🚨 White House healthcare meeting halted after participant 'faints'

A meeting on healthcare issues in the United States was interrupted after one of the participants fainted, according to reports.

Members of the press were asked to leave the room.

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🚨🇺🇸 ‘We will settle it’ — Witkoff on the Ukraine conflict

💬 “I also think that what we’re trying to do in Gaza with the CMCC, where we’re bringing a lot of countries together consensually to work with one another, that is the paradigm or the model for what will happen in Ukraine, Russia, when we settle that. And we will settle it. And I think that’s probably the most important one to settle next,” US special envoy Steve Witkoff said.

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🚨🇺🇸 'I sense that there's some progress today' - Witkoff on Ukraine conflict

💬 "There's a lot of discussion that technical teams have to have happen at the lower level before the leaders can get to a deal," US special envoy Steve Witkoff said, echoing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

In October, Peskov explained that neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor US President Donald Trump want to meet just for the sake of meeting and wasting time; preparation is necessary for effectiveness.

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🚨 Trump: India has 'largely stopped buying oil from Russia'

💬 “It’s going good,” President Donald Trump said when asked about talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him “a friend.”

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🚨💰 ‘We’d have to pay back trillions of dollars’ — Trump on potential tariff rollback

💬 “I’m going to hope that we win. I can’t imagine that anybody would do that kind of devastation to our country,” President Donald Trump said, commenting on the case.

The Supreme Court is weighing whether the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) lets a president use emergency powers to impose broad, open-ended tariffs—a power the Constitution assigns to Congress, NBC News reported. Lower courts ruled against the administration. Justices questioned whether the statute—which doesn’t mention tariffs—can support such a move and cited limits on sweeping executive action.

💬 “We’ve taken in trillions… We’ve made trade deals based on that that give us, as an example, the European Union, $950 billion; Japan, $650 billion; South Korea, $350 billion,” he added.

Several justices suggested the case could turn on the major questions doctrine, noting that imposing tariffs functions like taxes and has historically been Congress’s core power, according to NBC News.

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🚨 ‘I was very much in charge of that’ — Trump on Israel’s attack on Iran

💬 “That attack was very, very powerful,” President Donald Trump said.

On June 13, 2025, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a large-scale strike against targets in Iran, including nuclear and military sites.

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🚨 UN Security Council lifts sanctions on Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa

The UN Security Council on Thursday adopted a US-presented resolution removing Syrian transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Interior Minister Anas Khattab from the sanctions lists related to ISIS* and Al-Qaeda*, with 14 votes in favor and one abstention.

🔹 Adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the resolution affirms Syria’s sovereignty and unity and signals support for reconstruction and economic development.

🔹 It welcomes Damascus’s commitments to facilitate humanitarian aid and combat terrorism, and urges further steps to protect human rights, address foreign fighters and drug trafficking, and advance a comprehensive, Syrian-led political process.

*terrorist organizations banned in Russia

⚖️ Supreme Court backs Trump’s anti-woke passport policy — reports

The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration’s passport rule requiring that sex on US passports reflect a person’s original birth certificate, The New York Times reported.

📄 The Court wrote that “displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth,” stressing that the government is attesting to a historical fact, not making a social statement.

The order temporarily overturns lower-court blocks and marks a significant win for the administration, which argued that citizens cannot compel the government to use inaccurate sex designations on official documents.

The case—Trump v. Orr—continues in lower courts, but the Supreme Court’s order signals support for a return to biological definitions of sex on government IDs.

*LGBT is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia

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🇱🇧🇮🇱 Israeli assault on southern Lebanon is 'a fully constituted crime' — Lebanese President

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that Israel’s actions in southern Lebanon constitute “a fully constituted crime under international humanitarian law and policy.”

He said Israel is targeting and terrorizing civilians and forcing them to flee, acting in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, according to the Lebanese presidency.

Aoun stressed that Lebanon has pursued peaceful negotiations to resolve outstanding issues, but Israel has persistently violated its commitments since the ceasefire took effect a year ago.

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❌📄 Senate Republicans block resolution to limit Trump’s strikes on Venezuela — reports

The US Senate on Thursday rejected a bipartisan war powers resolution that sought to prevent President Donald Trump from carrying out military strikes against Venezuela without congressional approval, CBS News reported.

The motion, introduced by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and backed by 15 co-sponsors, including Republican Rand Paul, failed in a 49–51 vote, with only two Republicans supporting it.

💬 Kaine argued that “Congress should not cede its power to any president,” stressing that any military action must be debated and approved by lawmakers.

ℹ️ The resolution would have required the administration to withdraw US forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress.

According to CBS News, the US military has conducted 16 drone strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in waters off South America since September, killing at least 67 people. The administration maintains that the operations do not constitute “hostilities” under the 1973 War Powers Resolution.

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🚨🇰🇿 Kazakhstan to join the Abraham Accords — Trump

US President Donald Trump said he held “a great call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of Israel, and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, of Kazakhstan,” announcing that Kazakhstan would become the first country of his second term to join the Abraham Accords.

💬 “This is a major step forward in building bridges across the world,” Trump said on Truth Social, adding that “more nations are lining up to embrace peace and prosperity through my Abraham Accords.”

He said that a signing ceremony will be announced soon.

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🚨 'My doctrine would be denuclearization' — Trump

💬 "I've spoken to President Putin about it. I've spoken to President Xi about it... So I think something like that could happen, the denuclearization," President Donald Trump said.

