Senator Rand Paul has published his annual Festivus report detailing wasteful spending and record debt payments
The US government has spent over $1.6 trillion this year on wasteful programs, such as teaching ferrets how to binge-drink alcohol and dosing dogs with cocaine, according to Senator Rand Paul’s latest annual ‘Festivus Report’.
The Kentucky Republican’s 2025 edition notes a total of $1,639,135,969,608 in waste, including $1.22 trillion spent on interest payments for the US national debt, which has reached nearly $40 trillion.
Specific expenditures criticized include $2.1 million for researchers to collect saliva samples and survey partiers at EDM festivals in New York City about drug use. The National Institutes of Health spent $5.2 million to dose dogs with cocaine, while over $13.8 million funded experiments on beagles.
Other highlighted projects involve $14.6 million to make monkeys play a ‘Price Is Right’-inspired video game, a process that involved screwing metal headposts into the animals’ skulls. The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $1 million on a study where teenage ferrets were forced to consume alcohol.
The report also targets diversity and foreign aid spending. It notes $3.3 million granted to Northwestern University to erect “scientific neighborhoods,” install “safe space ambassadors,” and form committees to “dismantle systemic racism.” The State Department also spent $244,252 to produce a children’s television cartoon in Pakistan about climate change.
Paul also criticized ineffective Covid-19-related spending, including over $40 million paid to social media influencers to promote vaccination among minority groups. USAID, which was dismantled by US President Donald Trump in the summer, also reportedly spent $54 million to collect and send bat coronavirus samples to Wuhan for gain-of-function experiments.
He further noted that from a $7.5 billion allocation under former President Joe Biden to build 500,000 electric vehicle chargers nationwide, only 68 stations are actually operational.
A number of the programs mentioned by Paul were approved under Biden. Paul noted that while Trump has since cut down on foreign spending, it’s still “just a drop in the bucket,” accusing Congress of “shoveling money toward pet projects and special interests” at the expense of American taxpayers.
The two leaders are set to talk at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, reports have claimed
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has announced that he will meet with US President Donald Trump “in the near future.” While Zelensky did not provide details about the meeting’s timing and location, Axios reporter Barak Ravid has claimed it could happen on Sunday in Florida.
Writing on Telegram on Friday, Zelensky said that following Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov’s contacts with American representatives, both sides agreed to hold a meeting at the highest level. “Much can be decided by the new year,” the Ukrainian leader wrote.
Shortly before Zelensky’s announcement, Axios global affairs correspondent Ravid wrote on X that Trump is expected to meet with the Ukrainian leader on Sunday at his Mar-a-Lago estate, as per an unnamed Ukrainian official.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that Moscow has received and analyzed information received by Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev during his recent meeting with American negotiators in the US to discuss a resolution of the Ukraine conflict.
Peskov said that following Dmitriev’s report, Russian and US representatives held talks involving foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov and several White House officials, and that both sides agreed to continue the dialogue.
Earlier this week, Zelensky revealed his new 20-point peace proposal, which he claimed has been discussed with US officials as part of Trump’s efforts to resolve the ongoing conflict.
Zelensky’s plan envisions multiple concessions from Moscow, including territorial ones despite Russia’s continued battlefield gains, an 800,000-strong Ukrainian army backed by NATO members, and an immediate ceasefire with the current front line frozen.
Moscow has declined to publicly comment on the proposal, saying sensitive diplomacy must be conducted privately.
Berlin is using EU sanctions as a pretext to harass Russians, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said
The Russian Foreign Ministry has advised the country’s citizens to refrain from traveling to Germany, warning that they could face persecution on national grounds there.
During a briefing on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova drew attention to repeated incidents in which Russians were subjected to “unjustified harassment” by Berlin under the pretext of EU sanctions imposed over the Ukraine conflict.
The restrictions extend even to goods purchased for personal use within the bloc, leading German customs officials to seize items from Russian citizens as they leave the country, she said. Purchases worth more than $300 (€353) are affected. As a result, people are not only being “robbed in broad daylight,” but are also missing their flights due to bureaucratic delays and are forced to buy new tickets, Zakharova added.
