Month: December 2024

At least one person was reportedly killed in the incident in the city of Vladikavkaz

A major fire occurred at a shopping mall in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz on Wednesday morning, after a powerful explosion went off inside, according to officials and media reports.

The incident took place at the Alania Mall, a major shopping and entertainment center in the capital of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania in the North Caucasus. The emergency services said one person was killed and two others were injured, citing preliminary reports from the scene. The fire affected around 800 square meters and was put out in about an hour, according to official updates.

Blast devastates Russian shopping mall (VIDEO) — RT Russia & Former Soviet Unionhttps://t.co/o0CvMtHy6F

— raven (@raven1696559) December 25, 2024

ℝ𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕟

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The U.S. government has warned American citizens against traveling to Belarus.

Those who are already in the country have been advised to leave as soon as possible. According to the U.S. State Department, there is a high risk of potential protests in Belarus.

Do not travel to Belarus due to the Belarusian authorities’ arbitrary enforcement of local laws, the risk of detention, the continued facilitation of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the potential for civil unrest, and the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens residing in or traveling to Belarus. U.S. citizens in Belarus should depart immediately,» the State Department said in a statement.

U.S. citizens should regularly reevaluate possible departure plans in the event of an emergency. Border crossings with neighboring states are sometimes closed with little notice. Additional closures of crossing points along Belarus’ borders with Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, and Ukraine are possible,» the statement reads. 

🇺🇸🇧🇾 US State Department Urges Americans to Leave Belarus Immediately

The US State Department issued a warning on December 18 advising US citizens to refrain from traveling to Belarus and urging those already in the country to leave immediately. The advisory cites several… pic.twitter.com/bY97lGLHJ6

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) December 23, 2024

𝔻𝔻 𝔾𝕖𝕠𝕡𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕤

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The Philippines is sounding the alarm of a population crisis as excess deaths continue to surge while birth rates also fall.

The alarming situation was revealed in data from the Philippines Civil Registration System.

The government agency is responsible for collecting and maintaining vital statistics, including births, marriages, and deaths.

The data is obtained from vital events registered at the appropriate Office of the City/Municipal Civil Registrar throughout the country.

The figures are then subsequently submitted for encoding to the Office of the Civil Registrar General through the Provincial Statistical Offices of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

On a yearly basis, the PSA publishes a report on these vital statistics called the Vital Statistics Report (VSR).

The VSR relating to the year 2023 was only recently published.

If 2019 is taken as the last normal and reference year, there have been 908,566 fewer births from 2020 through 2023.

In addition, there have been 386,939 more than expected deaths.

The committee heard that not only have there been hundreds of thousands of excess deaths since the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, but there has also been a decline of nearly one million births in the country.

MUST WATCH: Explosive findings have been revealed in a recent Philippine House of Representatives committee investigation into hundreds of thousands of excess deaths believed to be linked to the COVID-19 vaccines.

The committee heard that not only have there been hundreds of… pic.twitter.com/yeDvSYqZH4

— The Canadian Independent (@canindependent) May 30, 2024

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕒𝕟𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕒𝕟 𝕀𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕡𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕟𝕥

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Members of the president-elect’s team reportedly plan to announce a withdrawal from the UN health agency on January 20

The transition team of US President-elect Donald Trump hopes to pull the country out of the World Health Organization (WHO) the first day of the new administration, thus cutting one of the agency’s major cash flows, the Financial Times (FT) has reported, citing health experts.

Members of Trump’s team told the experts that they intend to announce a withdrawal from the global health body on inauguration day, January 20, the FT wrote on Sunday. Some in the team reportedly want the US to stay in the WHO but push to reform it. However, another group, which hopes to cut ties, is reportedly winning the argument.

The transition team wants Trump to withdraw from the WHO on the first day because of the “symbolism” of reversing Joe Biden’s own inauguration-day move, FT wrote, citing Ashish Jha, former White House Covid response coordinator to the US President.

