🔺What does the New START suspension mean? We’ll be speaking about key takeaways from Putin's Federal Assembly address
🔺March Against the War Machine: Patrick Henningsen will join us to discuss the anti-war rally in Washington, DC as well as Trump’s statement that Biden’s policy is leading to WWIII
🔺’You are either with us, or against us’: The West cannot accept the neutrality of the Global South on the Ukraine situation

The Critical Hour will cover these and more stories! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

📻 Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

Study: COVID-19 Infection Provides 'High Degree' of Natural Immunity for Most Variants

One of the questions people have been asking since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2019 is whether one can rely on acquired immunity, besides vaccination, to safeguard against new variants of the respiratory disease that have continuously kept emerging.

Previous infection with the so-called alpha, beta, and delta variants offered quite a high degree of protection, but this waned in the case of the omicron BA.1, a new study has revealed.

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Two Previous UK PMs Re-Sound Demand to Give Fighter Jets to Ukraine

Former Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have again urged PM Rishi Sunak to gift UK jet fighters to Ukraine.

Their calls came just a fortnight after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to London, where he thanked MPs in Parliament "in advance" for the "wings of freedom" he wants from NATO countries to rebuild his air force.

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📹 Russian anti-tank grenade launcher crews' training in special military operation area (video courtesy of Russia's MoD)

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Putin's Speech: From Russia's Economic Growth & Military Advancements to New START Suspension

Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 21 delivered a keynote speech addressing the Federal Assembly. Even though the West targeted Russia's economy, society, and military, it has failed to inflict damage on the nation, according to Putin.

"My personal impression is that that was a very self-confident speech of the president of a country which is not just struggling through a difficult war, but is developing and looking forward into the future with optimism," Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for European and International Studies at Russia’s Higher School of Economics and deputy director of research at the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, told Sputnik.

Read more analysis of Vladimir Putin's address to the Federal Assembly

Give Sunak a Chance in NI Protocol Talks, Says Brexiteer Junior Minister

A pro-Brexit junior minister has urged fellow Tories to give Prime Minister Rishi Sunak "time and space" to renegotiate the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol with the EU.

"We have to give the prime minister that time and space to get these negotiations done. We need to give him the time and space to thrash out the final elements of any final deal," Mental and Women's Health Minister Maria Caulfield said.

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Report: UK Pilot Thought His Instructor Was Pretending to Be Asleep But He Was Actually Dead

A UK pilot who believed his instructor to be playing a joke on him made a startling discovery when he realized his "napping" teacher had actually died moments after the pair took to the skies during a 2022 flight, the findings of a newly released investigation have detailed.

Launched by the UK's Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB), the investigation revealed in its findings that the incident took place on the June 29, 2022. The report noted a 57-year-old instructor had suffered an acute cardiac arrest during a short circuit around Blackpool Airport.

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US Navy Blames Rookie Pilot for Disastrous F-35 Crash That Saw Jet Plummet Into South China Sea

A crash which left six US Navy sailors injured and left an F-35C Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter at the bottom of the South China Sea was caused by a mistake made by the pilot during landing, a Navy investigation found.

“This mishap was the result of pilot error,” claims to a recently-published Navy investigation, which found a first-time F-35 pilot “remained in manual mode when he should have been (and thought he was) in an automated command mode” before striking the side of the USS Carl Vinson on January 24, 2022.

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Russian Envoy: UN Partners Have No Desire to Cooperate on Probe Into Nord Stream Sabotage

Russia's Western partners on the UN Security Council are not showing a desire to cooperate in an independent investigation to verify a report that presented significant details that the United States was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia said.

"We do not see a desire from our partners to cooperate," Nebenzia said during a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

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Quran The Only Religious Text Protected From Burning By Swedish Police, Say Reports

In the wake of the recent turmoil, Swedish police have begun to ban Quran burnings for safety reasons. Religious books other than the Quran are not covered by the ban, according to internal police documents obtained by the Swedish press.
Last week, the Swedish police, in talks with the nation's Security Police, announced that from now on they will consistently deny applications for public gatherings where Quran-burning is planned.

