✅Japan approves 2025 draft budget with record defense spending

The Japanese government on Friday approved a draft budget for fiscal year 2025, with a record 8.7 trillion yen ($55.4 billion) marked for defense spending, Kyodo news agency reported.

The total budget for the fiscal year starting April 1 is 115.54 trillion yen ($732.23 billion), of which more than 10%, or 8.7 trillion yen, is expected to be spent on defense, the news agency said.

The upcoming defense budget reportedly includes spending on the development of long-range missiles, capabilities to strike adversaries outside of their attack range and increasing drone capabilities.

By 2027, Japan plans to increase its total defense spending from 2023 to 43 trillion yen (about $273 billion). Thus, the defense budget is expected to increase every fiscal year.

The Japanese government has yet to decide on the source of defense funding, as Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has advocated raising corporate taxes, an initiative that has many opponents even within Ishiba's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

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✍️Putin sends New Year greetings to Kim Jong-un, emphasizes growing cooperation

In his message, Putin reflected on his June meeting with Kim in Pyongyang, stating that it elevated the relationship between Russia and North Korea to a new level. He expressed optimism that the two nations would continue their collaboration in 2025 and enhance their efforts to tackle today’s challenges.

Additionally, he highlighted that the recently signed Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement has laid the groundwork for expanding mutually beneficial cooperation in key areas.

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⚔️Israel 'just getting started' conducting airstrikes on Yemen - Netanyahu

With strikes on Yemen’s capital Sanaa and the Hudaydah province, Israel is "just getting started," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

Israeli fighter jets carried out six airstrikes on the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, and the airport was heavily damaged, a local government source told Sputnik on Thursday.

The IDF later confirmed the attack that also damaged buildings just feet away from the World Health Organization's delegation plane in the airport. The death toll currently stands at 6 with 40 injured.

"We're just getting started with them... We will strike them to the bitter end until they learn," The Times of Israel quoted Netanyahu as saying.

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🟠 Xi is expected to visit Russia in 2025

🟠 50 dead in Israeli strikes near hospital in Gaza

🟠 South Korean parliament will vote on impeachment of incumbent president

🟠 Estonia, Lithuania ask NATO fleet to protect their undersea cables

🟠 Europe loses military technology race - NATO commander

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💵US dollar's share in global reserves plunges to 30-year low

The US greenback’s share of global currency reserves hit a three-decade low at the end of the third quarter, according to Sputnik’s analysis of International Monetary Fund (IMF) data.

▪️The decline in the American currency’s share of allocated foreign reserves of central banks and governments has continued for the second quarter in succession, losing 0.85 percentage points in July-September, and 1.8 percentage points over the year as financial flows continue the trend of dedollarization.

▪️US dollar holdings in allocated reserves decreased to 57.39% in the third quarter of 2024, the lowest since 1995.

▪️Central banks are increasingly leaning towards diversification, as the euro's share rose to 20.02%, while the yen increased to 5.5% during the same period.

Why is the dollar losing luster?

1. The shift out of dollar reserves has been driven by concerns over weaponized US sanctions.

2. The US federal government’s debt burden surpassed the $36 trillion mark amid feckless money-printing by the Federal Reserve.

3. Geopolitical tensions and military expenditures, such as dollars being poured into NATO's proxy war in Ukraine, continue to shape global dynamics.

The 16th Summit of the newly expanded BRICS bloc this year highlighted the increasing use of national currencies in trade, signaling a potential decline in the dollar's dominance that may fade irreversibly into history.

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Russian soldiers test air defense system based on FPV drones

Soldiers of the Espanola Volunteer Brigade together with the Tula-based developer of Ovod drones are testing an air defense system created on the basis of the FPV drone.

The system is designed to destroy heavy Ukrainian drones of the Baba-Yaga type, a Sputnik correspondent who observed the tests reported.

The primary advantages of this system include mouse control and the operator's ability to direct the drone's flight. Once the operator indicates the desired direction, the drone operates in automatic mode. The system detects a target, the operator approves it, and the system starts targeting.

This drone is equipped with enough explosives to destroy enemy UAVs within a 10- to 15-meter radius upon detonation.

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❗️South Korean Parliament has voted on impeachment of incumbent president and Prime Minister Han Dock-soo

The motion, filed by the opposition, came after Han Dock-soo refused to appoint constitutional court judges needed to confirm another impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk-yeol.

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"The Israeli enemy must understand that Yemen is not like al-Jolani’s Syria," said Hezam al Asad, Ansar Allah’s political bureau member, in response to Benjamin Netanyahu's recent declaration that Israel is "just getting started" with its strikes against the Houthis and plans to carry them out further.

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Yemeni Armed Forces say they carried out a hypersonic missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

The air traffic has been suspended.

