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, the department was suspected of purchasing counterfeit Russian spare parts for defense plants, which is prohibited by sanctions.