In the hearing, Nuland was questioned by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) over the issue of past sanctions against Nord Stream 2 and how effective she thinks they would have been. Nuland and Cruz were having an exchange based on hypotheticals in hindsight. 

That's when she made the surprise comments, offering the following perspective... "Like you, I am, and I think the administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea," Nuland said with a partial grin on her face.

"Gratified" is not a word we've heard too often coming out of Western officials to describe their perspective on the sabotage event - certainly not in Europe at least.

The MoS can today exclusively reveal:

• A bombshell picture of the back of the original photograph showing a date stamp that proves it was developed on March 13, 2001 – three days after it is alleged Miss Roberts was forced to have sex with Andrew;
• That the original, taken on a Kodak disposable camera, was developed at a branch of Walgreens, a major US pharmacy chain;
• That the store where it is understood the photograph was processed is just a two-minute drive from Miss Roberts’ former home in West Palm Beach, Florida;
• Newly unearthed camera data which proves Miss Roberts showed the original picture to professional photographer Michael Thomas, who took 39 copies of the image, both front and back, before the MoS was involved in taking it to the FBI;
• Mr Thomas branded claims by Andrew and Maxwell that the original photograph could be fake as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘absurd’, saying he wants people to ‘stop dealing in conspiracies’.

A spokesman said: 'It is with deep sadness that we confirm the sudden passing of Clare Drakeford, wife of the First Minister. The thoughts of everyone in the Welsh Government are with the family at this time and we ask that their privacy is respected.'

Mr Drakeford became First Minister of Wales in 2018 and was reappointed to the post in May 2021.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Drakeford moved into a building in his garden to protect his wife and mother-in-law, who he said had been shielding. He said in February 2021 how they were in the top four priority groups for vaccination 'due to their conditions'.

Mr Drakeford added at the time: 'I'm hugely grateful, because they're both vulnerable. And although they've been incredibly careful and don't do anything that puts them at risk, the fact they've had the vaccine is a relief.'

Sky News host Cory Bernardi says wind turbines across the world are “collapsing at an alarming rate”. “Bloomberg reports the frequency of combusting and collapsing turbines is spiking,” Mr Bernardi said.

Centre for Industrial Progress President Alex Epstein says the World Economic Forum should be “engaging in a giant global apology” for advocating inflation and energy shortages. “It’s really the world anti-freedom forum because it’s saying we shouldn’t have freedom,” Mr Epstein told Sky News host Rita Panahi. “They're against the freedom to use fossil fuels which is the whole basis of the global economy, so they’ve made energy artificially scarce. “They continue to act like everything they’ve been doing is right in terms of catastrophising climate and saying the solution is to restrict freedom even more.”

Millions are enduring freezing temperatures as severe cold conditions grip much of Central and East Asia.

New Founding cofounder Matthew Peterson wants to see the FBI and other federal agencies reined in from continuing to suppress “lawful speech,” otherwise the United States is headed towards “totalitarian state territory.”

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