🟠 Ukraine is preparing to undermine 'Turkish Stream' and 'Blue Stream' – Putin

🟠 Operation Epic Fury’s cost after five days: $3 BILLION and counting

🟠 Iran’s disruption of Mideast communication hubs exposes cracks in US air defenses – expert

🟠 Iran using dummy targets to fool US, Israel: expert

🟠 Terrorists, refugees, and the Shia factor: Why Pakistan is closely watching the Iran war

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💬 Iran cripples US’ Mideast radar systems through dead sectors – geopolitical analyst 

The damage inflicted on US radar installations in the Middle East could result in “the loss beyond line-of-sight connectivity,” political analyst Elijah Magnier tells Sputnik, commenting on Iran’s disruption of America’s key radar stations in the region.  

This means that some of those radars should be “completely replaced” because “even a very small partial damage can create dead sectors,” Magnier underlines, adding that the process of replacement is “extremely expensive, limited by the size and the weight” and could last at least a week. 

“The eyes and timing of any modern air defense system, radars don't just spot things,” the analyst explains. 

Radars “extend warning time, improve track quality, feed the network and support the battle management,” which means that “if you degrade radar coverage, you're not only trying to let weapons through, you try to break the defender decision cycle,” according to him.

He notes that Iranians managed to disrupt US radar and interception systems with an array of measures: 

🟠 They send drones that are relatively not fast enough and then they send cruise missiles.

🟠 Then they send particular kind of missiles that are Fattah 110 within a short range of 300 or 400 kilometers 

🟠 Before sending the missiles, they flood the system, make it very busy, force air jets to be airborne to identify the drones and down them

🟠 The goal is to stop an enemy defense system on the ground to react for fear of shooting their own jets

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🔊 Daily life in Tehran continues despite people living through anger and grief in the wake of US-Israeli attacks, journalist Farzaneh Fazaeli told Sputnik

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💬 Trump praises Venezuela's acting president as oil ties deepen

"The Oil is beginning to flow, and the professionalism and dedication between both Countries is a very nice thing to see," the US president wrote on Truth Social.

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💬 War correspondent explains how to tell when analysts talking about Iran’s losses are lying

“In every war, destroying a launcher is a very popular claim because it implies that the Israelis have reduced future attacks. This is a domestic and international message that ‘we have achieved the main objectives of the military campaign’. But the standard of evidence is another matter,” says Elijah Magnier, prolific journalist and war reporter covering Middle East conflicts since the 80s.

“What is credible is before and after imagery. So showing an identifiable launcher vehicle, and they have to be authentic, not a decoy. And then geolocated strike footage, with clear launcher signature, and [a] pattern of fire decline consistent with launcher attrition,” Magnier explained.

“The Americans and the Israelis can claim that they've hit a ‘suspected’ launch site and they've used this term a lot, which means there is no proof of a launcher present, or there are strikes on empty pads or decoy equipment,” Magnier emphasized.

Pointing to the intensity of Iran’s counterstrikes, and its adoption of the strategy learned during the June 2025 war that enemy defenses start running out after a few days of intense fire, Magnier says the real measurable sign of whether enemy attacks are degrading Iran’s capabilities will be whether its missiles continue firing after ten days or more.

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📑 Senate blocks attempt to limit Trump's Iran war powers

The resolution would have required congressional approval before any further strikes could be carried out, though President Trump could have vetoed it anyway.

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🤝 Iraqi Kurdistan will not be a party to regional conflicts — Barzani

Nechirvan Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Region, pledged his commitment to peace during a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

"The region will not be a party to conflicts and will remain, as always, a factor of peace," he said.

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🚨 Casualties mount in the war on Iran: latest figures

As of March 4, casualties include over 1,000 killed and hundreds wounded in Iran, including 168 girls killed in an Israeli attack on a school in Minab on February 28.

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📹🇮🇷 Tehran in wartime: Despite frequent US and Israeli strikes, normal life continues in Iran’s capital

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🗣 NATO will stay 'ambiguous' on whether Iran attack triggers Article 5 — Rutte

The Secretary General refuses to clarify if the strike on the US Embassy meets the threshold for collective defense.

"We keep it very ambiguous because we don't want to make our enemies, our adversaries, any wiser," he told Newsmax.

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📊 The math Iran is winning: $3M missile vs $50K drone

Iran's use of inexpensive drones puts the US and its allies at an economic disadvantage, with the cost of defense far exceeding the price of attack, The New York Times reported.

"The cost ratio per shot, per interception, is at best 10 to one. But it could be more like 60 or 70 to one in terms of cost, in favor of Iran," the NYT quoted a US drone manufacturer as saying.

🟠 American Patriot interceptor: $3 million per shot.

🟠 Iranian Shahed drone: $20,000–$50,000.

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🤝 US Interior Secretary visits Venezuela to deepen energy ties

Delcy Rodríguez hosted Doug Burgum at Miraflores Palace for talks aimed at "strengthening bilateral exchange in energy and mining matters."

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🇨🇳 China opens 14th National People's Congress

The annual session in Beijing kicks off with a government work report that showcases the country's economic resilience and technological ambition, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

2025 highlights:
▫️ GDP hits 140.19 trillion yuan (+5%)
▫️ High-tech manufacturing surges 9.4%
▫️ 14 million children now in free preschool

14th Five-Year Plan results (2021–2025):
▫️ Average annual growth: 5.4%
▫️ R&D spending up 10% yearly
▫️ Manufacturing: world leader 16 years running
▫️ Life expectancy: 79.25 years

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