The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is not reviewing a possibility of establishing a demilitarized zone around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Director General Rafael Grossi said on Thursday.

🗣 "We are not talking about a demilitarized zone. We are very aware of the added complications that that would bring, especially in an area of active combat … So, we are not looking into that," Grossi said during a lecture on international security at the US Council on Foreign Relations.

▪️ He added that the agency had a monitoring group at the nuclear power plant and that it was a more viable concept than the creation of a big demilitarized area around the NPP.

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⚡️Prime Minister Mishustin spoke about the situation with foreign companies in Russia:

🗣 “We created all the necessary conditions for the work of those companies that see their future in Russia, including for foreign businesses from unfriendly states. Despite all the restrictions, the denial of property rights, and the discriminatory measures that Russian businesses faced in the West, In Russia, foreign companies have worked and are working comfortably. But, of course, if foreign companies give up business management in Russia, do not care about the future of their enterprises and employees, we will protect the interests of our people," the prime minister said.

🇫🇷📹 Employees of Paris Charles de Gaulle, France's largest airport, blocked passage to the terminals to protest against pension reform

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🇷🇺 Russian T-90M tanks are currently the best in the world and they outperform Leopard, Challenger and Abrams tanks in terms of tactical and technical data, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with leading Russian media, including Sputnik.

🗣 "In my opinion, this [T-90M tank] is now the best tank in the world ... It is certainly better than Leopard, Challenger, Abrams [tanks], including in terms of its tactical and technical data, even in terms of such a component as weight," Medvedev said.

📌 "We will make 1,500 tanks alone this year. You can calculate how much our enemy will get, even according to the most optimistic calculations," Medvedev added.

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'Holy Greta!': 'Climate Religion' Skewered as Thunberg Gets Honorary Doctorate in Theology

The theological faculty at the University of Helsinki has decided to elevate eco-activist Greta Thunberg to an honorary doctor.

The higher educational institution has voiced plans to lionize 30 "highly meritorious people from around the world" by granting them honorary doctorate degrees in 2023, which it dubbed the "jubilee year of the promotion."

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Generation Gap: Looming TikTok Ban Fractures US Society

Washington is reportedly pressuring Chinese shareholders of the app to sell their stakes - otherwise, the video-sharing platform will risk a complete ban in the US. TikTok representatives insist that shareholder castling will change nothing from a data security standpoint and promised to inject $1.5 billion to protect user info.

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⚡️ President of Finland signs laws on country's accession to NATO.

❗️Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️ In the Kharkov region and the LPR, enemy losses amounted to up to 70 Ukrainian troops, an infantry fighting vehicle, two pickup trucks, a Grad MLRS combat vehicle, and a US-made M777 artillery system;

▪️ Over 80 Ukrainian soldiers, two armored vehicles, three pickup trucks, and a D-30 howitzer were destroyed in the DPR and the Lugansk People's Republic;

▪️ In the Donetsk People's Republic, more than 250 Ukrainian troops, six tanks, five armored combat vehicles, seven vehicles and a D-20 howitzer were destroyed in a day;

▪️ In the Zaporozhye region and the DPR, enemy losses in these areas amounted to up to 50 Ukrainian soldiers, one pickup truck, three cars, as well as D-20 and D-30 howitzers;

▪️ In the Kherson region, up to 15 Ukrainian soldiers and five cars were destroyed per day;

▪️ Russian troops defeated 76 artillery units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at firing positions, manpower and equipment in 114 districts;

▪️ In the Zaporozhye region, a warehouse of fuels and lubricants of the 65th Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed;

▪️ Russian aviation in the area of the village of Boguslavka, Kharkov region, shot down a Su-24 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force;

▪️ Sixteen Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed.

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💬 Prof. Wang Dehua, Director of the Institute of South-Central Asia Studies at the Shanghai Municipal Center for International Studies, has commented on the Xi-Putin meeting in Russia, focusing on its importance for the future strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing

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🇱🇺 Luxembourg will not ban Chinese video-sharing app TikTok without concrete evidence of security violations, and the European Commission has yet to provide any on the topic, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said on Thursday.

💬 "I do not want to do China-bashing just for China-bashing. It is the same for TikTok, in my country, TikTok is still not forbidden. I do not forbid TikTok because it is Chinese, but if I have evidence that there is something, I will ban it. But, I am not in favor of doing bashing or banning without having evidence," Bettel said on arrival at the European Council meeting in Brussels.

📍 The prime minister emphasized that he asked the European Commission the reason for the ban of TikTok on EC employees' work phones, but there has been no answer yet.

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Regis Tremblay, a US citizen in Crimea, joins us to discuss the reasons of public discontent with Europe’s governments which has led to instability in the region

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

🇺🇸 White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby reassured the public that uranium-cored munitions are "commonplace", saying that they have been used for decades, but he did not mention the effects of this use in previous conflicts.

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🌤The Badamwari almond orchid is a symbol of the arrival of spring in Kashmir.

🌁See the picturesque almond blossoming that attracts thousands of people each year in our video.

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🇺🇸 In an interview with Sputnik, Dr. Richard Wolff discussed inflation in the United States and how it has been handled in the past.

▪️ He provided an example of the wage price freeze policy implemented by President Nixon in 1971, which brought down inflation by threatening to arrest anyone who raised prices or demanded higher wages.

▪️ Dr. Wolff suggests that this policy could be explored as a possible solution to current inflation issues, which are difficult to control without worsening the bank crisis.

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⚡️ Blinken officially stated at a congressional hearing that the United States was not involved in the Nord Stream explosions.

⚡️ The Biden administration sees TikTok as a threat to US national security that needs to be "ended one way or another," said United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Dan Lazare, investigative journalist and author of "America's Undeclared War," joins us to discuss possible political instability in Europe and the collapse of NATO if the truth on Nord Stream is revealed

🗣️”I think that the truth about Nord Stream will emerge sooner rather than later. But if this happens, the US will be left completely isolated and the EU will be left in complete disarray,” he claims

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

Finland Makes Exception for Passage of Russian Fertilizer Cargo in Kotka Port

The Finnish Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it has allowed the transportation of a cargo of Russian fertilizers detained in connection with EU sanctions against Russia in the port of Kotka.

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Brian Berletic, ex-US Marine Corps independent geopolitical researcher and writer based in Bangkok, joins us to discuss another US provocation in the form of American drone flights over the Black Sea and Taiwan

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