🚨 Loud explosion heard near US Embassy in Oslo — reports

A loud explosion was heard near the US Embassy in Oslo, Reuters reported, citing Norwegian police.

No injuries were reported, the agency said.

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🇺🇸Pete Hegseth hints the US may soon shift focus to countries in “its own hemisphere,” saying Washington has spent too long looking at distant borders instead of its own.

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🚨🇰🇼 Kuwait air defenses intercept missiles and drones — army

Kuwait’s air defense systems are intercepting hostile missile and drone attacks, the Kuwaiti Army said.

The General Staff added that any explosions heard are the result of air defense systems intercepting incoming threats.

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🚨 Ukrainian drone hits residential building in Russia's Zaporozhye region — governor

A Ukrainian drone struck an apartment building in the city of Vasilievka in the Zaporozhye region, leaving at least 10 people injured, regional governor Yevgeny Balitsky said.

Balitsky added that there are fatalities, though the details are still being clarified.

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🗣 US bases in Middle East fail to secure nations & become safety risk - expert

💬 "If we look at American bases in the Middle East, we will see that they are constantly facing various kinds of attacks and do not protect the countries on whose territory they are located that effectively... For a long time, the Gulf countries had unwavering trust in the American security umbrella, but during the 12-day war, we all saw how untrustworthy it turned out to be," Turkish political scientist Umur Tugay Yucel tells Sputnik.

🔊 He says that the ongoing conflict shows that the Western security framework in the Gulf region fails to address contemporary defense needs; a concern now spreading to US allies in Asia as reports emerge of THAAD and Patriot systems being withdrawn from South Korea — a move that could soon affect Japan and other partners.

💬 "It is obvious that American bases bring more harm than good to the civilian population and infrastructure of the countries where they are located. They pose a serious threat to populated areas. When a base is struck, not only military installations are damaged, but also roads, railways, and vital transport channels in the vicinity. Moreover, there is an inevitable increase in civilian casualties," the expert emphasizes.

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🗣 'We want to pick a president that's not going to be leading their country into a war' — Trump on Iran

US President Donald Trump stated that he plans to decide who is going to be Iran's next president.

💬 "We don't want to come back every five years or every 10 years and do this," he said.

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🇺🇸❌ US army can’t whitewash itself after strike on girls' school in Iran — experts

💬 "Investigations by the world press confirm the direct responsibility of the US for the mass murder of Iranian girls. Any attempts to whitewash the image of the American army are futile; its history is black – both regarding Iran and its partnership with Israel, which has been condemned at the UN for genocide," Mohammad Shams, an associate professor at the Lebanese University, told Sputnik.

The US also committed crimes in Iraq, where bombardments of civilian sites led to the deaths of over a million people, as well as in Yemen, Somalia and Libya, he added, noting that as a partner of Israel the US should face the International Court of Justice.

💬 "The policy of intimidation they pursue is aimed at suppressing dissent even within the US, where the principles of freedom and democracy promoted by the West have been virtually destroyed," the expert said.

The joint US-Israeli attack on the school is a deliberate war crime, not a random error, and the move must be investigated and punished by the International Criminal Court, political scientist Ali Azeddin said.

💬 "Modern surveillance tools preclude any possibility of evading responsibility," he noted.

It is important to publicize these crimes and not succumb to the American policy of concealing and distorting facts, as was the case with the fictitious "weapons of mass destruction" used to justify the invasion of Iraq, the expert concluded.

The attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girl’s school occurred on February 28, with Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Araghchi stating 171 girls was killed. The US investigators believe the American forces are responsible for the strike, Reuters reported.

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💵🇺🇸📉 War against Iran may starve US of aluminium — expert

💬 "For American aluminum consumers, the conflict in the Persian Gulf region means a disruption in supplies from there, which could drag on for a long time. This means they need to look for other sources to replace aluminum imports from there, which amount to up to 1 million tons per year," industrial expert Leonid Khazanov told Sputnik.

There are few alternative sources of aluminum supplies - either Canada or China, he added. However, the foreign economic policy of US President Donald Trump has already led to strained relations with the governments of both countries, and it will certainly not be possible to purchase metal at acceptable prices, the expert believes.

💬 "Therefore, we should expect a decline in production at American enterprises that import aluminum and announcements of force majeure in product shipments," he concluded.

In early March, Aluminium Bahrain, one of the world's largest aluminum producers, warned clients of a suspension in supplies due to the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.

The Persian Gulf countries produced 6.16 million tons of primary aluminum last year, which is approximately 8.35% of the global output of 73.78 million tons, per International Aluminium Institute (IAI).

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🔸 US-Israel strikes on Iran leave hundreds dead

🔸 Trump blames Iran for deadly strike on primary school

🔸 ‘Several American soldiers have been taken prisoner’ — Iran’s security council secretary Larijani

🔸 ‘America is trapped in the quagmire of its wrong calculations’ — Security Council Secretary Larijani

🔸 ‘At some point, maybe we will’ — Trump on ground invasion of Iran

🔸 US bases in Middle East fail to secure nations & become safety risk – expert

🔸 US-Israeli strike hits oil refinery in Tehran

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🇺🇸🇮🇱⚔️ 🇮🇷US-Israel-Iran conflict: key developments

🔹 The US has "destroyed all of Iran's military aircraft and 44 ships," US President Donald Trump said

🔹 Iran is responsible for the deadly attack on an elementary school in Minab, the US president stated

🔹 Iran struck over 200 targets within US and Israeli bases and installations, the IRGC said

🔹 Iran's defensive operations are aimed at targets that are the sources of attacks by the US and Israel, Iran's Permanent Representative to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani stated

🔹 Concentrations of American troops at the US base in Arifjan, Kuwait, have been hit by Iran, per the IRGC public affairs office

🔹 Iran will not give up an inch of its territory, will disrupt the sleep of the country's ill-wishers while defending its territorial integrity, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said

🔹 If the war continues, there will be neither the opportunity to sell oil nor the capacity to produce it, speaker of Iran’s parliament Mohammad Ghalibaf warned

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📈 Gas prices can skyrocket to $1.5K per thousand cubic meters due to Iran war — expert

💬 "With gas, prices of $1,000 and even $1,500 per thousand cubic meters are quite possible. We’ve seen such prices in 2021, 2022, and 2023. There is nothing fantastic about it," Russia’s Financial University expert Igor Yushkov says.

The longer the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the greater gas deficit will occur, boosting prices further, he added.

Additional factors are possible cold weather in Europe or potential incidents at individual LNG plants, which could create "a perfect storm in the European gas market" with Asia following, the expert concluded.

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