🇨🇳⚓️ China launches fourth Type 075 amphibious assault ship

China unveiled on December 14 its fourth Type 075 universal amphibious assault ship, boosting naval capabilities amid rising tensions in the South China Sea.
Yet to be officially named, the ship with a length of up to 250 meters and a displacement of 36,000 tons — rivalling US counterparts — has been moved out of dry dock and is now on the outfitting quay for remaining work. The unexpected addition to the Type 075 calss, despite initial reports suggesting a three-ship limit, hints at the possibility of more units in the future.

The move comes amidst increased US military activity in the region, including deploying drone ships and military spending hikes under the Pentagon's "Pacific Deterrence Initiative" — prompting China to enhance military spending.

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According to a poll by the Rand Corporation, 54.4% of Americans would discourage a young person they're close to from joining the US military.

The poll comes as most branches, including the Army, Navy and Air Force, failed to meet their recruiting goals in 2023, and after instituting a large number of reforms in an attempt to raise their numbers.

The study also showed that despite their hesitancy to recommend military service, most Americans still hold overwhelmingly positive views of veterans.

Additionally, a large majority, 61.2%, said they would recommend a young person close to them join an officer program, either through a military academy or the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

🇺🇸🇫🇮 Why US troops in Finland will make Nordic nation less safe

“Mutual deterrence is fraught with the constant underestimation or overestimation of threats, requires a huge infusion of resources into the military sphere that could be useful in other places, and most importantly, creates conditions for escalation, including unintentional escalation, simply by virtue of very powerful armed forces saturated with various weapons being mobilized and standing opposite one another,” Institute of World Economy and International relations security analyst and researcher Dmitry Stefanovich told Sputnik, referring to the new theater of tensions between Russia and NATO in Europe.

The Finnish-US Defense Cooperation Agreement, expected to be formally signed on December 18 by Finland’s cabinet, sparked alarm in the Kremlin on Friday, with presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying it “will certainly lead” to increased tensions and “pose a threat” to Moscow.

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🌐 Non-Western countries, representing the world's majority, support Russia's intention as BRICS chair to work on a just world, Chinese expert says

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that his country's work under its BRICS presidency will be devoted to fair world order.

Reflecting on this statement, Wan Qingsun, Deputy Director of the Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at East China Pedagogical University, said that it "means that Russia not only intends to move firmly towards building a just world order, but it has also become an expression of the general opinion of non-Western countries that make up the majority on the planet."

"From a realistic point of view, the rise of the group of new economic powers and emerging economies represented by the BRICS has already become an irreversible trend, despite periodic setbacks and difficulties," he added.

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🇺🇸 The US Air Force's Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program, initially estimated to cost $96 billion, is now facing significant potential cuts

Cost overruns could see the cost of each missile rise by up to 50 percent from the 2020 estimate of $118 million, not adjusted for inflation.

That may trigger an official review under a 41-year-old law, potentially leading to the program's termination. The revised total cost for the planned 659 missiles could approach nearly $117 billion.

The Sentinel program, managed by aerospace firm Northrop Grumman, is designed to modernize the US nuclear triad by replacing the old Minuteman III missiles first deployed in the 1970s. The program enjoys broad support from Congress — but there are concerns about rising costs.

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🇵🇸 Al Jazeera has reported the death of its cameraman Samer Abu Dhaki as a result of an IDF air strike on a school in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Abu Dhaki died five hours after from loss of blood being wounded, as the Israeli military did not allow doctors to reach him, the channel said in a statement.

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🇬🇧 UK official humiliates Ukraine, rejects plea for scrapheap-destined vehicles

London’s mayor has rejected a request from his Ukrainian counterpart to have cars destined for the scrapheap under ULEZ sent to the Kiev regime.

Sadiq Khan cited a legal quirk in his letter to Vitali Klitschko when explaining why he would not let Ukraine have the pick-up trucks and 4x4s, as per The Telegraph.

Khan said the proposal did not comply with a “legal threshold” that requires the ULEZ scheme to benefit London's residents from an “economic, social and environmental perspective.”

Under ULEZ, London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone, vehicle owners can claim a one-off payment to a tune of £2,000 ($2,537) if they scrap a car failing to comply with the pollution levy.

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🇭🇺 Hungary will be able to veto accession talks between the EU and Ukraine when they are real and not hypothetical, as now, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

“I think we made the best decision. We do not take part in this decision, we are not responsible for it and we also free ourselves from the consequences,” Szijjarto said in an interview with the Mandiner portal.

He said resorting to veto would be expedient “if, during preparation for real, and not hypothetical, as now, talks, Brussels wants to impose something unfavorable for us.”

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Lotus blooming: Russian Airborne Troops to receive new self-propelled artillery 

The development of Russia's new Lotus self-propelled artillery system for the airborne troops has reached the finish line, and state tests are pending, after which it will be put into service.

In the conditions of active use of drones and anti-battery radars, the mobility of artillery equipment is of paramount importance. Its survival depends on how fast the self-propelled artillery can leave its position. The Lotus is fast, with its 2B-06-2 diesel engine producing 450 hp, which accelerates the self-propelled vehicle to 70 km/h on roads and up to 40 km/h on rough terrain. The range is 500 kilometers, which is very good for a vehicle of that weight. 

The conversion time from marching to combat position is 30 seconds, its range is 13 kilometers, and its rate of fire ranges from six to eight rounds per minute.

