📊 US debt soars to $36 trillion, global economic share drops below 15%

As of mid-January, the country’s debt had reached a record $36.174 trillion, equivalent to $106.4K per American, according to Sputnik’s calculations, based on data from the US Treasury Department. In 2024 alone, debt grew by 7% ($2.4 trillion).

Under Joe Biden, the US share of the global economy fell below 15% for the first time, and is projected to hit a modern historic low of 14.76% by the end of his term, per Sputnik’s calculations, based on World Bank and IMF figures.

The national debt has skyrocketed from $28 trillion in 2021 to over $36 trillion today.

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⚡️An armed attack targeting three judges of Iran's Supreme Court took place in Tehran, according to local media.

Two of the judges were killed, while the third judge sustained injuries and is receiving medical treatment.

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⚡️Two assassinated Iranian Supreme Court judges were responsible for handling cases involving terrorism and espionage, the Iranian judiciary has confirmed.

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🤝Ceasefire and humanitarian efforts in Gaza: Key points

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reports that:

📍Military operations on both sides will pause starting at 8:30 AM tomorrow (Sunday, local time) under the agreement.

📍Prisoner releases are expected after 4 PM tomorrow.

📍Israel will suspend air operations for 12 hours to facilitate prisoner transfers.

📍Humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza will ramp up to 600 trucks daily starting tomorrow.

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❗️Russian troops liberated the settlements of Petropavlovka and Vremevka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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❗️In response to ATACMS strikes on civilian infrastructure in the Belgorod region, Russian forces carried out a coordinated attack this morning on Ukrainian defense industry facilities, including the Luch Design Bureau, which manufactures long-range Neptune missiles and Olkha rocket munitions, Russia's Ministry of Defense reported.

The intended targets were successfully hit, with all objectives achieved.

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🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian MoD daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:    

▪️Ukraine lost up to 470 servicemen in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 95 soldiers in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr and Sever.

▪️Russian air defence systems shot down 83 Ukrainian drones.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 245 servicemen in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

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😅Biden’s team scrambled to make adjustments amid growing age concerns – reports

The steps used for boarding Air Force One were replaced with shorter ones for 82-year-old President Joe Biden, following multiple stumbles on the ramp, The New York Times reported.

Biden’s previous incidents include stumbling three times while boarding in March 2021, with the White House attributing the mishaps to strong winds and assuring the public that he was fine.

Another trip-up occurred in June 2022, further fueling concerns about his physical fitness.

❓What other adjustments did his team reportedly make?

👉Meetings were often rescheduled to align with his mood.

👉Aides occasionally delayed sharing negative polling data to carefully manage its presentation.

👉Even small fundraisers required the use of teleprompters.

👉Staff hand-delivered memos highlighting social media posts crafted by allies to counteract negative articles and polls.

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🪖Assault units from Russia’s Battlegroup Vostok have cleared up to 600 buildings in the liberated village of Vremevka, dismantling fortified Ukrainian positions.

Footage released by Russia's Defense Ministry shows the Russian flag being raised over one of the buildings.

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💬 Hezbollah leader congratulates Palestinians on Gaza ceasefire deal

"We congratulate the Palestinian people and the Resistance on this agreement, which shows the resilience of the Resistance, which achieved what it wanted, while the enemy was unable to take what it wanted," Naim Qassem, secretary general of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, said in a speech aired by Lebanon's Al-Manar TV channel.

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📹Footage from the Iranian Supreme Court, where the judges were assassinated.

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‘We have a gift’: CIA tapped into vast troves of Soviet, Russian military secrets, intel after 2014 Ukraine coup

In 2015, Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate head Valeriy Kondratyuk visited Washington to meet with senior officials with his luggage “stuffed with top-secret Russian military documents.”

“I was like, ‘holy sh*t!’, and he’s like, ‘yes, we have a gift’,” a former US official told ABC News.

The docs were said to include top secret info on Russian weaponry. Further “gifts,” from Russian EW tech to its military OOB, came later.

One ex-official said the info was worth “billions.”

‘Something to exploit’

Ukraine’s Security Service was also quickly compromised, with its new chief inviting the US and British to “help” immediately after the 2014 coup.

“There were those of us on the agency side who were like, ‘hey, this is something to exploit,’” one ex-US official recalled.

The CIA rebuilt Ukrainian intelligence as an anti-Russian shadow army, providing training and equipment, facilities, “including around a dozen secret forward-operating bases on the border with Russia,” and staging “joint operations together around the world.”

Terror ops inside Russia

In 2016, the CIA launched ‘Operation Goldfish’, which provided Ukraine with comms tech, combat and espionage training with the CIA and MI6, for ops inside Russia and abroad posing as Russians.

Kondratyuk lobbied Kiev’s newfound friends to do “sabotage operations” in Crimea and elsewhere in Russia, including by “pre-positioning explosives,” long-before the 2022 escalation. This led to a disastrous 2016 attack on a Crimean base that triggered a battle with Russian special forces.

The operation was executed by Unit 2245, a group of commandos trained by the United States. Among its officers was Kyrylo Budanov, the notorious current chief of Ukrainian military intel who has bragged about the murder of Russian public figures.

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Sweden has deployed a battalion of 550 troops to Latvia to strengthen NATO forces in the Baltic region

The mission is the kingdom's first since joining the alliance.

The unit was shipped across the Baltic Sea under conditions of secrecy. The battalion will be stationed at Camp Valdemar, Swedish media report.

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🇮🇷 One of the judges killed during the armed attack on the Iranian Supreme Court, Ali Razini, had previously been the target of an assassination attempt in 1998, when he held the position of chief prosecutor in Tehran. At that time, he was injured in an explosion caused by a magnetic limpet mine planted in his car.

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