🤡 Europe should consider following the United States in banning TikTok, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on Sunday, after accusing the short-video sharing app of spreading disinformation.

"Over the past years, we’ve witnessed TikTok spreading disinformation & being a platform for election manipulations. On top of that, its vast data collection is known to pose a serious security risk. Banning TikTok must be considered in Europe as well," Tsahkna said on X.

A Sputnik correspondent reported on Sunday that TikTok had stopped opening for users in the US and disappeared from the App Store.

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🤡 Privatizing profits, socializing losses: The sorry state of UK and US’s healthcare

With Joe Biden rushing to get billions in new aid to Ukraine and Israel out the door, and Prime Minister Starmer ‘generously’ committing billions in taxpayer pounds to Kiev under an extravagant 100-year pact, both countries’ healthcare systems are falling apart.

🔹UK

📍A damning report this week by the Royal College of Nursing revealed shocking conditions in Britain’s hospitals, with an overcrowding crisis putting the National Health Service on the brink of collapse.

📍Nursing staff have to “care for patients in corridors, storerooms, carparks, offices and even toilets,” don’t have access to tools like oxygen and monitoring equipment, and have to diagnose, feed and even wash patients in public spaces.

📍In some areas, patients are dying in corridors, remaining undiscovered for hours.

📍The NHS has faced a series of neoliberal reforms in the past 30 years, with Tony Blair’s New Labour opting for privatization and deregulation, transferring control of new hospitals to bankers, and contracting some surgeries and diagnostics out to the private sector.

📍Starmer’s secretary of state for health, Wes Streeting, admitted last year the NHS is “broken,” and that patients “are not receiving the care they deserve.”

♦️US

Across the pond, the situation is equally grim.

▪️UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty admitted this week that the US healthcare system is “complex,” “costly,” and “needs to function better.”

▪️ The US spends 18% of its GDP on healthcare - more than any other developed nation, but suffers worse outcomes, lower life expectancy and higher disease incidence.

▪️26 million Americans lack health insurance, which means hospital and drug bills can bankrupt households.

▪️ A 2024 report by the KFF non-profit found that the US spends about $12,914 per capita on healthcare, double that of comparable countries.

▪️ Administrative costs hit over $1 trillion in 2023, with a 2023 report by the Commonwealth Fund finding that “more than half” of excess spending comes from insurance companies’ administrative costs (the link between insurance companies and actual doctors and hospitals), hospital management, prenoscription drug costs, and physicians’ wages.

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🌍🌍🌍 New membership & partners: How BRICS expanded in 2025

BRICS now boasts 10 full members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran, and Indonesia.

New membership:

🇮🇩Indonesia officially joined BRICS on January 6, 2025. What does it bring to the table?

📍fourth-most populous nation (281,562,465)

📍world's 16th-largest economy by nominal GDP and the 8th-largest by PPP

📍major exporter of crude petroleum and natural gas, supplier of rubber, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, sugar, tea, tobacco, copra, and spices

📍average GDP projected to grow 5.1% per year from 2024 to 2026, according to the World Bank.

🔍Who are the most recent BRICS partner states as of January 1, 2025?

🇧🇾Belarus: Russia’s closest security ally, positioned in the heart of Europe
🇧🇴Bolivia: Boasts the world's largest lithium reserves at around 23 mln tons
🇰🇿Kazakhstan: 9th-largest country in the world, with Caspian Sea ports of Aktau and Kuryk; mutual trade turnover with Russia already at $30 bln
🇨🇺Cuba: Rich in minerals like nickel and cobalt; strategic Caribbean location
🇲🇾Malaysia: Offers a “neutral and non-aligned” venue for strategic semiconductor hub via its National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS)
🇹🇭Thailand: Offers the role of “bridge builder” with regional groupings, such as ASEAN, APEC, ACD, and Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)
🇺🇬Uganda: Strategic location for regional trade and investment in East Africa
🇺🇿Uzbekistan: Active in projects such as the North-South Transport Corridor, connecting Russian ports with Iran
🇳🇬Nigeria: Africa's largest economy, with GDP growth projected to reach 3.6% per year in 2025-2026

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US, European intel now say ‘accidents’, not Russia, to blame for damaged Baltic cables

NATO intelligence has found “no indication” that the commercial vessels dragging their anchors across underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea “did so intentionally or at the direction of Moscow.”

There was an “emerging consensus” among US and European intelligence services that the cables were damaged by accident, officials cited by the Washington Post said.

