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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

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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

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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

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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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Six ATACMS and four Storm Shadows were intercepted by Russian air defenses, causing damage to the facility

DETAILS TO FOLLOW:

Ukraine launched a missile attack against a massive chemical plant in Russia’s southern Rostov Region, the Russian Ministry of Defense has reported. According to the military, the attack happened on Wednesday. Six American-made ATACMS tactical missiles and four air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles were used in the assault.

Russian air defense units engaged the incoming missiles, successfully intercepting all ATACMS and three out of the four Storm Shadow missiles using S-400 and Buk-M3 surface-to-air missile systems, as well as the Pantsir air defense system. One of the Storm Shadows veered off course. However, it still impacted the facility, resulting in damage to a technical building on the premises, the ministry said.

Moscow condemned the attack, claiming that these actions by the Kiev regime, supported by Western sponsors, would not go unanswered.

Ukrainian missile strike targets chemical plant in southern Russia – MOD pic.twitter.com/SkJMxyFzuP

— PolitlQ (@PolitlQ) December 19, 2024

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The Russian president has proposed to test Western defense systems against Moscow’s new hypersonic missile

Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the West to put their modern air defense systems up against Moscow’s new hypersonic Oreshnik missile in what would be a “technological duel.” During his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Putin was asked to comment on opinions expressed by some foreign military experts suggesting that the Oreshnik can easily be shot down by Western missile defense systems.

“Well, if those Western experts you mentioned believe that, they should suggest to their employers in the West and the US to conduct a technological experiment. For instance, a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them identify a target in Kiev, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense systems there, and then we will strike it with an Oreshnik. Let’s see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment. Is the other side ready?” Putin asked.

Putin Challenges West to “Technological High-Tech Duel”

"Select a target in Kiev, concentrate all air and missile defenses there, and Russia will strike it with the Oreshnik.

We are ready for such an experiment,” the Russian president said during his year-end Q&A. pic.twitter.com/ZHaYFnwNWj

— Warzone Observer (@WarzoneObserver) December 19, 2024

𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕫𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕆𝕓𝕤𝕖𝕣𝕧𝕖𝕣

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Nearly 50km of shoreline is polluted after two tankers were damaged in a storm on Sunday

A major oil spill has contaminated a large stretch along the Black Sea coast in southern Russia’s Krasnodar Region after two tankers were severely damaged in a storm over the weekend. The vessels wrecked in the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and Crimea.

Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Tuesday that fuel oil was found along the sandy coast between the cities of Temryuk and Anapa, popular tourist destinations, stretching for dozens of kilometers.

“This morning, while monitoring the shoreline, stains of fuel oil were discovered. Oil products washed ashore for tens of kilometers,” he said.

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