Although admitting that it constitutes a restriction of free speech, the police justified the move by citing a potential increase in the terrorist threat against the Nordic country.

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Washington Forcing Kiev to Launch Offensive in Southern Direction, Official Says

Washington is forcing the Ukrainian authorities to launch an offensive in the south, and US President Joe Biden's recent visit to Kiev confirms this, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the Zaporozhye regional administration, has told Sputnik.

"The Americans are forcing [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky to attack in the southern direction, and Biden's visit confirms it. Biden needs war even at the cost of all inhabitants of the post-Ukrainian space to earn political points and dividends on the eve of a new electoral race and to show himself to the American people in the role of the world-maker," Rogov said.

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🇮🇳🌳India has exceeded all G20 nations on the Climate Performance Action index, according to a recent study by Observer Research Foundation

Check out our infographic for details!

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‘Everyone is Getting Ready for War’: Vucic Says Serbia’s Arms Exports ‘Selling Like Hotcakes’

Vucic said recently that Serbian arms are in such high demand around the globe that the Balkan nation must consciously preserve some of its products for its own needs.

“Everyone needs ammunition. Everyone is buying everything, anything we can make gets sold,” Vucic said. “I don’t know how some of this stuff hasn’t ended up on the battlefields of Ukraine yet.”

“Ammunition is selling like hotcakes,” he added.

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📹 Russia's Grad multiple-launch rocket systems in combat as part of the special military operation (video by Russian MoD)

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🇨🇳 🇯🇵 Japan and China expressed their concerns over a number of security issues to each other on Wednesday as part of their first security dialogue since 2019, with a view to boosting mutual trust, Japanese media reported.

▪️ The meeting took place in Tokyo, at the level of foreign affairs and defense officials, according to reports.

▪️ During the talks, Japanese Senior Deputy Foreign Minister Shigeo Yamada expressed concern over Beijing's intensifying military activities in the East China Sea and collaboration with Russia, as well as Chinese "spy balloons," the report added.

▪️ Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, in turn, raised the issue of Japan's recently adopted security and defense documents, as well as warned against Tokyo's "negative moves" related to Taiwan" in collusion with power outside the region,", Japanese media reported.

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🇷🇺 🇨🇳 China and Russia remain strategically determined and committed to a multipolar world, Wang Yi, head of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

💬 “We will have an independent and autonomous foreign policy,” the two senior diplomats said.

▪️ Lavrov stressed the close cooperation between Russia and China, despite the turmoil on the world stage.

▪️ He added that he hopes that new agreements will emerge as a result of today's talks.

▪️ The Chinese official's visit comes as Moscow and Beijing have increased bilateral economic, trade and diplomatic cooperation, in a bid to overcome sanctions and to create more balanced, multi-polar world.

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⚡️ Putin, China's Wang Yi to meet on Wednesday - Kremlin

We Need to Go Deeper: Earth Has One More Layer, And It's Leviathan Iron Core, Study Says

Our planet Earth has five major layers instead of four, a major new study has claimed. There is a ball of iron possibly 400 miles (644 kilometers) wide, lodged deep within Earth’s metallic core, according to the latest research, carried out by scientists in Australia.

In plain terms, Earth is rather like an onion, with multiple layers, which huge strides in seismology have allowed scientists to analyze. If we begin at the exterior, these layers are: the crust (where we live), the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. Each of the layers has its specific properties, composition, and characteristics, with the latter affecting key processes taking place on Earth. There had been speculation regarding the existence of an additional layer as far back as 20 years ago, which the new study by the geoscientists claims to have confirmed.

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Bad Omens: Drought Alert Looms Over Italy as Venice Canals Run Dry

Gondolas, water taxis and ambulances are standing idle, tied up along some of Venice’s iconic canals because of severe low tide, with scientists sending out dire warnings.

We have all become accustomed to the sight of Italy’s famous tourist venue, the city of Venice, inundated, with visitors trudging through flooded St. Mark's square in wellies. But now there are worries that last July's drought - the worst in decades that prompted the government to declare a state of emergency in the north of Italy - will be repeated this summer.

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