NATO announced plans to boost patrols in the Baltic Sea this week after a string of incidents involving the severing of telecommunications and energy cables in the region, initially blamed on a Russian “hybrid campaign” against Europe.

Now, officials say intercepted communications and other classified info found that they were caused by “inexperienced crews serving aboard poorly maintained vessels.”

The investigations studied three incidents, involving:

🔸 The Eagle S, an oil tanker seized by Finland in late December after the vessel was accused of dragging its anchor across the Estlink 2 powerline linking Estonia and Finland. Finnish President Alexander Stubb earlier claimed the incident was “definitely” Russia-linked.

🔸 The Yi Peng 3, a Chinese bulk carrier accused of severing two Baltic Sea fiberoptic cables in Swedish waters in November, which was held for more than a month in a Danish shipping lane during an investigation. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called that incident “sabotage.”

🔸 The Newnew Polar Bear, a Hong Kong-registered ship that damaged the Balticconnector pipeline linking Finland and Estonia in October 2023. China acknowledged the ship’s responsibility for the damage last August.

The conclusion that Russia was not responsible for attacking Baltic infrastructure is gratifying, if somewhat surprising, given the tendency of Western intel to blame Moscow first and ask questions later, exemplified by the claim that Russia blew up its own Nord Stream pipeline infrastructure in 2022 because…reasons?

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❗️Hamas hands over three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in northern Gaza, media report, citing sources

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📹 In the meantime, preparation is going on to transfer Palestinian prisoners from the Ofer prison. The list of the prisoners includes 69 women and 21 children, Al Jazeera reports.

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❗️Trump announced that on Monday, he will issue an executive order to pause the enforcement of the TikTok ban law in order to reach an agreement with the social media platform.

An agreement with TikTok in the US could involve selling 50% of the social media platform to a new owner, Trump stated.

Trump said he is asking companies "not to let TikTok go dark."

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🤝 Are you waiting for the Putin-Trump meeting?

🔍 Which countries officially offered venue for Putin-Trump meeting

🟠Serbia
🟠Slovakia
🟠Switzerland

🔍 Which nations could fit as experienced mediators in the Ukrainian conflict

🟠Brazil
🟠China
🟠Hungary
🟠Vietnam
🟠Egypt
🟠India
🟠Qatar
🟠United Arab Emirates
🟠Saudi Arabia
🟠South Africa
🟠Turkiye

🔍 Where key international gatherings are scheduled for 2025

🟠Brazil: BRICS Summit
🟠Germany: Munich Security Conference
🟠Malaysia: ASEAN Summit
🟠US: UNGA 80
🟠Switzerland: World Economic Forum
🟠South Africa: G20 Summit
🟠South Korea: APEC Forum

📊 #Sputnikinfographic

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🇻🇪 Why does US seek regime change in Venezuela?

The US president-elect, who spent much of his first term trying to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, hasn’t lost his obsession with the Latin American nation, anonymous Trump advisors revealed to Axios on Saturday.

❓ What does Trump want?

🔸 Venezuela has oil: a lot of it. In fact, with nearly 300 billion barrels of proven reserves, the country has the largest untapped oil stockpile on Earth.

🔸 Some US and European energy companies are allowed to operate in Venezuela, but Washington would like to deregulate their activities, reduce taxes on earnings, and expand production.

🔸 Besides oil, Venezuela has vast untapped mineral and rare earths wealth, from iron ore, gold and bauxite to diamonds and the tech metal coltan, which late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez dubbed ‘blue gold’.

⚔️ Geopolitical Competition

🔹 Besides resources, Trump’s Venezuela fever may be related to his obsession with America’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ and the Monroe Doctrine. Each are fraught with risks for nations in the Western Hemisphere seeking to escape US hegemony.

🔹 Venezuela has been outside of US orbit since the late 1990s and has forged close economic and security partnerships with China, Iran and Russia.

🔹 The Bush administration tried to coup Chavez in 2002. In 2018, disgraced former Trump advisor John Bolton labeled Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua the ‘Troika of Tyranny’, signaling Washington’s plans to push for regime change.

🔹 In 2019, the US slapped crushing sanctions on Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA, seizing billions in assets and trying to smother exports. In 2020, a bizarre attempt by a group of mercs to kidnap Maduro dubbed the ‘Bay of Piglets’ went comically wrong, leaving 6 mercs dead and 91 captured, including 2 Americans.

🔹 With Trump surrounding himself with Venezuela hawks like Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz, storm clouds are gathering for a new round of confrontation between Washington and Caracas.

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⚡️New footage of the transfer of Israeli female prisoners to Red Cross vehicles in Gaza has emerged online

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