🇸🇸 IMF has backed South Sudan's de-dollarization crusade to improve the economy amid the high volatility of the local currency, local media has reported

🗣"The IMF supports the South Sudan authorities' efforts to ensure that the existing legal framework regarding legal tender for domestic transactions is respected," IMF Resident Representative for South Sudan Guy Jenkinson is quoted as saying.

▪️Last month, the Bank of South Sudan restricted the use of the dollar in local payments in favor of the national currency, the South Sudanese pound (SSP).

▪️According to the country’s central bank, many government and non-governmental organizations, financial institutions and private businesses use foreign currency instead of the local one, which is legal tender. The regulator dubbed it as an "unacceptable practice that must be entirely discouraged."

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The US 7th Fleet announced on Saturday the arrival of its fast-attack submarine USS Springfield at the naval base in the South Korean port city of Busan, in an apparent show of force aimed at the North.

Los Angeles-class submarines make routine port calls in South Korea as part of the US navy's forward-deployed submarine force in the Indo-Pacific. The length of the submarine's stay was not revealed.

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Russian Startup Develops Innovative Face Cream From Spider Web Protein

According to the researchers, this cream heals cuts and burns, removes age spots and rejuvenates the skin in a couple of weeks. The development has already passed in vitro studies and has proven its effectiveness.

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Iran has developed a new “Paveh” cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km that could potentially reach all US military bases in the region, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps aerospace force Amirali Hajizadeh said to Iranian media.

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❗️The EU has published its tenth package of sanctions against Russia:

▪️The Rossiya Segodnya media company, Russian National Wealth Fund, the All-Russia People's Front, the Khrunichev rocket maker are all blacklisted;

▪️Rossiya Segodnya Executive Director Kirill Vyshinsky and Regnum Chief Editor Marina Akhmedova are sanctioned;

▪️Russia’s Alfa bank, Rosbank, Tinkoff bank are blacklisted;

▪️The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's compatriots’ outreach agency Rossotrudnichestvo is sanctioned;

▪️The Russian human rights ombudswoman, the head of the presidential council for human rights are sanctioned;

▪️Russia’s top commercial vehicle maker Gaz is sanctioned;

▪️Russian military commanders Alexei Avdeyev, Mikhail Teplinsky, Sergei Karakayev are sanctioned.

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▪️Several nuclear arms firms affiliated with Russia's Rosatom have been sanctioned;

▪️Russian company Rosatomflot in charge of nuclear-powered icebreakers is sanctioned;

▪️The deputy head of Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor is added to the sanctions list;

▪️The EU sanctions the former head of Ukrainian aircraft engine maker Motor Sich who is in custody in Ukraine;

▪️Russia's Defense Ministry is sanctioned;

▪️Russian foreign intelligence agency SVR is sanctioned;

▪️20 Russian deputy ministers, including trade and economic development deputies, are sanctioned;

▪️Four more Russian lawmakers are sanctioned;

▪️African entities and persons added to EU sanctions list over alleged ties to the Wagner private military company;

▪️The latest round of EU sanctions brings the total number of blacklisted entities up to 205 and individuals up to 1,473.

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❗️The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the West of undermining G20 decision-making after the meeting of finance ministers and central bankers wrapped up in India’s Bengaluru without a joint statement being issued.

💬 "Our opponents, primarily the US, the EU and the G7, continue their paranoid attempts to isolate Russia and make it responsible for all international security and global economic woes. The West has again torpedoed the collective decision-making by resorting to blackmail, dictate and pushing their absurd Ukrainian narrative," the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, the G20 finance ministers failed to agree on the meeting's joint communique and instead issued a "chair's summary" and an "outcome document," which noted differences in approach on the Ukraine issue.

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Thousands rallied near Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate on Saturday to demand that Germany help bring a peace process forward between Ukraine and Russia, instead of funneling deadly weapons to Kiev.

The "Peace Rally" was organized by the left-wing Die Linke party, which estimated attendance at more than 50,000. Protesters were seen waving peace flags and holding up placards that read, "Make Peace, Without Weapons" and "Diplomacy Instead of Arms Deliveries."

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Sy Hersh on US Proxy War on Russia, Snowden's Expose & Nord Stream Sabotage

The destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines was planned at a time when the Minsk agreements were still in force; however, the Biden administration did not attach much importance to it while pursuing its political goals, Seymour Hersh revealed in an exclusive interview on RT's Going Underground.

Check out the full interview on Sputnik’s website or on Odysee

Romanian Councilor Alberto-Iosif Caraian was left embarrassed after he joined an online meeting from the shower. The councilor was struggling to switch the camera off, but later reappeared on the meeting’s live stream fully clothed.

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2024 Bid in Jeopardy? Biden Faces Soaring Prices, Expensive Gasoline and Looming Recession

In his State of the Union Speech on February 7, the US president insisted that inflation had been largely tamed. This time, on February 24, Biden also tried to put on a brave face by claiming that "annual inflation in January is down from the summer, while the unemployment rate has remained at or near a 50-year low."

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Combat training of Russian BMP-2 crews in the special military operation area

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🇨🇲 Nineteen athletes were injured in explosions during a race in the western part of Cameroon, media has reported

▪️The incident took place during the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope in the town of Buea in the South West Region. A total of 529 athletes participated in the race.

▪️According to media reports, one of the separatist militia groups called the Ambazonia Governing Council claimed responsibility for the multiple small blasts.

▪️The victims received medical care. Three of them were operated on and now their condition is stable. No deaths were recorded

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🕊 Indian netizens have shared a video from the Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh, where a sarus crane follows the man who saved it when it was small. Now that's gratitude!

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US' Nord Stream Sabotage May Cause Countries to Quit NATO, Says Seymour Hersh

Hersh argued that Biden is “lying now to push us into war,” comparing his actions to those of the 36th US President Lyndon B. Johnson who used a bogus attack on US warships in the Gulf of Tonkin as a pretext for entering the Vietnam War in 1964.

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Frenemy? How US Deprives Germany of Strategic Autonomy and Status as Industrial Powerhouse

Not everything has been rosy in the German economic garden since Washington forced its NATO allies to join the US sanctions war on Russia.

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New NI Protocol Deal: Sunak Says He Wants ‘to Get the Job Done’ as UK-EU Talks Continue

Sunak told a British newspaper that his government was "giving it everything" to secure a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, which he said is yet to be clinched between the UK and the EU.

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Musk Says Ukraine 'Indeed' Witnessed Coup d'Etat in 2014

"That election was arguably dodgy, but no question that there was indeed a coup," Musk wrote.

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⚡️Putin: Russia Has to Return to Discussing Nuclear Potential of UK and France

'Mickey Mouse' Voice and Sore Throat, East Palestine Residents Complain About Chemical Effects

Locals are slamming US authorities for neglecting the consequences of toxic train derailment.

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President Putin says Russia does not object to participating in discussion on nuclear parity of NATO countries.