💣 US forces launch another strike on boat, killing four

The US Southern Command said it carried out a new strike on a vessel it described as "operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization" in international waters in the Eastern Pacific.

The command claimed the four men killed were involved in “narco-trafficking" and were "transiting along a known narco-trafficking route."

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🚨💰 Trump announces ‘warrior dividend’ payments for US service members

US President Donald Trump said more than 1.45 million active-duty military personnel will receive a one-time payment of $1,776 before Christmas.

Trump said the payment — which he described as a “warrior dividend” — was approved alongside what he called a recently passed major spending bill. He added that the amount was chosen in reference to the year 1776, marking the founding of the United States.

💬 “The checks are already on the way,” Trump said.

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🚨💵 'I've secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States' - Trump

Speaking during his address to the nation, President Donald Trump said the investments would translate into “jobs, wage increases, growth, factory openings, and far greater national security.” He attributed much of the inflow to his economic policies, including tariffs.

Trump also said that wages are now rising faster than inflation and that all jobs created since he took office have been in the private sector, contrasting the current situation with economic trends under the previous administration.

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📹 ‘I’ve settled 8 wars in 10 months’ – Trump

Speaking during his address to the nation, President Donald Trump said he “ended the war in Gaza,” which he described as “bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East.”

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📹💰 Trump calls tariffs his 'favorite word'

US President Donald Trump said tariffs have played a key role in recent economic gains, describing them as his “favorite word.”

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💰 US State Department approves possible arms sales to Taiwan worth over $11B – DSCA

The combined estimated value of multiple US arms, equipment, and services packages cleared for possible sale to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) totals about $11.1 billion, according to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).

The packages include HIMARS systems ($4.05B), self-propelled howitzers ($4.03B), ALTIUS-700M/600 UAV systems ($1.1B), Javelin systems ($375M), TOW systems ($353M), support for Harpoon missiles ($91.4M), AH-1W helicopter parts ($96M), and Tactical Mission Network software/equipment/services ($1.01B).

⚠️ China has repeatedly stressed that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and has consistently opposed US arms sales to the island, warning such actions violate the one-China principle and contribute to regional destabilization.

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🇻🇪🇺🇳 Maduro raises US 'direct threat' to Venezuela with UN chief

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has raised a “direct threat” from the United States in a conversation with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, following recent remarks by President Donald Trump in which he said Venezuela’s oil belonged to Washington.

According to a statement released by Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry, Maduro stressed that such comments “must be categorically rejected by the United Nations system, as they constitute a direct threat to sovereignty, international law and peace.”

Maduro also denounced political, economic and diplomatic pressure against Venezuela, and called the US seizure of a vessel carrying Venezuelan oil “a diplomacy of barbarism.”

Guterres, for his part, expressed solidarity with Venezuela and “highlighted the need to avoid any escalation or confrontation,” Caracas said. He also committed to follow the situation, which Venezuela said would be addressed at the UN Security Council with an emphasis on de-escalation and diplomacy.

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🔥FSB thwarts terrorist attack planned by Ukraine

The terror attack in Volgodonsk, in south Russia's Rostov Region, was foiled after security forces detained a female student suicide bomber half an hour before she was to hand over a backpack with a bomb to an official inside the city administration building, Russia’s FSB said.

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🔸 US wants to ‘take back’ ‘energy rights’ over Venezuela’s oil — Trump

🔸 House rejects bid to block military action against Venezuela

🔸 'We will defend our people, because our people have a right to their land, their wealth, and their homeland’ – Maduro

🔸 Venezuela requests UN Security Council meeting over ‘ongoing US aggression’ – reports

🔸 US State Department approves possible arms sales to Taiwan worth over $11B – DSCA

🔸 Venezuelan Navy escorts oil-related vessels after Trump blockade threat — reports

🔸 Russia and Iran to enable North-South corridor & boost de-dollarization – political analyst

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⚔️ EU troops in Ukraine would meet tough response from Russia—expert

The EU proposals to send multinational forces to Ukraine that were published following December 14-15 talks between Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Volodymyr Zelensky are a provocation, Turkish political scientist Aytekin Dumrul said in an interview.

👉 The plan does not facilitate peace talks, he added, as it means prolonging the conflict in Ukraine and possibly leading to further escalation, prompting a response from Russia.