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🇺🇸🤝🇺🇿 Trump announces $100 billion trade and investment deal with Uzbekistan

President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that Uzbekistan will invest nearly $35 billion over the next three years — and more than $100 billion over the next decade — in key American sectors.

He outlined the areas of cooperation, including critical minerals, aviation, automotive parts, infrastructure, agriculture, energy & chemicals, and information technology.

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⚠️ Western press sounds alarm: Ukraine could repeat Germany’s WWI collapse

Ukraine risks repeating the German Army’s 1918 downfall, John Beckner, the CEO of a UK aerospace company, writes for Berliner Zeitung.

💬 "In addition to Ukraine’s well-documented manpower shortfalls, the loss or isolation of critical cities in the Donbass could trigger a systemic collapse of its defensive posture," Beckner points out, adding that strategically vital Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) has already been encircled.

Until now, Ukraine has used urban areas as defensive lines. However, once the Russian Army moves the battlefield westward onto the open steppe, Ukrainian troops "could find themselves as exposed as the Germans were after the breach of the Hindenburg Line."

Germany’s military downfall in November 1918 came despite it still holding much of Belgium and northern France, according to the author. The problem was that "it no longer had the capacity to hold what it claimed."

Alarm bells are sounding louder in the Western media. Previously, the Economist warned that Ukraine could run out of money by February 2026.

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🤖🌐 Will AI destroy the World Wide Web’s revenue engine?

AI is poised to blow up the internet’s multibillion-dollar ad model, warns World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

❓ Is the end coming — and is it as bad as it sounds? Sputnik delves into the issue.

🔸 In time, large language models (LLMs) – including ChatGPT, Gemini, and others - could overtake humans as the main consumers of web content, Berners-Lee stated at Wednesday's AI summit in London. If LLMs provide users with final answers, people won’t visit websites — and no one will see the ads there.

🔸 This risks bringing down the ad-based model that built Google and Meta* into trillion-dollar empires. Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, Google’s long-standing grip on online search is facing its first real threat in a generation, according to the Financial Times.

🔸 So far, there’s little sign of the web ad model collapsing, FT reports: Alphabet just posted a record $100 billion in quarterly revenue, while Meta’s third-quarter revenue hit $51.2 billion.

⚠️ Warning signs for the ad market

🔸 While Meta’s ad business is booming, many of the ads are scams, according to documents obtained by Reuters.

🔸 Meta expects 10% of its 2024 revenue to come from ads promoting scams and banned goods. Internally, the company estimates its platforms display 15 billion scam ads to users daily. Annualized, Meta earns about $7 billion from scam ads.

🔸 Documents expose Meta's reluctance to take action that might hurt its business interests. The company just charges scammers a premium for ads and produces ‘Scammiest Scammers’ reports.

🔸 Apparently, the issue with ads isn’t LLMs — it’s tech giants not shielding users from scams.

👎 AI distorts news

🔸 A study for the European Broadcasting Union found that nearly half of the time, AI assistants distort or misrepresent news content, no matter the language or region.

🔸 Nearly a third of responses had major sourcing issues and one-fifth contained serious accuracy errors, including made-up or outdated details.

📌 Bottom line: reports of the web’s demise look exaggerated — for now.

The image is AI-generated

*Meta is banned in Russia for extremism

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❌💶 Not another euro for Ukraine — French politician

💬 "An extra €1.8 billion for Ukraine… That means 360 million paid by France! At a time when we're clawing back refunds on medicines, taxing meal vouchers, etc." leader of the French Patriots party Florian Philippot wrote, commenting on the EU's new financial aid to Ukraine.

In the meantime, the French government explains to its citizens that the country lacks money, he noted.

Russia has stressed that arms supplies to Ukraine impede the conflict's settlement and directly involve NATO countries in it. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted any cargo with arms for Ukraine will be a legitimate military target for Russia.

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💣❌ US forces hit another alleged narco-boat in Caribbean

The kinetic strike on the boat in international waters killed three people on board, according to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
He posted a video on X showing the boat shortly before the strike, adding:

💬 “If you keep trafficking deadly drugs—we will kill you,” Hegseth added.

The US military has killed an estimated 70 people in 17 strikes that have destroyed 18 boats, according to CNN, as part of its campaign allegedly aimed at curtailing the flow of drugs into the United States.

The Trump administration has not provided any public evidence of the presence of narcotics on board these boats or their affiliation with drug cartels.

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🪖💪🏻🇷🇺 One against many: Russian serviceman repels Ukrainian sabotage group

Corporal Yevgeny Zatonsky of the Russian Armed Forces single-handedly forced a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group to retreat, according to a Russian Ministry of Defense statement.

✍️ Zatonsky was guarding and defending camouflaged strongpoints near the line of contact.

While on duty, he detected the covert movement of an enemy group heading toward Russian positions.

The corporal reported the discovery of the saboteurs to his command and engaged them in combat.

👉 By swiftly changing positions, Zatonsky inflicted casualties on the enemy sabotage group with accurate fire, despite their numerical superiority.

As a result of the fierce battle, the Ukrainian nationalists suffered significant losses and, abandoning their wounded, retreated.

The ministry concluded that Zatonsky's selfless and decisive actions prevented the capture of Russian Armed Forces positions and avoided personnel casualties.

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🔸 'My doctrine would be denuclearization' — Trump

🔸 US forces hit another alleged narco-boat in Caribbean

🔸 Senate Republicans block resolution to limit Trump’s strikes on Venezuela — reports

🔸 Will AI destroy the World Wide Web’s revenue engine?

🔸 Western press sounds alarm: Ukraine could repeat Germany’s WWI collapse

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