🇨🇳 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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SVB's Collapse: Will the Crisis Spread Overseas?

The shutdown of SVB has already prompted many to draw parallels with the financial crisis that rode roughshod over the world economy in 2008.

The Biden administration is hastily trying to hammer out “material action” in an effort to limit the ripple effect and repercussions across the US banking system after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). How will the situation develop and will there be overseas risks?

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❗️ Russian MoD’s latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ Russia’s units and artillery inflicted fire damage on the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kharkov region and in the LPR, resulting in the elimination of over 60 Ukrainian servicemen and two motor vehicles;

▪️ Russia’s artillery engaged the troops and military hardware of the enemy in the LPR and DPR. Over the past 24 hours, up to 110 Ukrainian fighters, two pick-up trucks, and a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery unit were destroyed;

▪️ Aviation and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces have eliminated up to 190 Ukrainian troops, three tanks, two armored fighting vehicles, fourteen motor vehicles, and Msta-B howitzers over the past 24 hours in the DPR;

▪️ Russia’s Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery carried out a complex shelling of Ukrainian units in the DPR and Zaporozhye region;

▪️ The Russian military has neutralized up to 20 Ukrainian servicemen, five motor vehicles, two Akatsiya self-propelled howitzers, and a Msta-B howitzer over the past 24 hours in Kherson region;

▪️ Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Armed Forces of Russia have hit 76 Ukrainian artillery units at their firing positions, as well as Ukrainian troops and hardware in 148 areas during the day.

▪️ Air defense forces shot down 12 HIMARS MLRS shells and one HARM anti-radiation missile over the past 24 hours;

▪️ Some 400 airplanes and 220 helicopters, 3,401 unmanned aerial vehicles, 412 air defense missile systems, 8,280 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, 1,055 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 4,333 field artillery cannons and mortars, and 8,904 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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Ajamu Baraka joined us to discuss US non-acceptance of the new world order as well as China’s reaction to this

🗣️“They still believe that the only way they can exert influence in the regions is through military means, as opposed to, as you said, being able to pick up the phone and engage in a respectful conversation with allies and potential allies,” he said

🎧Listen to more of Baraka’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

"The banking system is safe": The essence of Joe Biden's five-minute-long speech on the SVB Collapse and alleged banking crisis. The US president did not answer any of the journalists' questions and left immediately after the end of the address

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As Biden expects to calm investors and consumers who fear a full-scale financial crisis, here's the main info on the situation in the US banking system:

▪️Over the past few days, three banks - Silicon Valley, SIlvergate and Signature Bank - have gone bankrupt in the US. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was the largest since the 2008 crisis.

▪️Most experts say the increase in the Fed's interest rate, which led to the depreciation of assets, is the main reason behind what happened.

▪️What will the consequences be? Some say that there will be nothing serious, others predict the collapse of the entire banking system, and Donald Trump announced the risk of a second Great Depression. Most experts agree that many Silicon Valley startups will be at risk.

▪️The Fed has already stated that it has found a way out of the problem and that depositors' savings won't suffer. The regulator promised to allocate funds to support the banking system.

▪️The US Treasury is looking for a buyer for SVB. In the UK, the branch of the bank has already been sold to the British-Hong Kong HSBC.

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📹 "That's how capitalism works": Biden turns himself into a modern-day Karl Marx, explaining how investors will lose their money

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Caleb Maupin joined us to speak about the US narrative of the Nord Stream explosions

🗣️“And I think that Sy Hersh's version of events has been widely accepted and this new version of events that they cannot even get the story straight about who exactly it was, but they were not tied to the Ukrainian government, but they were pro-Ukrainian. This is getting to be embarrassing almost,” he stated

🎧Listen to more of Maupin’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

❗️ Ukraine has lost tens of thousands servicemen since the start of a military conflict with Russia over year ago, though Kiev still continues to deny lacking troops, Spanish newspaper reported on Monday.

▪️ Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk in her interview with the media outlet dismissed reports of a shortage of personnel in the country's armed forced.

▪️ On Thursday, the British news outlet reported that Ukraine was taking heavy losses in the battle for Artemovsk, adding that some Ukrainian servicemen had suggested it might be reasonable to retreat. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also said last week that it would not be an "operational or strategic setback", if the Ukrainian army withdrew from the city.

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