Russia has repeatedly stated any NATO member's involvement in the Ukrainian conflict would be totally unacceptable, and any foreign troops would be legitimate targets.

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🇹🇭⚔️🇰🇭 Thai-Cambodian conflict may evolve into US-China confrontation—expert

The hostilities between Thailand and Cambodia should not be viewed as merely a local conflict, as it can spill out to many other countries, political expert Ibrahim Karagul said.

With Thailand being pro-US and Cambodia oriented towards China, their fight can lead to a much greater involvement of these great powers, prompting direct rivalry and potentially triggering other hotspots like the Taiwan issue, he added.

👉 Other regional players may be drawn into the conflict too, Karagul said, specifically Laos, Myanmar, and Malaysia, with the latter needing to boost its defensive potential given the situation.

The recent Thailand-Cambodia clashes began on December 7, just months after another armed conflict between them that ended with a ceasefire on July 28.

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Western embassies in Kiev report deepening crisis from Mindich-Zelensky affair - Russian Intel

According to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claims of Western assessments:

🔸 Rapid decline in the authority of Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky

🔸 The Mindich-Zelensky case is destroying Ukraine

🔸 The scandal has caused a sharp drop in frontline morale among Ukrainian troops

🔸 Western diplomats allegedly do not rule out the possibility of retribution against Ukrainian elites by an enraged populace

🔸 Over half of Ukrainians are now reportedly ready to recognize Russian sovereignty over territories under Russian control for a ceasefire, with the number growing

🔸 Ukrainians increasingly understand that, for the Kiev leadership, the conflict has become a tool for unrestrained theft of Western financial aid.

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🇺🇸👉 🇻🇪 US may turn Venezuela into a powder keg—expert

Declaring the government of Venezuela a terrorist organization would allow the US to conduct targeted attacks on this nation’s soil to eliminate its leaders, which would be "crossing the Rubicon," Argentine international relations expert Tadeo Casteglione told Sputnik.

Escalation around Venezuela is a very serious matter that may affect the entire continent and even the US itself, he warned.

💬 "I believe no one fully grasps the scale of the situation: attempting to ignite conflict in Venezuela is akin to detonating a powder keg," Casteglione said.

Given the possible dire consequences, the Global South, including Russia, China, and Iran, tried to mitigate the US statements’ effect, he added.

The threat of a naval blockade against Venezuela aligns with the US's internal economic interests and its strategy to pressure China, the expert concluded.

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🤥 🇬🇧‘Flimsy & unreliable’: Trump deals might leave UK in the lurch

UK ministers and MPs are worried that the government’s deals with Donald Trump are “built on sand,” reports The Guardian.

🔹 The “milestone” US-UK pharmaceutical deal, touted as a milestone for zero tariffs on Britain’s drugs, still lacks a legal footing, says the outlet

🔹 NHS could be forced to pay 25% more for new medicines with nothing but a verbal US promise in return

🔹 The US paused the ~$39.68 billion “tech prosperity deal,” meant to lock in massive American investment—reportedly over Britain’s slow pace in wider trade negotiations

🔹 Concessions to British farmers in the initial Trump tariff deal—hailed as “historic” by PM Keir Starmer in May—still await US approval, even as a January deadline looms.

Ministers are reportedly warning that Britain risks committing billions in public money for little guarantee, and the UK-US deals feel “flimsy and unreliable.”

This instability was the “new normal now in our relationship across the pond,” one official is cited as saying.

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🇺🇸 US drops mask in stance towards Venezuela and Latin America—expert

The US's aggressive and extravagant threats towards Venezuela will continue encountering active resistance from the nation’s government and its people, as it’s a question of defending not only a single nation but the entire continent, Coordinator of the National Movement of Friendship and Mutual Solidarity Venezuela-Cuba Yhonny Garcia Calles told Sputnik.

💬 "I believe they have dropped the masks and finally voiced what they truly want: they want our oil, they want to put an end to Venezuelan democracy, and as an emergency measure, they aim to achieve this in Venezuela to also attempt to plunder the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean," he said.

The American hawkish stance is directed not only at Venezuela but also at Colombia and Mexico, Garcia Calles added.

The unilateral measures, sabotage, and cyberattacks the US is unleashing on Venezuela are an insult to the Latin American nation’s sovereignty, he concluded.