US may quit WHO on Trump’s first day – FT, by @DalastKimbasabi https://t.co/bUGpSvHk2c pic.twitter.com/0qvLagFrqe

— Murray Hunter (@DalastKimbasabi) December 22, 2024

𝕄𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕒𝕪 ℍ𝕦𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣

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Ukraine has previously ruled out extending a contract to transit Russian gas, via Ukraine, to Europe, which is due to expire at the end of the year. Slovakia, one of the recipients of the gas, has been racing to prolong the deal.

Ukraine could consider continued transit of Russian gas on the condition that Moscow does not receive money for the fuel until after the war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“We would not prolong the transit of Russian gas. We will not give the possibility of additional billions to be earned on our blood, on the lives of our citizens,” Zelenskyy told a news conference on Thursday during a European Union summit in Brussels.

BREAKING:

Ukraine announces it will stop all transit of Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine from January 1st pic.twitter.com/0OBl02g7te

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 20, 2024

𝕍𝕚𝕤𝕖𝕘𝕣á𝕕 𝟚𝟜

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Congress has until midnight Friday to come up with a way to fund the government or federal agencies will shut down, meaning hundreds of thousands of federal employees could be sent home — or stay on the job without pay — just ahead of the holidays.

Republicans abandoned a bipartisan plan Wednesday to prevent a shutdown after President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk came out against it. Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson to essentially renegotiate the deal days before a deadline when federal funding runs out.

On Thursday, Republicans did just that, putting together a revamped government funding proposal that would keep the government running for three more months and suspend the debt ceiling for two years, until Jan. 30, 2027. But the bill failed overwhelmingly in a House vote hours later, leaving next steps uncertain.

Update:

Just In: House Republican leadership is proposing a plan for raising the debt limit that is separate from the government funding bill, according to three sources in a closed-door GOP meeting Friday.

The proposal would be an agreement to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion next year in the “first reconciliation package” alongside $2.5 trillion cuts in “net mandatory spending in the reconciliation process,” according to three sources.

This plan of separating the debt limit increase from the government funding plan, as CNN has been reporting, is being discussed in a House GOP conference meeting that is still underway. The debt limit proposal would satisfy most of the Republicans who are against raising the debt ceiling without extensive cuts accompanying it.

House GOP leadership is shopping this idea to the conference to see if they have enough consensus to go to the floor and avoid another failure like Thursday night, when 38 Republicans voted against a plan that linked government funding and the debt limit together — a plan that President-elect Donald Trump had supported.

The House has failed to pass a Trump-backed spending bill as a government shutdown looms https://t.co/hj7u05YLMj

— CNN (@CNN) December 20, 2024

ℂℕℕ

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Aleksandr Khinshtein says missiles have hit the town of Rylsk in Kursk Region, targeting civilian infrastructure

Ukraine has launched a missile attack on Russia’s Kursk Region, Acting Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein reported on Friday. He said civilian infrastructure in the town of Rylsk was being targeted.

In a short video message posted on his Telegram channel on Friday, Khinshtein stated that the Ukrainian military had “conducted a missile strike on the town of Rylsk.” He accused Kiev’s forces of “deliberately choosing civilian facilities [and] social facilities as their targets.”

He added that senior regional officials, as well as all emergency services, had been deployed to the site of the incident. 

Update:

Just In: Six dead after Ukrainian strikes.

🚨 BREAKING: Ukraine Launches ATACMS Missile Strikes on Russian City of Rylsk

• Direct Hit: Ukrainian forces reportedly fired ATACMS missiles at Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk region, targeting buildings housing Russian military personnel.

• Strategic Move: This comes amid… pic.twitter.com/15qzBO1E78

— Shred Newz (@Shreddick0) December 20, 2024

𝕊𝕙𝕣𝕖𝕕 ℕ𝕖𝕨𝕫

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