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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📊 Dollar will not be the world's reserve currency in 25 years time, almost half of the respondents of a Gallup poll think. It was conducted among citizens of 64 countries worldwide, including Russia, India, Syria, the US, Nigeria and Indonesia.

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Caleb Maupin joined us to speak about growing tensions between China and the United States, as China gave the US a warning that there’s going to be conflict if Washington doesn't turn off the wrong path.

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

📹🔥 Buddhist monks walk on fiery embers in thrilling traditional festival

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Biden Administration Approves Alaska Oil Drilling Project

The US Interior Department said on Monday that it is approving three out of five drill sites proposed by ConocoPhillips as part of its Willow Master Development Plan in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

"The Record of Decision denies two of the five drill site pads proposed by ConocoPhillips, reducing the project’s drill pads by 40%," the Interior Department said in a statement. "[The actions] significantly scale-back the Willow Project within the constraints of valid existing rights under decades-old leases issued by prior administrations."

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📹 Grad MLRS crews in combat action as part of the special military operation in Ukraine (video by Russian MoD)

The vehicles operate from a number of pre-arranged firing positions. The excellent training and cohesion of the crews allows them to strike and change position in less than ten minutes.

High accuracy of fire is ensured by unmanned aerial operators and forward artillery reconnaissance detachments that transmit target coordinates to the battery commander.

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🎶 A song featuring none other than Donald Trump, real estate mogul extraordinaire and 45th POTUS, shot up all the way to the top of the iTunes chart last weekend.

▪️ The song, noscriptd “Justice for All”, features Trump reciting the Oath of Allegiance while the so-called J6 Prison Choir – inmates who were imprisoned due to their involvement in the events that transpired at Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021 – sing the “Star-Spangled Banner,” the US national anthem.

▪️ The single ranked first on the iTunes Top 100 list on Saturday and managed to retain that position on Sunday, even though the song apparently did not appear on Spotify’s top 50 most streamed songs list.

🗣 “We basically broke the music industry is what we did here, because we put America First values back front and center,” former Trump administration official Kash Patel told one US media outlet. “And we said we’re going to use free speech platforms like Truth Social and Rumble, and then we’re going to debut a song that speaks to what’s on so many Americans’ minds.”

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Biden Fails to Quell Fears of SVB 'Contagion' With US Investors Hit Hard, Ex-Bank Gov. Says

The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has prompted fears of contagion which persist despite US President Joe Biden's Monday assertion that the situation is under control, the former governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus and professor emeritus of the University of Leicester Panicos Demetriades told Sputnik.

US President Joe Biden delivered a speech on March 13 concerning the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week. The SVB became the second-largest bank failure in US history. But, according to the president, Americans should be confident that the banking system is safe.

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⚡️ Possible bomb fragment discovered 30 kilometers away from Nord Streams underlines urgent need to create UN commission on this incident, Russian Foreign Ministry said.

⚡️ Australia to receive three Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines in early 2030 with possibility to buy two more, says Jack Sullivan, US national security advisor.