🇸🇾 The Syrian leadership has evidence that the United States is training terrorists on the territory of the Al-Tanf military base, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview with Sputnik

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TikTok Reportedly Faces US Ban if App’s Owners Fail to Sell Stakes

Washington is demanding that the Chinese owners of TikTok sell their stakes or face a possible US ban of the video-sharing app, an American newspaper has reported.

The report cited unnamed sources as saying that the sale demand with respect to Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. was made by the Biden administration’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), a multiagency federal task force that monitors national security risks in cross-border investments.

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⚡️ The French prime minister officially announced the adoption of a law raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Mark Sleboda, a Moscow-based international relations and security analyst, joined us to discuss the purpose of the US drone that went down off Russia's coast

🗣️”When the US says that this is routine operations, well, yes, it has been routine operations because the US has taken it upon themselves to regularly conduct these spy plane flights right off Russia's border and are actively feeding information and very, very likely actively directing these drone attacks on Russia,” he added

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

Silicon Valley Bank Was 'Canary in the Coal Mine' of Deepening Finance Crisis

The sudden share price slump at Switzerland's biggest private bank Credit Suisse has sent shockwaves through the global financial markets. Investigative journalist Dan Lazare, author of America's Undeclared War, argues that the crash was heralded by last week's collapse of the US Silicon Valley Bank.

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📹 Combat action of airborne BMD-4M armored group and T-80 tank crews as part of the special military operation (video by Russian MoD)

▪️ The airborne reconnaissance unit, using the UAV, detected the UAF platoon strongpoint in the forest. The airborne assault unit, supported by the armored group of BMD-4M combat vehicles and T-80 tanks, was deployed to capture and destroy it.

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MQ-9 Drone Incident: Biden's Dangerous Escalation

A US surveillance drone crashed off the coast of Crimea after an encounter with a Russian fighter aircraft. What does this incident say about the current state of the war in Ukraine and where Russia and the US might go from here.

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Macron Government Bypasses Parliament to Push Through Pension Age Hike

Within minutes before the final vote in France's lower house of parliament on the text of the reform, President Emmanuel Macron gathered ministers to decide whether the reform could be relied upon to receive a majority vote.

As a result of the meeting, the government decided to resort to Article 49.3 of the constitution, bypassing the legislature, Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne stated.

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Mark Sleboda, a Moscow-based international relations and security analyst, joined us to speak about the detected US drone over Russia’s coast, as well as the US narrative on the situation

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

President Widodo Calls for Scrapping Visa, MasterCard to Help Indonesia 'Be Independent'

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has called for the country to scrap foreign payment networks, such as Visa and MasterCard, and instead using credit cards issued by domestic banks.

Indonesia, which is the world’s seventh largest economy in terms of GDP (PPP), launched a Domestic Government Credit Card payment system in March 2022.

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❗️ A BNSF train derailed on the Swinomish Reservation in Washington, spilling around 5,000 gallons of diesel.

▪️ The train could contain up to 10,000 gallons of diesel. No injuries have been reported.

▪️ The ecology department and Marine Spill Response Corp. are responding to the scene to remove the locomotives and contain the spill. Most of the diesel leaked on land, and there is no reported impact to groundwater or waterways.

📍 A few hours earlier, a freight train loaded with hazardous substances derailed near the town of Topock in Mojave County, Arizona, US, media reported Thursday, citing local authorities.

Fifty-Five Years Since My Lai Massacre: How US Soldiers Freely Murdered Vietnamese Civilians

On March 16, 1968, a company of US soldiers committed an atrocity that became emblematic of the war the country waged in Vietnam, murdering over five hundred unarmed civilians in a village called Son My located in what was, at the time, South Vietnam.

Despite the fact that over 500 innocent Vietnamese, including women and children, were murdered by US troops, virtually all of the perpetrators got away scot free.

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Buenos Aires Considers Buying Chinese-Pakistani F-17 Thunder Fighter Jet

Argentina could soon buy China's JF-17 "Thunder," an advanced fighter jet jointly developed with Pakistan and designed for export.

Argentina’s embassy in Beijing announced earlier this week that a group of defense officials led by Argentine Defense Minister Jorge Taiana had met with Argentine Ambassador to China Sabino Vaca Narvaja to promote cooperation with Beijing on defense.

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UK Government Bans Chinese TikTok Social Media App From Official Phones

TikTok users hoping to see British cabinet ministers and civil servants miming and dancing to pop songs in their Whitehall offices will be disappointed. Downing Street has banned the app on departmental mobile phones.

The British government has banned the Chinese-made social media app TikTok from officially-issued mobile devices. Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden announced the ban "with immediate effect" in Parliament on Thursday.

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