🇺🇸 Michelle Obama said she cried for 30 minutes after Trump's 2017 inauguration.

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Kim's Sister: Pyongyang to View US Attempt to Shoot Down North Korean Missiles as Declaration of War

"It will be viewed as a clear declaration of war against North Korea if such a reaction as a missile interception takes place in response to our strategic arms tests that are conducted without posing threat to the security of the neighboring states in open waters and air outside of the US' jurisdiction," the deputy head of the North Korean Workers' Party's Central Committee and sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said.

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❗️ Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who exposed the US role behind the Nord Stream explosions, laughed while speaking to Sputnik about a New York Times report on the possible involvement of a pro-Ukrainian group in the sabotage of the pipeline.

📌 The New York Times has published an article claiming that new intelligence studied by US officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group, "likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals," was behind the Nord Stream blasts. The newspaper further alleged that US and British nationals were not involved in the attack.

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David Swanson, a peace activist, journalist, radio host and author of the book "Curing Exceptionalism", joined us to discuss Olaf Scholz’s latest meeting with Joe Biden

💬”It was Germany's role to go to the United States and apologize and thank Biden for blowing up the pipeline, just sort of to swear allegiance,” he claimed

🎧Listen to more of Swanson's analysis in our podcast Political Misfits

⚡️ New York Times report about Nord Stream sabotage shows Russia is right about pushing for UN-led probe, Russian mission to UN says.

🇺🇸 While the first quarter of 2023 is not yet over, the United States has already witnessed a staggering amount of gun violence in such a relatively short period of time.

📊 Since the beginning of this year, over 100 mass shootings have occurred, leaving 152 people dead and 396 injured (as of March 6).

📈 Some US media outlets have already pointed out that more mass shootings have taken place this year at this point than during any other year before at least 2013.

One of this year’s mass shootings occurred in Monterey Park, California, on January 21, in which a shooter killed 11 and injured 9 before killing himself. This was the deadliest since the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde in May 2022.

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❗️ German media reports that investigators have identified the ship from which the Nord Stream sabotage was committed, traces lead to a company owned by Ukrainians

What else did the outlet reveal?

▪️A breakthrough has apparently been made in the investigation into the Nord Stream attacks;

▪️ A yacht rented from a Poland-based company was allegedly used for the secret operation to blow up the pipelines;

▪️ According to investigators, said company is owned by two Ukrainians;

▪️ The sabotage at sea was reportedly carried out by six people, including five men and a woman;

▪️ The suspects used professionally forged passports to rent the boat;

▪️ The nationality of the alleged perpetrators remains unclear;

▪️ So far, there is no evidence of who gave the order to blow up the pipelines.

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Lethal Bomblets: What Are Cluster Munitions and Why Does Ukraine Want Them?

Kiev is considering using US-made cluster munitions against Russian forces who continue their special military operation in Ukraine, a US media outlet has reported.

So what are cluster munitions and why are Ukrainian authorities so eager to acquire this type of weapon that is banned in scores of countries?

Find out here

French Stand With Pension Strikers as Prices Soar and Energy Bills Bite

French unions vowed to bring the country to a standstill on March 7 as strikes over President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform gain momentum across the country. Even though the Elyse Palace earlier insisted that raising the retirement age to 64 by 2030 is "non-negotiable," protesters appear to be willing to prove to the contrary.

"The current and probably future strikes are particularly significant because of the support they enjoy in public opinion, but also because of the unity between the different trade union organizations," Jacques Sapir, director of studies at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris and head of the Centre d'Étude des Modes d'Industrialisation (CEMI), told Sputnik.

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‼️ Dow Jones down by more than 550 points on fears Federal Reserve could make bigger interest rate hike

🔺”If the US doesn’t hit the brake but continue to speed down the wrong path, there will surely be conflict and confrontation,” Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang says
🔺The costs of love: Ukraine conflict is “caused by European love of war, hegemony and dominance,” says Malaysia’s ex-leader
🔺The concept of pan-Africanism: “African solutions to African problems”

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

'Enough is Enough': Braverman Launches Illegal Migration Bill With Blast at Labour

Britain's home secretary has unveiled new legislation to deport illegal immigrants trafficked across the English channel with no right of appeal.