Moscow addressed the German authorities over the incidents but received no reply, the spokeswoman noted.
Public figures such as the head coach of Zenit St. Petersburg football club, Sergey Semak, have also been mistreated, Zakharova said.
Earlier this month, the wife of the former PSG player, Anna Semak, complained on social media that she and her huband had to pay a hefty fine for a pair of shoes, glasses, and a scarf they purchased in Germany at a Munich airport, while the items were taken from them.
“We strongly urge citizens of our country to refrain from traveling to Germany unless absolutely necessary,” Zakharova said.
According to the spokeswoman, Germany has been “de facto transformed into a ‘lawless territory’ for people of a certain nationality – in this case, people from Russia… The German law enforcement officers have become punishers, pursuing Russians with maniacal persistence. They bully them and do not even hide this fact.”
Germany has been Ukraine’s main backer in the EU since the escalation of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, providing the country with almost €44 billion ($52 billion) in aid. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has repeatedly called Moscow a threat to Berlin and the whole bloc.
The Russian authorities reject claims of harboring any aggressive plans against the EU, saying they are only being made by Western politicians to distract the public from domestic problems and justify increased military spending.
The 18-year-old suspect was coerced into an attempted terrorist attack against the military, the security agency has said
An 18-year-old Russian woman has been caught planting an improvised explosive device on a car in the city of Stavropol on orders from Ukrainian special services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported Friday.
The agency said the woman was coerced through a phone scam that convinced her she was under criminal investigation and could receive leniency by performing what the Russian authorities consider an attempted terrorist attack.
The Ukrainian handler arranged the delivery of an IED with an explosive power equivalent to 400 grams of TNT, the FSB said. The suspect was instructed to place it under a vehicle at the parking lot of a military base in southern Russia. The woman is a resident of the neighboring Krasnodar Region.
The agency released footage of the arrest and an interview with the suspect, in which she expressed regret.
Earlier this week, the FSB reported thwarting two separate Ukrainian terrorist plots in Kaluga and Tyumen regions. In both cases, male suspects were killed in firefights during arrest attempts, according to the law enforcement service.
Moscow has accused Kiev of escalating terrorist activities on Russian soil as its frontline forces face setbacks. The Russian authorities say scams are routinely used by Ukrainian intelligence to pressure citizens into committing crimes.
The news agency claimed a “person close to the Kremlin” had offered it insight into Russia’s stance on the Ukraine conflict
Bloomberg is spreading “fake news” by claiming to have inside access to Kremlin information, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
The senior diplomat criticized the news agency after it relayed what it claimed to be Moscow’s attitude toward a 20-point peace proposal presented this week by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky. The story cited an anonymous source described as “a person close to the Kremlin.”
“This purported news outlet has no reliable sources close to the Kremlin. Only unreliable ones. And the wording ‘close to the Kremlin’ serves only as a cover up for fake news,” Zakharova said on Telegram.
Kiev’s proposal, which Zelensky claimed was discussed with US officials as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to resolve the ongoing conflict, envisions an 800,000-strong Ukrainian army backed by NATO members and an immediate ceasefire with the current front line frozen.
Moscow has declined to make its position public, saying sensitive diplomacy must be conducted privately. Publicizing one’s negotiation stance is “inadvisable” under the circumstances, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian presidential envoy involved in normalization talks with the US, suggested a “US/UK/EU deep-state-aligned fake media machine” is waging a pressure campaign to undermine Trump’s agenda, including on Ukraine.
Previously, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused Reuters of peddling “propaganda” about Russia after the agency alleged that a US intelligence assessment had reported that Moscow sought to “capture all of Ukraine and reclaim parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire.” Russia said the claim was false regardless of whether or not such a US document exists.
Kiev must prioritize “militarization” and social programs over organizing a vote, Mikhail Podoliak has said
Ukraine cannot afford to finance elections on its own due to a budget deficit, Mikhail Podoliak, a senior adviser to Vladimir Zelensky, has claimed, insisting that Kiev should focus on “militarization” efforts.
Zelensky’s presidential term expired in May 2024, but he refused to call an election, citing martial law. Russia has proclaimed Zelensky “illegitimate” while insisting that legal power now lies with Ukraine’s parliament. Moscow has also suggested that Zelensky’s dubious status poses an obstacle to reaching a peace agreement.
