Double standards: Democrats and federal worker firings

Elon Musk has highlighted what he coined the hypocrisy among Democrats, pointing out that they supported former POTUS Joe Biden in firing federal workers for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, but now DOGE is firing federal workers for wasting taxpayer money, the same group of people claim it’s the “end of democracy”.

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⚡️ US officials are heading to Russia "RIGHT NOW" to discuss a cease-fire in Ukraine, Donald Trump said.

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📉 RECESSION ON HORIZON? Why Trump could want an economic downturn

▪️The US national debt has ballooned to $36.2 trillion, and $9.2 trillion of it is set to mature or be refinanced in 2025.

▪️The country's biggest debt crisis - which Trump is fully aware of - could only be tackled via “drastically lower” interest rates, which are “almost impossible” to lower without a recession, experts argue.

▪️Namely, the downturn is followed by the Fed "stimulating" the economy and lowering interest rates.

▪️Trump is willing to do his best “to lower rates and reduce the trade deficit. Even if it involves a recession,” pundits pointed out.

▪️The measure may well prove ineffective because America’s debt crisis “is getting too big to solve," analysts warn.

What is recession?

In the US, a recession is defined as six months of widespread downturn in economic activity, typically characterized by a jump in unemployment and fall in incomes.

Is US heading for it?

▪️Americans cut their spending by 0.2% in January from December 2024, the first such decline since March 2023.

▪️The labor market has slowed slightly, with unemployment at 4.1%. This latest data doesn’t contain all the impacts of Elon Musk’s DOGE slashing the federal workforce.

▪️Goldman Sachs raised its 12-month recession probability from 15% to 20%, noting that it sees the Trump-¬announced “period of transition” as “the key risk.”

▪️A JP Morgan report put the chance of recession at 40%, up from 30% in early January, warning that US policy was "tilting away from growth.”

▪️The S&P 500 index, which tracks 500 of the biggest companies in the US, sank to its lowest level since September 2024 in a sign of concerns about the future.

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📹🇺🇸 April 2nd is going to be a VERY BIG DAY for the United States of America - Trump

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🇬🇧 UK Foreign Office revokes Russian diplomat's credentials

The move comes in response to the expulsion of a British diplomat and their spouse from Russia this week.

"The UK Government believes that maintaining diplomatic channels of communication, and our respective diplomatic missions, is important," the office said in a statement.

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🤖 Seniors target Tesla robot to "save the planet"

Two elderly Just Stop Oil activists decided to make their point by dousing a humanoid robot in orange latex at a Tesla store in London. The 74-year-old woman and 63-year-old man are demanding the UK government ditch fossil fuels by 2030.

They also accused Tesla owner Elon Musk and his "billionaire buddies" of attempting to undermine democracy. A bold move for sure, but it’s all in the name of saving the planet, right?

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👨‍⚖️ Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte taken into ICC custody, according to the court.

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🗣 Enough is enough: US wants to disentangle from the bloody Ukrainian mess

The US recent ceasefire initiative is born out of a necessity to “stop throwing money into a black hole” that is the Ukrainian conflict, Argentinian international relations expert Samuel Losada tells Sputnik.

Facing economic problems at home, US President Donald Trump wants to put an end to the mess in Ukraine, which was started by the previous US administration, and to put an end to the multibillion-dollar Ukrainian aid scheme just as Elon Musk tries to optimize US government spending.

Losada also points out the insignificance of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky in this whole situation, noting that the latter did not even participate in the recent US-Ukrainian talks in Saudi Arabia.

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💸 France mulls stealing frozen Russian assets

President Emmanuel Macron has tasked Finance Minister Eric Lombard with investigating the potential consequences of confiscating frozen Russian assets, according to government spokeswoman Sophie Primas.

"The issue is what the systemic effects on the economy are," she told Sud Radio.

While she clarified that the government doesn't support full seizure, she admitted to having no issues with taking the interest generated by these assets.

Moscow has warned that any such move would be considered theft, regardless of it's supposed justification.

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⚡️Trump's Special Envoy Witkoff making way to Moscow this week to "urge" Russia to agree to ceasefire, the White House said.

It’s not clear yet whether Vladimir Putin will meet with him.

Earlier, it was reported that US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz held a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart on a Ukraine peace settlement.

Putin previously stated that the goal of resolving the conflict in Ukraine should be long-term peace, not a brief ceasefire. As the Russian president noted, a ceasefire could give the Kiev regime the opportunity to focus on preparing and strengthening its forces.

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📹 Trump: EU treats US ‘very badly’

US President Donald Trump again accused the European Union of unfair treatment during a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.

In January, Trump also called out the EU at the World Economic Forum in Davos, stating, "From America’s standpoint, the EU treats us very unfairly."

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⚡️Vladimir Putin on Wednesday held a meeting at one of the command points of the Kursk group of forces, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

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🔊LIVE NOW: Vladimir Putin visits command point in Russia's Kursk region

👉 Watch live in our Telegram

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📹 Putin visited the Kursk region, which had suffered from an attack by Ukrainian forces. He was dressed in camouflage.

Putin also received a report from Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov:

▪️Russian troops have liberated over 1,100 square kilometers in the Kursk border area.

▪️Gerasimov reported that the Ukrainian forces have lost over 67,000 soldiers in the Kursk border region.

▪️86% of the region, previously occupied by Ukrainian forces, has been liberated.

▪️ Ukrainian forces also lost more than 7,000 pieces of equipment during their incursion.

▪️Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region are surrounded, isolated, and being systematically destroyed, Gerasimov reported to Putin.

▪️According to the chief of the General Staff, Russian troops continue to liberate the Russian region with the goal of reaching the state border in the shortest possible time.

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