🇫🇷 The West’s decision to continue arming Ukraine threatens to turn the conflict into a long and brutal conflagration, French opposition leader Marine Le Pen has warned.

🗣 “There aren’t fifty different solutions; apart from a peace agreement, all the rest will be bad. Ukraine will not be able to win unless NATO comes to its aid. But if NATO enters the conflict on Ukraine’s side, the whole world will be at war. China will likely also enter the conflict,” the senior National Rally politician said in an interview with French radio on Thursday.

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Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, joined us to discuss the state of Europe under the rule of the United States

🗣️”I think this is a shortcoming of the current political elites of Europe, which has chosen to be coming to Capitol Hill when Washington is whistling and not having the policy and priorities of its own,” he claimed

🎧Listen to more of Polyanskiy’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines: Xi Warns US About Encircling China Amid Increased Tensions

🇺🇳 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his staff have been avoiding responding to questions related to journalists’ investigations into the Nord Stream explosions and the West's stance concerning the issue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

💬 "I am referring to the questions that journalists are asking the [UN] secretary-general and his officials about how they feel about the need to investigate the information that has emerged on how the West describes the terrorist act that took place against the Nord Streams last September. And the secretary-general and his staff have shied away from responding to these justified questions in every possible way," Lavrov said at a joint press conference after a meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud.

📍 The Russian foreign minister also said that there was complete "passivity and aloofness" related to the issues which require the active interest of the UN Secretariat, including the demilitarization of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.

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Over Half of Moldovans Oppose Country's Accession to NATO, Survey Reveals

55.5% of Moldovans are convinced the country should not join NATO, compared to 62% a month earlier.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu, in an interview with the newspaper Politico, said the country should abandon neutrality in order to be admitted to a military alliance.

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📊 How have countries changed their defense spending?

Sputnik has prepared an infographic showing changes in the defense budgets of different countries from 2022 to 2023

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⚽️ Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar has shared a video of him falling to the ground while trying to head a ball when playing football with children.

💭 "Some news sites spread the news about my fall while playing football with students. So be it, but I will still play with youth. I will fall again, I will rise again" he said.

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❗️ US President Joe Biden releases 2024 budget

The proposed budget includes:

▪️ $6.883 trillion in spending, $5.036 trillion in revenue, with deficit growing compared to 2023

▪️ $842 billion for defense in 2024, up 3.2% from 2023

▪️ $753 million for Ukraine to counter “Russian malign influence”

▪️ $400 million to fund operations to counter China's influence

▪️ $37.7 billion to maintain “strong” nuclear deterrent

▪️ $6 billion to support Ukraine, NATO and European partners

▪️ $2.3 billion for State Department and USAID to support open, secure, and connected Indo-Pacific

▪️ $244 million to the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, $28 million above 2023 level

▪️ $27.7 billion in discretionary budget authority for NASA

▪️ $10.5 billion for food security improvement

The White House predicts US GDP growth of 1.5% in 2024, a rise in unemployment to 4.6%, and a slowdown in inflation to 2.4%

📍 US House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says Biden’s budget completely unserious, president proposing trillions in new taxes, has a spending problem

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Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst, joined us to speak about China's objection to any communication between Taiwan and the US as well as Washington’s provocations towards the People’s Republic

Listen to more of Maupin’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines: Xi Warns US About Encircling China Amid Increased Tensions

🇺🇸🇬🇪 US Officials and Double Standards: When 'Do as I Say, Not as I Do' Becomes the Norm

American officials have supported protests against a law on foreign agents in Georgia, as the US Embassy called it a "black day for democracy." At the same time, the events of January 6, 2021, when a crowd of protesters entered the US Capitol, were called domestic terrorism.

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Almost 1Mln Dutch Households Might End Up Living in Poverty in 2024

The number of households living in poverty will rise from 815,000 in 2023 to about 995,000 in 2024, with the increase caused by the end of the government’s temporary support measures, a local news outlet reported.

The support measures were introduced in order to alleviate the consequences of high inflation brought about by the energy crisis. The measures were temporary and included energy allowance, a temporary increase in health care allowance, and a price cap on energy.

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Scott Bennett: US May Peddle Lies About Nord Stream Blast But Can't Escape Accountability

The US mainstream media is continuing to peddle the story of a "pro-Ukrainian group" destroying the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022. However, the narrative does not hold water and looks more like an attempt to divert the public attention from the real culprits, US counter-terror expert Scott Bennett told Sputnik.

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Obama-Era Pentagon Chief Who Helped Destroy Libya Wants Fighter Jets for Ukraine

Ukraine needs more advanced US weapons, including F-16 fighter jets, former Obama-era Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said.

“I’m in favor of sending weapons that Kiev needs for defense, and I think the F-16 is something that the United States should seriously consider,” Panetta said in an interview with an Italian newspaper on Wednesday.

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🔺Tit for tat: Russia carried out a mass missile strike on targets inside Ukraine in retaliation for last week’s terrorism in the Bryansk region
🔺Overstayed their welcome: Lloyd Austin vows to remain on Iraqi soil as House votes down Syria withdrawal bill
🔺End of dollarization? India's oil deals with Russia dent decades-old dollar dominance

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

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DPRK Test-Fires Short-Range Ballistic Missile Into Sea Near China Ahead of Big US-South Korea Drills

The South Korean military leadership told the press late on Thursday that a projectile had been detected flying into the Yellow Sea from Nampo in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which was later identified as a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) of unknown type. They added that more might have been fired, but were unsure.

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Russia's UN Envoy: World Without Accountability For Nord Stream Blasts Would Be Very Dangerous Place

"A world where the perpetrators of blowing up such infrastructure projects as Nord Stream would not be held to account would be a very dangerous place for everyone to live, First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy told Sputnik Radio host Jamarl Thomas during the latest episode of Fault Lines.

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