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🇷🇺Russia is sounding the alarm over the rapid escalation in Venezuela

💬"We see rising tensions in the region and consider this potentially very dangerous," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

👉Venezuela is a close ally, and Moscow is in constant contact with Caracas, Peskov added.

👉Russia urges Latin American countries to show restraint to avoid escalation, he concluded.

📍This comes after President Donald Trump labeled the Venezuelan government a "foreign terrorist organization", ordered a full blockade of sanctioned oil tankers, and threatened Caracas with an unprecedented "shock" unless it returns what Trump called "stolen" US oil, land, and assets.

Washington is also preparing strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the region — further raising the stakes in an already explosive situation.

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

▫️ The Tsentr Battlegroup continues to destroy the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Dimitrov and clear the areas of Rodinskoye, Svetly, and Grishino in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)

▫️ Russian troops struck energy infrastructure facilities used by the Ukrainian military

▫️ Russian forces thwarted an attempt to break through from the Shevchenko settlement into the northern part of Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) in the DPR

▫️ Air defense superiority: 216 drones shot down

▫️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,405 troops killed or wounded

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🇷🇺Over 2 million questions have already poured in for Putin’s year-end press conference — and submissions since December 4 are still coming in

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🧐 No consensus in sight? EU likely to spurn common loan for Ukraine—Hungarian economist

EU countries are unlikely to finalize a decision on taking out a common loan in favor of Ukraine at their summit, Hungarian economist and political scientist Imre Boros told Sputnik.

💬 “Thank God, the European Union is not a legal entity, so it has no legal capacity or competence; it cannot take out loans—it’s simply a group of member states,” Boros said.

He added that, besides Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Italy, possibly also oppose the idea of a joint loan.

The main objective of Thursday's EU summit is to persuade Belgium to drop its opposition to the confiscation of illegally frozen Russian assets, claim European media reports.

💵 Around $233 billion is held in European accounts, predominantly at Belgium-based Euroclear. Belgium has pointed to the mulled cash grab’s enormous legal risks, from threats to financial stability to risks to the Ukraine peace process.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the European Commission had removed the issue of confiscating Russian assets from the summit agenda, proposing to take out a joint loan in Ukraine's favor instead.

Russia has repeatedly stated any move to confiscate frozen Russian assets by the EU would be met with an appropriate response as an act of robbery, as the money belongs to the Russian people.

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🇻🇪 Venezuelan oil blockade could make Asia’s markets less dependent on US — analyst

One of the goals of the US-led oil blockade on Venezuela is to try to weaken President Nicholas Maduro politically while hoping to create divisions within the country’s political elite, Dr. Vinicius Vieira, Associate Professor of Economics and International Relations at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP), tells Sputnik.

When it comes to economic terms, “the misery of the Venezuelan people is likely to increase,” notes the economist, “given that the country essentially depends on oil exports.”

💬 “Moreover, in what concerns global oil prices, there may be an impact on the oil markets, given that Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves in the world,” says Dr. Vieira, who is also a lecturer in International Relations at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (Brazil).

Given Venezuela’s major economic partnerships and the countries that rely on its oil exports, “one can expect impact to those markets,” believes the academic.

💬 “Venezuela ships oil to China and other Asian markets that are less and less dependent on the United States, and that may trigger some instability,” he reminds.

Considering that China is Venezuela's largest creditor and a major oil buyer, one can anticipate a degree of backstage diplomatic engagement between China and the US “to mitigate any potential effects of this blockade,” speculates the expert.

It’s no surprise that Trump’s year-end speech skipped Venezuela entirely, believes the pundit, since he focused on issues “easier for the American public to grasp.”

Trump basically covers all updates on what is going on in terms of military operations targeting Venezuela in his social media posts, “making a formal mention redundant.”

💬 “So that's why he didn't prioritize Venezuela or international issues in general, apart from the tariffs.”

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🗣 Lavrov: EU's Kaja Kallas admits to 'foreign interference'

EU foreign affairs head Kaja Kallas, who promised to allocate $17.6M to help Armenia respond to "foreign interference" as was done regarding Moldavia, made a candid confession, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

👉 The EU uses double standards, refusing to acknowledge elections unless a pro-Western candidate wins, while praising democracy if someone Europe supports wins, he noted.

One of Europe’s main bodies in this regard, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), has long become an instrument of political pressure, Lavrov added.

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