🔹 Tulsi Gabbard right pick to shake-up US spy agiencies – CIA veteran

🔹 RFK Jr.’s daunting task: What will ‘Make America Healthy Again’ pledge mean in practice?

🔹 Why Trump's nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary scares Big Pharma

🔹 Putin held a phone call with Scholz, initiated by the German side

🔹 Who is Steve Witkoff, Trump's pick for Middle East special envoy?

🔹 Ukraine can’t build a nuke without Russia catching them – MIT physicist and nuclear expert

🔹 Ukrainian forces abandon positions in Kurakhovo amid lack of personnel, ammunition, and low morale

🔹 Greenland 2029? Congressman’s map sparks Trump’s real estate dreams again

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US federal debt tops $36 trillion

The US national debt has surpassed the $36 trillion mark, with figures from usdebtclock. org indicating that every man, woman and child in America now owe more than $106,600, while taxpayers owe the equivalent of over $272,800.

The data shows that the federal debt to GDP ratio now stands at 122.85% - up from 55.36% in the year 2000, and 34.71% in 1980.

Accounting for state, local, student loan, credit card and personal debt, US debt is estimated to total over $102.63 trillion – nearly matching the $105.4 trillion value of the entire global economy in 2023.

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⚡ Trump picks Doug Burgum for Interior secretary

In his new statement, the president-elect also named North Dakota governor and billionaire Doug Burgum to chair the newly formed National Energy Council.

"Doug Burgum will protect our Nation's Natural Resources, restore our fabulous Oil and Gas advantage, and Make America, and its Energy, Dominant and Great Again," Donald Trump wrote.

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Abkhazian opposition ends talks with the authorities due to the “impossibility to locate the president”

The presidential press service denied opposition reports that Bzhania had redeployed to a Russian military base after the speech. It said he was in his home village of Tamysh.

Protesters continue to occupy the republic's parliament and presidential administration buildings. They have set up barricades and stocked up on food and water. A video posted on social media shows protesters sitting inside the parliament building.

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Trump names Karoline Leavitt as his press secretary

The President-elect announced it in a new statement today. Leavitt, 27, was the national spokeswoman for the Trump campaign and previously served in the White House as assistant press secretary.

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Democratic senators call for investigation into Musk's Russia calls - Reuters

Elon's contacts with Russia pose risks to US national security, Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Jack Reed wrote in a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, agency reports.

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🐻📹 Several luxury cars damaged in California by people wearing a costume of a bear

Four Los Angeles residents are arrested by the California Insurance Department after they defrauded $142,000 by claiming a bear had attacked their cars. It did not take long for companies to suspect that there was no bear inside.

The most hilarious part is that they provided this amazing security video themselves.

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Ukrainian POW: Half of the people I know deserted

Asked if the issue of desertion haunts the Ukrainian military, he said people would rather sit in prison than fight.

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Foreign mercs serve in Ukrainian recon platoon - Ukrainian POW

About 20 foreigners were performing reconnaissance tasks in Chasov Yar, he told Spuntik.

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🪖Russian air defense systems shot down 34 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
 
This includes 20 drones destroyed over the territory of the Kursk region, 11 over the territory of the Bryansk region, and one each over the territories of the Crimea, Belgorod and Kaluga regions.

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📑US Congress has appropriated $182 billion in aid to Ukraine since February 2022 - DoD Inspector General 
 
The total amount of all funds appropriated by the US Congress to assist the Kiev regime since the start of Russia's special military operation has exceeded $182 billion, according to a report by the Pentagon's inspector general.
 

"Congress has appropriated or otherwise made available at least $182.99 billion for OAR [Operation Atlantic Resolve] and the broader Ukraine response," the report said.

 
The funds included $131.36 billion for security-related activities and assistance, and $43.84 billion for governance and development. The money was allocated through a number of federal agencies, including the Pentagon, the State Department, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 
 
Russia has said that arms deliveries to Ukraine impede a settlement process, draw NATO countries into the conflict, and lead to unintended consequences. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has emphasized that any shipment of weapons to Ukraine is a legitimate target for Russia.

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🍟Dieting not a piece of cake: America struggles with obesity

The proportion of the US adult population that is overweight or obese has risen in recent decades from about 50% in 1990 to nearly 75% in 2021, according to a new study published in the Lancet.
 
If US public health and nutrition policies are not improved, the proportion of overweight and obese adults will exceed 80% by 2050, the study says.

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🔹 US federal debt tops a whopping $36 trillion
 
🔹 Ukrainian POW: Half of the people I know deserted
 
🔹 Democratic senators call for investigation into alleged Musk's Russia calls – Reuters
 
🔹 Trump names Karoline Leavitt as press secretary

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❗️Russian troops liberated the settlement of Makarovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry announced.

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🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

🔸 The Russian Armed Forces hit military airfield and Ukrainian energy facilities.

🔸 Ukraine lost over 440 soldiers in the Russia's Battlegroup Zapad area of responsibility.

🔸 Ukraine lost over 370 militants in the Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr area of responsibility.

🔸 Ukraine lost over 140 troops in the Russia's Battlegroup Vostok area of responsibility.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 625 servicemen in the Russia's Battlegroup Yug area of responsibility.

🔸 Russian aviation shot down four HIMARS missiles and 102 Ukrainian drones.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 110 soldiers in the Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr area of responsibility.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 70 troops in the Russia's Battlegroup Sever area of responsibility.

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📑What could Trump 2.0 mean for US healthcare?

US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to “bring down costs” and increase the quality of healthcare.

What changes can be expected?

🔸 During his first term, Trump tried but failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare.

🔸 Trump called Obamacare “lousy health care” and floated replacing it, saying, "If we can come up with a plan that's going to cost our people, our population, less money, and provide better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it."

🔸 Trump has vowed to protect Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people aged 65 or older and younger people with disabilities.

🔸 Cuts to Medicaid, the largest government health-insurance program that covers low-income Americans, may be expected under Trump.

🔸 During his first term, Trump proposed cutting the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and eliminating the Medicaid expansion that was passed as part of the ACA.

🔸 A work requirement might be added for some able-bodied adult beneficiaries, with federal spending on the program capped.

🔸 Trump has promised to veto a federal abortion ban “under any circumstances", saying, "It is up to the states to decide.”

🔸 Trump didn’t rule out banning certain vaccines, promising to “make a decision” after RFK Jr. hinted at the possibility of ending vaccine mandates.

🔸 With an estimated 108,000 people dying from drug overdoses in the US last year, Trump blamed it on the migrant crisis. Although he criminalized all fentanyl-related substances in 2018, overdose deaths continued to soar.

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