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⚔️China imposes sanctions on seven US defense firms over Taiwan arms sales

"These seriously violate the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiques, interfere in China’s internal affairs, and undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

China’s Foreign Ministry announced sanctions against seven US defense-related companies, including Insitu, Hudson Technologies, Saronic Technologies, Raytheon Canada, Raytheon Australia, Aerkomm, and Oceaneering International.

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❗️FSB foils Islamist plot to bomb police department in Moscow

The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia has thwarted an attempted bombing by members of the Vilayat Khorasan terrorist group, which is banned in Russia. 

According to the FSB, the militants had acquired a car and propane gas cylinders to construct an explosive device intended for a police department in the Moscow region. Upon being captured, the terrorists resisted arrest and were neutralized by return fire from security forces.

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🔊"The refusal of Norwegian sailors to rescue Russians in the Mediterranean is an outrageous incident that deserves total condemnation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

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❗️Russian troops liberated the settlement of Zagryzovo in the Kharkov region and the settlement of Ivanovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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❗️German President Steinmeier dissolves Bundestag, new elections to be held on February 23.

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🇷🇺🪖 Key statements from the Russian MoD briefing on the special military operation:

◻️ The Russian Air Force carried out 37 group strikes this week on energy facilities related to the Ukrainian military-industrial complex and other targets

◻️ Russian Air Defense systems shot down four air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles

◻️ The Ukrainian forces lost more than 2,450 soldiers and 11 tanks, including a US Abrams and a German Leopard, in the Russian Sever battlegroup's area of responsibility

◻️ The Russian Zapad battlegroup repelled 25 counterattacks and the enemy lost more than 3,080 soldiers and three tanks, including a German Leopard

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Italian gallery exhibits 'dead dolls' in memory of Gaza kids

The San Federico gallery in Italy presented an installation of blood-red dolls commemorating children killed in the Gaza Strip, media report.

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🇷🇺 🪖 Key statements from the Russian Ministry of Defense daily briefing on the situation in the Kursk region:

◻️ Russia’s Battlegroup Sever hit 14 Ukrainian formations in its combat zone.

◻️ In total, Ukrainian losses over the day amounted to more than 600 militants, with four tanks, two armored vehicles – including a US Bradley – destroyed.

◻️ Since the beginning of combat operations in the Kursk region, Ukraine has lost more than 44,570 servicemen.

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Russia successfully rerouted LPG exports to Central Asia, China

Russia has shifted its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) deliveries to Central Asia and China given the ban on imports to Europe, according to Argus pricing data. The European Union's restrictions took effect on December 20, following a 12-month transition period.

Here’s how Russia took pre-emptive action against the sanctions:

🔸 In 2022, Russia accounted for approximately 80% of the EU’s total LPG intake. However, deliveries to Europe decreased by 27% over the first 11 months of 2024.

🔸 Rail deliveries of LPG to Central Asia increased by 3.4 times during this period, totaling around 520,000 tons.

🔸 Imports to China saw a significant spike of 42%, reaching 270,000 tons, according to Argus.

🔸 By the end of the first nine months of 2024, the share of Russia’s LPG deliveries to eastern markets, including Turkiye, constituted nearly half of all export deliveries.

How were prices impacted?

🔸 Prices for the propane-butane mix at the Belarusian-Polish border peaked at $630-632 per ton (daf Brest) on October 31, marking the highest level since December 2022.

🔸 Polish companies rushed to stockpile Russian LPG before the embargo took effect, as reported by Argus.

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❗️An AZAL airliner was unable to land in Grozny due to the "Kover" security restrictions imposed following Ukrainian terrorist attacks, Rosaviatsiya head Dmitry Yadrov said.

An AZAL Embraer 190, en route from Baku to Grozny, Russia, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan on the morning of December 25 with 69 people on board.

Twenty-nine survivors of the plane crash in Kazakhstan were taken to the hospital, nine of them are in serious condition, the operations staff told Sputnik.

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❗️💬 Russian aviation authority head on the Azal plane crash in Aktau:

◾️With regards to the Embraer plane crash near Aktau, the Russian side immediately informed its Kazakh and Azerbaijani colleagues of its full and comprehensive readiness to cooperate in the investigation of this tragedy.

◾️The situation on that day and at those hours in the vicinity of Grozny airport was very complicated.

◾️ Ukrainian combat drones were launching terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz at that time.

◾️ As a result, a regime dubbed 'Carpet' was introduced in the vicinity of Grozny Airport, which required the immediate departure of all aircraft from the area.

◾️ There was dense fog around Grozny airport and visibility was non-existent at an altitude of 500 meters

◾️The pilot made two attempts to land the plane in Grozny, which were unsuccessful.

◾️ The pilot was offered alternative airports but decided to proceed to Aktau Airport.

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