🇵🇱 248 out of 460 deputies voted for Tusk’s nomination. 201 were against. No one abstained.

However, it still remains unclear when Polish President Andrzej Duda will swear in the new prime minister. The Constitution of Poland states that the president is obliged to swear in the prime minister appointed by the Sejm “without delay”, but no specific time frame is specified. Duda is scheduled to visit Switzerland on Tuesday.

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🎯 Direct hits

📹 Russia's artillerymen of the Bars-8 detachment destroy Ukrainian forces in the Zaporozhye region. After receiving intelligence, the soldiers promptly aim the guns and strike the designated targets.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tells Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and US Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown about the unsuccessful results of the counter-offensive and the $200+bn spent on it.

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🇺🇸 The Pentagon’s recruitment chiefs told Congress that of the five service branches, only the US Marines and Space Force hit recruitment goals last fiscal year. The Army alone was short 55,000 active-duty soldiers.

Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired USAF Lt. Col. said “'negative' influencers – those who have served in the various theaters of US war and who are recommending against it to the younger generation” were one factor in the decline.

“Iraq, Afghanistan, the growth of drone warfare, and the general decay of the US military and its major older weapons systems – all of these things make serving in the military viewed more as a chore than an opportunity. Our target recruits do not remember 9/11.”

“Our ‘anything goes’ narcissistic culture, DEI and wokeness, glorifying the overweight and coddling our addicts – none of this reflects well on our military image,” she added.

📹 Video of Russian fertilizers for Zimbabwe being loaded onto the ship in Ghent, Belgium, last week.

"As one of the key suppliers of mineral fertilisers to international markets including Africa, and a company with a proud mission to create a world without hunger, we see our exceptional role in doing whatever we can to ensure food security in those parts of the world where people may face food shortages. We shall be looking forward to seeing Zimbabwean farmers getting our fertilisers, using it properly and eventually reaping a fruitful harvest," Russia's Uralchem CEO Dmitry Konyaev said in the statement.

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The losses in the global economy as a result of the fragmentation into two blocs from the conflict in Ukraine are estimated to be up to 7% of GDP, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Monday.

"If the global economy were to fragment into two blocs based on UN voting on the 2022 Ukraine Resolution and trade between the two blocs were eliminated, global losses are estimated to be about 2.5 percent of GDP. But depending on economies’ ability to adjust, the losses could reach as high as 7 percent of GDP," IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said.

Gopinath pointed out that the losses may be extremely pronounced in lower-income countries and emerging markets.

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🇺🇸 A six-story building in New York City's Bronx partially collapsed on Monday.

Early reports indicate no injuries were tied to the incident, but that first responders were focusing "on life" and searching for potentially trapped individuals.

🇮🇷 Iran revealed its Karrar jet-powered drone can now carry Majid short-range anti-air missiles, a heat-seeking missile with a range of 8 miles.

Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief commander of the Iranian Army, said that the development demonstrated “another stage [in the process] of upgrading the power of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force.”

Iran rolled out the Karrar in 2010, deriving it from the American MQM-107 Streaker, a target drone for testing out anti-air missiles, making its new anti-air capability highly ironic.

The small drone can be loaded four-at-a-time onto flatbed trucks, from which they can also be launched.

🚀 SpaceX is scheduled to launch the United States Space Force “space plane” X-37B into orbit Monday night, utilizing its Falcon Heavy launch system.

Little is known about the classified mission, USSF-52. According to a press release, it will test the effects of space travel on seeds, attempt to operate “in new orbital regimes” and experiment with “space domain awareness technologies.”

This mission will be the first time the X-37B, part of SpaceX’s Orbital Test Vehicle fleet, will be launched with the Falcon Heavy rocket system.

SpaceX is expected to livestream the launch, which will take place during a 10-minute window starting at 8:14 pm EST (1:14 am GMT) at the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex-39A.

Global gold stockpiling continues as prices hit record-highs, according to the report

For years, governments have slowly retreated from investing in the US dollar, shifting their assets into other currencies, penning agreements to use local currencies instead of dollars for trade, or buying up stable liquid assets like gold - a trend labeled “de-dollarization” by observers.

Nations around the world are continuing to buy up large quantities of gold amid a monthslong conflict in the Middle East, although the trend dates to before the beginning of the crisis. The scramble has driven bullion prices to their highest ever recorded.

The latest numbers from the World Gold Council have revealed that nations purchased a net weight of 42 tons of gold bullion in October, which is not the largest monthly amount ever, but well above the average. The month prior, nations bought up nearly twice that volume - 72 tons.

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Israeli troops shelled Lebanon with US-supplied white phosphorus, according to the report

Israeli Defense Force (IDF) troops firing across the border at targets in Lebanon is far from uncommon, especially amid the ongoing escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, a recent report has claimed that Tel Aviv had no qualms about using white phosphorus ordnance in such attacks in October.

According to the Washington Post, remnants of three 155mm artillery shells fired at the village of Dahaira in southern Lebanon not far from the Lebanese-Israeli border were found by one of their journalists.

