Kim Jong-un Orders Army to Deter Enemy ‘Provocations’ as US, ROK Prep for Biggest Drills in 5 Years

The meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Military Commission comes against the backdrop massive upcoming US-South Korean drills including “Freedom Shield” and “Warrior Shield.” The former, kicking off Monday and running until March 23, will feature command post exercises simulating a joint US-South Korean response to North Korean “aggression.”

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🇮🇹 Western countries have never discussed sending allied troops to Ukraine, Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in response to a recent remark of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on this matter.

Earlier this week, Orban said that the West was very close to seriously discussing the prospect of sending allied troops to Ukraine, adding that the likelihood of this local conflict growing into a world war has been increasing with each day.

"I have no knowledge of this. We never talked about sending troops to Kiev. The day before yesterday there was a meeting of foreign ministers with [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken and there was never any talk about sending troops to Ukraine," Tajani said.

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BBC's Bias Laid Bare Anew Amid Linekergate Row

Veteran football presenter and ex-professional footballer Gary Lineker was suspended by the British Broadcasting Corporation on Friday after a much-publicized Twitter spat with the government over its asylum policy.

How does the scandal square with the BBC’s much-touted claims of "impartiality", and with similar scandals of years and decades past?

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🚀 Watch footage of the moment when the cabin of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft was picked up and its crew were finally reunited with their home planet.

🌍 Welcome back!

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Russia, Sudan May Switch to Settlements in National Currencies & Increase Trade, Ambassador Says

Sudan and Russia are in talks on the possibility of using national currencies in mutual settlements, Sudan’s Ambassador to Russia Hassan Mohammed Elghazali Eltijani Sirraj said in an interview with Sputnik.

According to the ambassador, the issue is mostly technical. The central banks of both countries are expected to examine the matter in detail and decide whether it is possible or not, he stated, underlining that the results will be known in the near future.

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📹 Russian Grad MLRS crews in action in special military operation zone

First, UAVs detect camouflaged positions of Ukrainian troops and transmit the information to an artillery command post. Then the Grad crews head to their positions and launch an artillery strike against the targets. Once the task is fulfilled, the artillery operators rapidly reposition.

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🇷🇺🇹🇷 The gas hub project proposed by Russia is at the stage of legal registration in Turkiye and various details are currently under discussion, a source familiar with the negotiations told Sputnik.

▪️ Last week, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said that the Russia-proposed initiative of creating a gas hub in Turkiye was going to be on the agenda of the Turkish parliament in the coming days. The minister stated that the parliament would consider amendments to one or several laws to provide the necessary legal framework for the implementation of the gas hub project.

💬 "The Minister has already announced information that the Parliament will consider a number of amendments to the law that will provide a legal framework, including for this project. Right now, along with this issue, delegations are simultaneously discussing various details: these are infrastructural issues, and issues of ensuring throughput, diversification, etc.," an informed source told Sputnik.

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Comedy-drama film "Everything Everywhere All at Once," written, directed, and co-produced by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, won the Best Picture Oscar.

▪️ The Daniels also won the Best Original Screenplay award for the same movie, according to the live broadcast of the Academy Awards.

▪️ Ke Huy Quan won Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," while Jamie Lee Curtis took the Best Supporting Actress award for the same movie.

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🇨🇳 Chinese President Xi Jinping has offered the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and Iran to hold a summit in Beijing this year, The Wall Street Journal reports citing sources.

▪️ Xi made the proposal at a regional summit in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh last December, sources told the newspaper on Sunday, adding that a summit between Iran and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should take place in 2023.

▪️ According to The Wall Street Journal, China wrapped up a deal to restore relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia on Friday, behind closed doors in Beijing. English was not used during the negotiations, with speeches and documents conducted in Arabic, Farsi or Mandarin.

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🇷🇺🇸🇾 Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova says that an agreement has been reached with the Kurds in Syria on the return of another 200 Russian children back to Russia.

▪️ On Sunday, 56 Russian children, aged three to 17, flew back to Russia from Syria, under Lvova-Belova’s coordination. Seven of the children were transported from an orphanage in Damascus, while 49 were from refugee camps.

💬 "We have reached an agreement with the leadership of the Kurdish side to take out another 200 children in the near future in several stages. … Of course, we very much hope that our close cooperation will continue in the future," Lvova-Belova told reporters on Sunday.

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📹 Russia’s Defense Ministry has published footage showing TOS-1A Solntsepyok heavy flamethrower systems in action

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Fewer Swedes Call Themselves Liberals, Feminists as More Switch to Conservatism

Fewer Swedish voters see themselves as liberals now compared to a year ago, a survey made by pollster Ipsos on behalf of Swedish media has shown.

Swedish pundits have ascribed the decline of liberalism and feminism to a news cycle dominated by wars, crime and crises ranging from energy to the economy. They even ventured that the liberal project is "no longer dominant," with the public debate moving into the opposite direction.

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China, US Ought to Cooperate Since No One Benefits From Deterrence

China and the United States must cooperate for the common good, since deterrence and oppression does not benefit either side, Premier of China’s State Council Li Qiang said on Monday.

"China and the US can cooperate, China and the US must cooperate, China and the US have great potential for cooperation, while deterrence and suppression will not benefit anyone," Li said at a press conference after the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC).

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📹 Russia's Black Sea Fleet Marines in one of the areas of the special military operation have thwarted an attack by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group during combat operations (video courtesy of Russian MoD)

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Donald Trump said that Joe Biden will become the Herbert Hoover of the modern era, foreshadowing the next, more powerful, Great Depression.

▪️ The former US president's comment was posted amid news of a Silicon Valley bankruptcy.

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Bye Green Joe, Hello Alaskan Oil? Biden May Prefer Economic Issues to His Election Pledges: Experts

The Biden administration is expected to approve a major oil drilling project in Alaska that “would pump as much carbon into the atmosphere as 60 coal-burning power plants,” a US media outlet has reported.

The White House insisted that Biden has yet to make any “final decisions” on the so-called Willow project by the US oil producer ConocoPhillips, which is worth about $8 billion.

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❗️🇷🇺🇮🇳 Russia and India oil cooperation will be based on contacts with contractors and not on media reports: Kremlin

Earlier, foreign media alleged that New Delhi would not breach the Western price cap of $60 imposed on purchases of Russian oil.

❗️Latest statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️ On the proposal to create a contact group from Western countries to negotiate and resolve the crisis in Ukraine: “So far, there are no prerequisites for the process to move to a global channel. For us, the absolute priority continues to be and will always remain - this is the achievement of our goals. Now they can only be achieved by military means.”

▪️ Kiev's idea to rename Russia 'Muscovy' is a “ridiculous curiosity”, which can only be treated with a smile. Russia will remain Russia.

▪️ The Kremlin is not yet ready to announce a date for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow.

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UK's Rishi Sunak Pledges to Boost Defense Budget by $6Bln Over 2 Years

During his speech on the United States Midway museum ship in the Californian port on Sunday, Sunak said that the world had become more volatile, thus increasing the threats to the security of the UK, the media reported.

"And that’s why we’re investing £5 billion more in our world-beating armed forces over the next two years and increasing our defense spending to 2.5% of GDP so we can continue to be a world leader when it comes to defense and keeping our country safe," the prime minister said, as quoted by British newspaper.

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📸 The Russian military intercepted a Ukrainian militant drone near Avdeevka with Nazi Waffen-SS symbols

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