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🇷🇺 Russia's special military operation in Ukraine launched the process of de-dollarization and de-Americanization, Dusan Bajatovic, general director of the Srbijagas natural gas provider and deputy chairman of the Socialist Party of Serbia, said in an interview with Sputnik.

"Russia’s role is enormous: de-dollarization and de-Americanization, decolonization began when the imposed conflict in Ukraine started. It looked like a regional conflict, but in essence it is a struggle between Russia and the collective West, Russia and NATO, and if you really look at it - the East and the West, a clash of the majority of states and nations of the world with the colonial West," Bajatovic said.

Bajatovic further indicated that Europe has lost the advantage of cheap Russian gas and is moving toward de-industrialization.

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🇧🇬🇷🇺 Bulgarian authorities tried to introduce an excise tax on the transit of gas from Russia to stop its gas supplies to Europe, but this is impossible, Dusan Bajatovic, General Director of Serbia's gas company Srbijagaz, told Sputnik.

"The purpose of the attempt to introduce these additional $100 was that the Russians would refuse to pay, for the rest it would become expensive and, then, they would say - the transit is not paid for, the service cannot be provided. This was invented to stop the supply of Russian gas through the Turkish Stream and the Balkan Stream to Serbia, Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia. Another mining of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, as was the case with Nord Stream, would be too suspicious. It would not be possible to justify the fact that another gas pipeline was mined at the bottom of the sea, so this option was invented to stop gas supplies from Russia to Europe," Bajatovic said.

He added that the Bulgarian authorities themselves had already withdrawn their proposal, and it was currently being considered by the Bulgarian Constitutional Court.

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Ukraine on brink of humanitarian collapse, authorities admit

Ukrainian citizens will have a hard time scraping by next year, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned on Telegram.

The government will face difficulties fulfilling its social and humanitarian obligations due to the ballooning budget deficit, the Ukrainian official admitted. She cited two “new factors” that have emerged in 2023. According to Vereshchuk, the conflict “may last longer than we first thought.”

“Secondly, there may be fewer resources for the social and humanitarian spheres than we would like, which means we must endure more, and longer, for less money,” the Ukrainian deputy PM said.

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📹 Russian reconnaissance drone crews and FPV drone operators tracked down, trapped, and destroyed a group of Ukrainian infiltrators in the Artemovsk direction

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This week was a week of disappointment for the Ukrainian leader in terms of financial support, says the Financial Times.

EU leaders "missed the mark" by failing to agree on a €50 billion aid package for Ukraine at a summit in Brussels, a Western diplomat told the news outlet.

An EU official said that Kiev has liquidity through January, but after that, it will get "a little tight," which is why Ukraine is "right to be nervous."

Michal Baranowski of the German Marshall Fund think tank in Warsaw said the EU summit marked "a bittersweet moment in the EU's relations with Ukraine."

"The EU's decision to open negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova is truly historic, even if it's only the beginning of a long road. The bitterness comes from Hungary's decision to veto the €50 billion financial package, which is crucial for the financial health of the Ukrainian state," Baranowski said, as quoted by the media.

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❗️ Emir of Kuwait Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah died at the age of 86, state TV reported, citing the Emir's office

🇵🇱 Ukraine's accession to the European Union could undermine food security in the bloc, putting European farmers out of business, Polish Deputy Agriculture Minister Michal Kolodziejczak said on Saturday.

Ukraine's accession to the EU will harm the interests of Polish farmers, as they will be dominated by large Ukrainian agriculture companies, the Polish official continued. He said the entire Ukrainian agriculture was monopolized by about 95 holdings controlling anything from land to railroad.

"We must respect our interests, as, for example, Germany did when Poland joined the European Union. At the time, the labor market for Poles was frozen for eight years. Today, we could say that agricultural products from Ukraine – fresh and processed – should not enter Poland, for example, 20 years after Ukraine joins the EU," the official added.

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🇷🇺 More than 700 voters officially proposed to nominate Vladimir Putin as an independent candidate for the upcoming presidential elections, said Sergey Kogogin, Chairman of the Central Headquarters of the All-Russia People's Front.

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📹 Russian paratroopers, using Lancet drones, disabled and destroyed a Ukrainian radar station, an M109 Paladin self-propelled gun, and a Western-made towed howitzer with a tractor and crew

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Bidenomics' strikes again? Homelessness hits record-high in US

Homelessness has surged to an alarming level, according to a new “point-in-time” federal survey. Over 650,000 people were “unhoused” on a single night in January this year, which is a 12% rise from 2022, per a US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report. This is the highest number since the survey was launched in 2007.

Furthermore, the number of people who became homeless for the first time surged by 25%. The main reasons given for the homelessness crisis were:

▪️ End of COVID-19 pandemic programs and benefits

▪️ Surging rental costs

▪️ Migrant crisis triggered by the Biden administration's border policies

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Israeli troops "mistakenly" opened fire on & murdered 3 Israeli hostages in northern Gaza.

The hostages who were killed by the IDF soldiers in Gaza were shirtless and waving a white flag when they were shot, an IDF official said, calling the killings a “tragic, tragic event” and a violation of IDF rules of engagement.

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❗️The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a strike with HIMARS missiles at the delivery site of humanitarian aid in Novaya Mayachka, Kherson region: 2 civilians were wounded, as well as soldiers helping with unloading and two civilians were killed, said the head of the region, Saldo.

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