The three white phosphorus shells were reportedly fired by Israeli forces at Dahaira on October 16 during an attack that was later dubbed as the “black night” by the locals and which resulted in at least nine people being injured and at least four residences getting “incinerated.”

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US aid programs to Ukraine and Israel are behind the growing gunpowder shortage, retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.

Kwiatkowski, who also served as an analyst for the US Defense Department, noted the conflicts have resulted in manufacturers switching their focus to military-grade gunpowder instead of civilian and hunting powders. She also blames American manufacturing moving overseas due to regulations from the Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Protection Agency.

The disconnect of the American elite from reality is typical of leaders in a declining empire, she added.

“The US elite today is not the elite of the Industrial Age – they study influence, propaganda and control, they know little about innovation, production and solid investment. Increasingly they are as disconnected from reality as any other elite class experiencing late stage empire – they cannot evaluate how they got where they are, and they cannot see what is coming,” Kwiatkowski explained.

The US and Ukraine are developing a new military strategy as Pentagon is ready to send Lieutenant-General Antonio Aguto to Kiev, but there is still no consensus on its content, the New York Times has reported, citing unnamed officials.

According to the publication's sources, US and Ukrainian officers hope to work out the details of the new strategy during the war games scheduled for January in Wiesbaden, Germany.

While the Ukrainian side favours offensive action, US advisers are pushing a more restrained option focusing on holding onto existing territories and building up forces.

But the training of Ukrainian soldiers in the American manner has been unsuccessful, the NYT adds, citing the same sources. In Germany, the Ukrainian forces were allegedly trained to break through much less dense defences than the one they eventually encountered.

The publication, citing unnamed US officials, also claims that many Ukrainian top-brass do not realise how unstable further US funding is, and they have unrealistic expectations about what exactly the US will supply. For example, they are asking for "millions of rounds of artillery from Western stockpiles that do not exist."

At the same time, a large number of Republicans in the US Congress have said that they will not vote on any additional spending on Ukraine until they see the new strategy.

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❗️ A Ukrainian "Tochka-U" tactical missile was downed over the Belgorod region by air defense systems on duty, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The "Tochka-U" missile can carry a cluster munition with a variety of destructive elements. This makes it particularly dangerous for civilians.

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'This is false': US shoots down reports troops being sent to Israel-Lebanon border

Reports that the United States is deploying troops to the Israel-Lebanon border is false and Washington is not preparing to take such action, a White House National Security Council spokesperson told Sputnik.

Citing sources, the Al-Hadath TV channel earlier reported that US troops would be deployed on the Israeli side of Israel's border with Lebanon.

"This is false. The US is not preparing to deploy troops to the Israel-Lebanon border," the spokesperson said.

Days after Hamas' October attack, the US put some 2,000 service members on high alert over concerns the conflict would spread further into the region. However, officials have noted any deployment would not put troops into direct combat positions but on an advising role.

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📹 A Russian Ka-52 destroys Ukrainian strongholds in the Krasny Liman region as part of a strike group, according to footage released by the Defense Ministry.

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🇺🇸 US Senator says will not take orders from Zelensky amid leader’s trip to Washington

Mike Lee said in a statement that he will not take orders from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as the leader visits Washington in an effort to rally support for further Ukraine aid.

“So no one could possibly have a legitimate reason to disagree with Zelensky? I can think of plenty of legitimate reasons,” Senator Lee said, amid a trip by the Ukrainian president to the United States. “It isn’t Zelensky’s job to worry about America’s interests. But it is ours — and we won’t be taking orders from him.”

US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene also used Zelensky’s visit to highlight the US’ lack of willingness to support a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

“With Zelensky in town and Ukraine money running dry, why doesn’t anyone in Washington talk about a peace treaty with Russia??... Answer: Washington wants war, not peace,” Greene said in a statement via social media platform X.

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Republican US Senator JD Vance called Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's visit to the United States a 'disgrace'.

"Zelensky comes to town and demands that the taxpayers give him another $61 bln, and by the way, if you want to secure your border first, you are actually a 'Putin puppet'. I think it's disgraceful. I think it's grotesque."

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The US Army has received its first Precision Strike Missiles following a successful test in New Mexico, Lockheed Martin announced in a press release.

“Thanks to the close collaboration between Army and Lockheed Martin teams, we accelerated PrSM’s development program on an aggressive schedule to deliver this next-generation missile faster than ever before,” Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Precision Fires Control Vice President Jay Price said in the release.

To meet the Army’s PrSM Early Operational Capability (EOC), Lockheed Martin is using digital tools including ARISE advanced modeling and simulation, data analytics, and software factory to advance development and improve producibility, quality and performance, the company said.

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🥴 Grandpa Joe's all confused again

While congratulating Jews on Hanukkah at the White House, the US President said that 65 years had passed since the Hamas attack, mistaking days for years.

But that's not all...

Reading from a teleprompter, the president recounted how "his father" (who died over 20 years ago) survived the October 7 Hamas attack.

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