❗️UK Banks Brace for Mammoth Payouts After Court’s Car Loan Ruling

Barclays Bank lost a key UK court challenge over its car loan practices, in a further blow for British lenders facing a potential multi-billion-pound bill from spiraling auto-finance claims.

Barclays had appealed a ruling that it failed to treat a customer fairly when she bought a used car.

Lawyers previously said that the decision would serve as a template for how future complaints are handled across the UK finance industry - alongside a separate legal challenge set to go before the Supreme Court early next year.

Lenders are braced to pay out as much as £38bn in claims should judges rule against them in the top court.

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😒 The Biden Crime Family – Corrupt Till the End

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💀 Western Exceptionalism Strikes Again

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⚠️ West Accuses Iran of Stockpiling Enriched Uranium to 'Unprecedented Levels’

Britain, France and Germany have claimed Tehran’s stockpile is without ‘credible civilian justification.’

The three countries demanded in a statement that Iran must ‘reverse its nuclear escalation.’

Iran says it has the right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and has consistently denied any ambition of developing weapons capability.

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💶 Fitch Cuts Romania’s Credit Outlook - Citing ‘High Political Uncertainty’

Fitch Ratings has lowered the outlook on Romania’s BBB- rating, the lowest investment level, to negative from stable in an unscheduled decision. (Bloomberg)

The move will be a warning shot to pro-European parties in the Black Sea nation as they struggle to form a coalition after parliamentary elections this month.

A now-aborted presidential vote in November plunged the country into political chaos after the surprise first-round victory of anti-war presidential candidate Calin Georgescu.

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🇺🇦🇺🇸 In January, Trump’s special representative, Kellogg, will visit Ukraine with the goal of "gathering facts," not holding negotiations — Reuters

At the beginning of January, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine is set to visit Kiev and several European capitals.

The meetings are expected to focus on "fact-finding" on behalf of Trump’s new administration, rather than negotiating the war.

The planned trip highlights "the urgency with which Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine."

🔴 @DDGeopolitics

🩸UK Inflation Jumps to Eight-Month High amid Stagflation Fears

The consumer prices index increased 2.6% annually in November, from 2.3% in October, the ONS said Wednesday – driven up by motor fuel and clothing prices.

Markets have effectively ended any expectation of the Bank of England reducing rates at its final meeting of the year on Thursday. Only two cuts are expected in 2025, down from three at the start of the week.

The figures reinforce stagflationary fears which threaten a major headache for PM Keir Starmer – after he promised to boost living standards and expand the economy at the fastest rate of any G7 country.

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🔴 Former Swiss Ambassador to Turkey Reveals How "the Americans with their British Allies" Shut Down Russia-Ukraine Peace Negotiations

Jean-Daniel Ruch confirms other accounts that it is was the West who "pulled the plug on negotiations" when they were "on the edge" of succeeding - just 6 weeks into the war.

He says they did so because the Americans thought it was too early and they wanted to "first weaken Russia.”

As Ruch describes it, he found the decision "deeply immoral" because "it was clear at that time that if the war continued there would be an escalation and the dead would be at least in the tens of thousands, more likely in the hundreds of thousands.”

He asks, rhetorically: "Why did all these people die?" because now "they may have weakened Russia, but they weakened the whole West at the same time, maybe not the Americans but certainly Europe."

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😮 Marine Le Pen Tells Macron ‘It’s Over’

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said Wednesday that she was preparing for an early presidential election as Macron's time in office was all but over.

"I am preparing for an early presidential election, out of precaution, taking into account Emmanuel Macron's fragility, what little institutional levers he has left," she said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper.

"Emmanuel Macron is finished or almost finished," she added, adding that Macron was diminished both domestically and internationally. "He has angered everyone. He has no more influence in the European Union," Le Pen noted.

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👊 Big Vik Pulls No Punches with Zelensky Response

Will the former comedian listen to sense?

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🤔 Canada's Global News Bureau Chief Reveals Trudeau Has Cancelled All Year-End Interviews with Media

Is the Canadian PM toast?

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➡️JUST IN: France's Highest Court Upholds Sarkozy's Corruption Conviction

Sarkozy had appealed his 2021 conviction for corruption and influence peddling, in which he had been handed a three-year prison sentence.

Two of the years were suspended and Sarkozy would wear an electronic monitoring bracelet instead of going to prison for the last year.

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✍️ Netanyahu “promises” mother of US journalist Austin Tice that IDF isn't conducting airstrikes in Syria where he “might be located”

Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks on Syria since Assad was overthrown.

Netanyahu is writing promise checks that the IDF cannot guarantee.

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