However, US President Donald Trump – who once referred to Zelensky as “a dictator” – has recently ramped up pressure on the Ukrainian leader to hold elections. In response, Zelensky said he was prepared to hold a vote, but demanded that its Western backers guarantee security.
Speaking to Novini Live on Thursday, Podoliak claimed there is another obstacle to holding a presidential vote. “We are not supposed to finance this. Objectively, we cannot afford it because we have a budget deficit,” he said.
According to Podoliak, Ukraine’s budget has other priority expenditures, including “militarization” and “social programs, which should compensate for the economic losses of individual households.” He suggested, nonetheless, that the country’s Central Electoral Commission and a working group in parliament should calculate the approximate cost of holding elections.
The back-and-forth over the election comes as a Socis poll this week suggested that Zelensky would overwhelmingly lose in a run-off presidential election to his former top commander and potential primary rival, Valery Zaluzhny. The survey indicated that Zaluzhny would sweep a run-off vote with 64%. Another poll, published by news outlet Delovaya Stolitsa on Tuesday, indicated that 44% of Ukrainians oppose the prospect of online voting over fears that the authorities could falsify the results.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has noted that Moscow would consider halting strikes deep into Ukraine on election day – provided that millions of Ukrainians living in Russia are allowed to participate.
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The two presidents, however, have no plans for a phone call, spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said
Russian President Vladimir Putin has wished merry Christmas to his US counterpart, Donald Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has revealed.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Peskov said that Putin had already sent a telegram with greetings to Trump, adding that “there is no indication that a phone conversation between the two leaders is planned for today.”
Under the Trump administration, relations between Russia and the US have been notably warmer than during the tenure of former President Joe Biden.
Putin and Trump have been engaged in active talks over settling the Ukraine conflict and reinvigorating bilateral relations, holding a high-stakes summit in Alaska in August aimed at ending hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, though the talks failed to produce a breakthrough.
In June, Putin also called Trump on his 79th birthday, with the two discussing Iran and the Middle East during a 50-minute conversation. The leaders also held a phone call on October 16, during which Putin congratulated Trump on helping mediate the peace agreement in Gaza.
Last year, several weeks before Trump’s inauguration, Putin refrained from sending any Christmas greeting to most Western leaders as well as the US President, explaining that America has positioned as an “unfriendly” country towards Russia.
The son of the ex-US president has claimed he had been “naive” about the level of kleptocracy in the country
Ukraine is a “viper’s den” rife with corruption, Hunter Biden, the son of former US President Joe Biden, has said, as he reflected on his time as a board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma in 2014, when his father served as vice president in the Obama administration, and left the post in 2019. He reportedly earned around $1 million annually, with critics pointing out that he lacked any experience in the energy sector and was effectively “cashing in” on his father’s prominent position.
In an interview on the Shawn Ryan Show aired on Monday, Hunter Biden expressed regret about his involvement in Ukraine’s affairs. “It was a mistake because I was very, very naive about what a viper’s den Ukraine is.”
“What an absolute… level of corruption that [is] still staggering because they’re part of a kleptocracy,” he added.
He went on to explain that he believed his tenure in Burisma to be a blunder, “not because of anything that I did that I am embarrassed about or in any way whatsoever feel conflicted about as it relates to what I did for Burisma. But because of the political position that it put us all in.”
The Biden family has long been entangled in controversy over Burisma, with the New York Times reporting last August that Hunter Biden sought assistance for the company from the US ambassador to Italy in 2016. Hunter’s legal team described the outreach as a “proper request,” and stressed that it did not lead to any projects.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has publicly acknowledged that he was responsible for the dismissal of Ukrainian Prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the company, by threatening to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees to Kiev unless the official was fired.
Ukraine has long been reeling under endemic corruption, with the problem only exacerbating after the escalation of Kiev’s conflict with Moscow in 2022.
A poll by Info Sapiens this spring suggested that almost 80% of Ukrainians consider the graft a very serious issue, while the EU has designated corruption as one of the key obstacles impeding Kiev’s membership in the bloc.
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