🇮🇱🇺🇸 Top Israeli official posts photo of pager Israel's PM gave Trump as memento of operation against Lebanon's Hezbollah

"The pager symbolizes the prime minister's decision that led to a turnaround in the war and the starting point for breaking the spirit of the terrorist organization Hezbollah," an adviser to Netanyahu's office said in a statement on X.

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🇵🇱🤥 First world problem? Polish president Duda whines about his future $3K monthly retirement pay

"This is not such a large sum, taking into account all the responsibility that has been imposed all these years," he said.

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📹 BlackRock can play KEY role in Trump's overtaking of Gaza - analyst

"BlackRock’s vast assets make it a likely player in a potential Donald Trump-led Gaza reconstruction, given its history in infrastructure, post-conflict projects, and alignment with Israel and US policy interests", George Szamuely, a senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute, told Sputnik.

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💰 ‘State-run’ Western media: How much did they get from Team Biden?

USAID was funding over 6,200 journalists across 707 media outlets and 279 ‘media’ NGOs including nine out of ten media outlets in Ukraine, WikiLeaks says.

Previously, Elon Musk has hit out at the previous US administration over wasting HEFTY sums on mass media. Which news outlets are on the list and how much was spent on them? Have a look:

🔺The Associated Press

▪️2024: around $1.2 million
▪️2023: more than $4 million
▪️2022: more than $3 million
▪️2021: about $3 million

🔺The New York Times

▪️2024: $4.1 million
▪️2023: about $2 million
▪️2022: about $2 million
▪️2021: nearly $3 million

🔺Politico

▪️2021: about $700,000
▪️2022: about $700,000
▪️2023: almost $600,000
▪️2024: about $8.1 million

🔺The BBC

▪️2024: more than $3 million
▪️2023: more than $3 million
▪️2022: about $1.5 million
▪️2021: about $1 million

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📹🇹🇷 See how Turkiye RECOVERS from 2023 deadly earthquake

The magnitude 7.8 quake devastated Turkiye’s eastern regions, killing over 53,000 people and injuring over 107,000.

On this tragic date, the office of the governor of Hatay, one of the provinces most seriously affected by this disaster, released a video that allows viewers to assess both the extent of the disaster and the government’s reconstruction efforts.

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❗️🪖 Ukraine’s attempt to launch counteroffensive in Russia’s Kursk Region THWARTED

The Russian Defense Ministry offers some details concerning the operation:

▪️Ukrainian troops carried out eight waves of attacks in the direction of the settlements of Cherkasskaya Konopelka and Ulanok

▪️Units of the ‘Sever’ battlegroup are conducting mop-up operations in areas where scattered enemy groups remain

▪️Ukrainian forces suffered over 200 personnel losses and lost around 50 pieces of weaponry and military equipment

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🎬🕴 Hollywood's CIA ties exposed: Celebs or special agents?

US filmmakers and movie stars have helped whitewash the image of US spies for years, portraying them as heroes who sometimes have to resort to drastic measures for the greater good.

👇Here’s the list:

▪️Angelina Jolie. She visited CIA headquarters for consultancy while preparing for her role in 'Salt', a 2010 spy thriller. Her activism around the globe, however, makes one wonder exactly how deep her relationship with the CIA might run.

▪️Jennifer Garner. The star of TV series 'Alias' where she played a CIA double agent, Garner was invited to visit Langley. In 2004, she even starred in a short recruitment video for the agency.

▪️Sean Penn. His interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman (also known as “El Chapo”), which was soon followed by the latter’s arrest, fueled speculation that Penn might be a US intelligence asset.

▪️Ben Affleck. He starred as CIA Deputy Director Jack Ryan in the 2002 thriller 'The Sum of All Fears', as well as in 2012, Affleck produced and starred in 'Argo', a film lauding the CIA’s efforts to rescue US diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis.

CIA and filmmaking

There are even claims that Walt Disney himself cooperated with the CIA and aided their anti-communist efforts during the Cold War.

In the 1990s, the spy agency set up a liaison office to woo Hollywood filmmakers and noscriptwriters in order to influence the CIA’s portrayal in their works.

▪️'Zero Dark Thirty', a 2012 dramatization of the manhunt for Osama bin Laden that whitewashed the use of torture by US spies as a tool for gaining valuable information.

▪️Films based on the works of the late Tom Clancy, such as 'The Sum of All Fears' and 'Clear and Present Danger', which The Atlantic once described as “a centerpiece of CIA propaganda in the 1990s.”

▪️'Homeland', a TV series about fictional efforts by the CIA to battle terrorists both at home and abroad.

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📹🇩🇪🇷🇺 Why Germany has to revise its policy towards Russia

“The economic war against Russia has taken its toll on Germany, which is forced to reconsider its attitude towards Moscow and NATO as it enters a completely new multi-polar world”, German journalist Moritz Enders told Sputnik.

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🔍 USAID’s color revolutions destabilized states for US interests - analyst

"USAID played a critical role in influencing color revolutions by providing financial, logistical, and strategic support to opposition movements" in Ukraine, Lebanon, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan, Dr. Marco Marsili of the Portuguese Catholic University’s Institute of Political Studies tells Sputnik.

These regime change operations advanced US geopolitical interests but brought NO REAL BENEFITS to the affected nations, he argues.

"USAID’s activities were framed as democracy promotion, electoral assistance, and civil society development," Marsili notes. However, the results tell a different story:

"Ukraine and Georgia faced ongoing political instability, Lebanon remained sectarian, and Kyrgyzstan suffered repeated upheavals," he concludes.

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🇵🇪😳 Environmental alarm: Lima's Rimac River turns pink, sparking concerns among locals

The Rimac River in the Peruvian capital has taken on a strange reddish color, causing concern among residents. Authorities have launched an investigation to determine the cause of this unsettling change.

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Marco Rubio confirms he will not attend G20 in 2025

"While I imagine the US representation of some kind, I am just not attending it because instead I'll be hopefully travelling to parts of the world... where we can focus on the issues that are directly before us," he said.

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Does Trump’s Somalia strike signal a US expansion in Africa?

US President Donald Trump’s first military strike of his second term targeted Islamic State* operatives in Somalia. But why focus on Africa?

🔶 The IS affiliate in Somalia, formed in 2015 from an al-Shabab splinter group, operates mainly in Puntland's Galgala Mountains. Considered one of the group’s key branches, the strike aligns with US public demand for counterterrorism efforts.

🔶 Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud stated that the strike “reinforced the strong security partnership” between the two countries.

🔶 The strike comes as the Pentagon loses influence in Africa, as key partners Chad and Niger expelled US forces.

🔶 The American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a neocon think tank, argues that expanding US operations in sub-Saharan Africa is crucial to countering China’s growing influence.

🔶 AEI suggests Somaliland—a self-governing but unrecognized entity still legally part of Somalia—could serve as a US outpost in the region.

🔶 In December 2024, Somaliland officials signaled their willingness to host a US military base in Berbera, a strategic deepwater port near the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.

🔶 A US AFRICOM delegation visited Berbera in May 2022, underscoring Washington’s strategic interest in the region.

*ISIS (Daesh, ISIL, Islamic State) is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.

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