Suella Braverman told Parliament the illegal migration bill would honor Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's pledge of "no half measures" in dealing with illegal immigration and people-trafficking.

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Kremlin: G7's Oil Price Cap Does Not Exist in Practice

The G7 countries have set a price cap for Russian oil which does not practically exist if you look at the level of market prices, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"On the one hand, they [the G7 countries] have set a price cap, and on the other hand, there seems to be no price cap, based on the existing price level in the existing practice," Peskov said.

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Kamala Harris Trolled Over Claim She Asked 'Mommy' Why Conservatives Are Bad

Harris, already famous for constructing meaningless sentences and laughing uncontrollably at inappropriate moments, made her latest comments in a debate on climate policy at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities in Colorado.

"I grew up learning about – we called it ecology at the time and so some of us who were born around that time know what I’m saying – and we talked about it in the context of conservation," Harris giggled.

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Two Out of Four Kidnapped Americans Found Dead, One Wounded, Mexican Authorities Say

Mexican authorities revealed on Tuesday that two of the four US citizens who had been kidnapped by armed men in the border city of Matamoros on Friday had been found dead.

"Two of them are dead, one person is injured and the other is alive," Américo Villarreal Anaya, the governor of Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, told reporters. He did not say which were alive or dead, or give any other details about them.

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'Ain't Your Grandma's Rocket': 'UFO Footage' Filmed by US Drone Over Iraq Emerges Online

As public interest in UFOs dies down after it became apparent that there was nothing extraterrestrial about the flying objects the US military downed in American and Canadian airspace last month, a batch of images supposedly depicting a UFO in Iraq has emerged.

The images appear to be stills from a video recorded by a US MQ-9 Reaper drone in the vicinity of Baghdad in May 2022.

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Kremlin: New Reports on Nord Stream Attacks Are Part of a Coordinated Disinformation Campaign

Media reports about the attacks on Russia's Nord Stream pipelines are a coordinated spread of disinformation and an attempt to divert attention from the real perpetrators, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik on Wednesday.

“Obviously, the authors of the terrorist attack want to divert attention. This is obviously a coordinated spread of disinformation in the media,” Peskov said, commenting on the Western media reports.

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Lockheed Martin is developing a robust escalating program in developing hypersonic glide strike technology in cooperation with the US Air Force and its industry partners, the company's Vice President for Air Dominance and Strike Operations, Jay Pitman, announced.

🗣 "We have strong partnerships and we are getting ready for production," Pitman told a podcast press conference on Tuesday. "We're ready to go."

▪️ Lockheed Martin and the US Air Force carried out the first operational test flight of the AGM-183A air-launched rapid response weapon on December 9, Pitman said.

▪️The test had been successful and at least two more tests were planned for the coming months, Pitman added.

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❗️ Russian diplomats see Western media reports about the involvement of a pro-Ukrainian group in the terrorist attack on Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines as an attempt to mislead the probe into the incident, Andrey Ledenev, Minister Counselor of the Russian Embassy in the United States, said.

🗣 "We have no faith in the "impartiality" of the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence. We perceive anonymous "leaks" as nothing more than an attempt to confuse those who are sincerely trying to get to the bottom of things in this egregious crime. Shift the blame from the statesmen who ordered and coordinated the attacks in the Baltic Sea to some abstract individuals," Ledenev said in a statement posted in the embassy's Telegram channel.

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Make Love, Not War: US Should Focus on Peace & Stability Instead of Egging on Conflict With China

Michael Gordon, former national security correspondent for the New York Times and now with the Wall Street Journal, penned a piece published on Monday that said the United States is not ready for a conflict with China, with a focus on that country attempting to take Taiwan or control the South China Sea.

According to Gordon, who cites classified Pentagon wargame simulations and quotes from former military personnel and officials, the United States has been too preoccupied with the war on terror to prepare for a potential battle with a more well-armed foe, like China.

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Europe's Energy Crisis Not Over, May Get Worse, Says Energy Investment Banker

"Europe may have got through this winter surprisingly well but I don't think we're out of the woods yet. It's actually going to get worse before they get better," Guggenheim Securities Senior Managing Director Michael LaMotte said.

LaMotte mentioned that currently there is no functionality in the gas market because of infrastructure constraints, which may take years to solve.

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