Pakistan Defense Minister Accuses Imran Khan of 'Seeking' US Help

🇵🇰 The minister claimed that the cricketer-turned-politician's dramatic utterances, including his accusations on the US and his subsequent soft posture toward Washington, summed up his "lies" since the April 2022 vote of no-confidence.

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US Senate Votes Down Repeal of 2001 AUMF Authorizing 'War Everywhere, All the Time'

While lawmakers in both parties acknowledged that at some point, the 2001 authorization for the War on Terror might be narrowed in its clout, they argued against repealing it entirely.

Sen. Rand Paul originally introduced the amendment to mark the 20th anniversary of the Iraq campaign, launched in March 2003 by the United States on false pretenses. The invasion and occupation led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and combatants.

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Toxicologist Recalls NATO’s Depleted Uranium Bombing of Yugoslavia Amid UK’s Delivery of Deadly Arms to Kiev

Depleted uranium munitions have been a topic of discussion lately, as London has announced its intention to supply them to Kiev for use in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. These munitions were previously used in several conflicts in the 1990s, including the Gulf War in 1991, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the attack on Yugoslavia in 1999.

According to Dr. Radomir Kovacevic, a toxicologist and former director of the Radiological Defense Center in Belgrade, four reports have been published by different groups of experts on this matter, including one by the United Nations Environment Program. Only one of these reports, the fourth one, which included experts from Serbia, contained accurate data.

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🇯🇵 The Japanese government may allocate 2.2 trillion yen ($16.8 billion) to combat rising prices and address strong inflationary pressures, Japanese news agency reported on Saturday, citing Natsuo Yamaguchi, the leader of the ruling party's coalition partner Komeito.

"We intend to stand firm against price hikes," Yamaguchi said during his speech in Saitama Prefecture.

The decision on the allocation of budget reserves for the current fiscal year is expected to be made on March 28 at a cabinet meeting, the report said.

The funds will be used to support low-income families, including payments of 50,000 yen for each child in such households, as well as for subsidies to compensate for the cost of liquefied petroleum gas, the news agency reported.

Core consumers prices in Japan, which do not include the cost of perishable food, increased by 3.1% in February after rising by 4.2% a month earlier, according to the latest data from the Statistics Bureau of Japan.

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❗️Key points of phone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan:

▪️Both parties discussed Syria, stressing the need to continue normalizing relations between Ankara and Damascus;

▪️Erdogan gave a positive assessment of Russia's consent to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative by 60 days;

▪️Erdogan also expressed his understanding of Moscow's intention to achieve full implementation of the second part of the package agreements on removing barriers to exports of agricultural products from Russia;

▪️Putin and Erdogan positively assessed the dynamic in bilateral economic ties, including gas deliveries and the construction of the Akkuyu NPP.

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Claims of Russian Influence in Africa Reflect West's Neo-Colonial Approach: Russian Ambassador

Against the backdrop of France's decreasing influence in its former African colonies, French President Emmanuel Macron earlier accused Russia of pursuing a "predatory project" on the continent in order "to hurt France."

France's statements on Russia's influence in Africa "reflect the neo-colonial approach of Western countries to cooperation with African states," Russian Ambassador to the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso (non-resident) Alexey Saltykov says in an interview with Sputnik.

"The reason behind France's deteriorating influence in Africa is that local people have started to doubt the benefits of cooperation with the former colonial power", added Saltykov.

The diplomat also shared his expectations for the second Russia-Africa summit

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

▪️Russian forces neutralized up to 85 Ukrainian servicemen, two armored vehicles, three pick-up trucks, and one D-20 howitzer in the Krasny Liman direction;

▪️In the Kupyansk direction, Ukrainian losses amounted to up to 55 troops, two armored fighting vehicles, and two motor vehicles;

▪️Russian artillery annihilated over 155 Ukrainian troops, three armored vehicles, five motor vehicles, and one D-30 howitzer in the Donetsk direction;

▪️In the South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, Ukrainian losses amounted to over 70 servicemen, three motor vehicles, and one D-30 howitzer.

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'Bring Our Troops Home': Matt Gaetz, Rand Paul Repeat Call for Syria Pullout Amid New Attacks

💬 "Warmongers in both parties say keeping troops in Syria is necessary to preserve the balance of power. That is simply not true. If they believe that, they should say it directly to the parents of Americans in Syria who have to sleep there tonight and guard oil fields against Iranian drones. We need to bring our troops home," Matt Gaetz wrote in a tweet.

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Medvedev Says Foreign Firms Will Return to Russian Market in Different Ways

"As for the return [of foreign companies to Russia], this process will be different. Some [companies], in my opinion, will return once the special military operation is over, some will run back the very next day. Some will wait for approval from the top," Russia's Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said.

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The president of the province of Valencia, Joaquin Puig, said that more than 4,000 hectares of forest are burning in the east of Spain and that 1,500 people have been evacuated from a number of settlements.

Efforts to put the fire out have been hampered by winds and lack of rain, and the temperature in the region is high for this time of year.

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British Armed Forces 'Lag Behind' Ukraine in 'Lethal' Military Kit Gifted by UK

"I find it nuts that I can procure stuff at speed for the Ukrainian armed forces that make them, in some cases, more sophisticated in their sensors and more lethal in their munitions than the UK is. We’ve seen the speed with which we can make a difference for Ukraine. So why on earth wouldn’t we want to do that for our own armed forces?" James Heappey, minister of state for the armed forces, said.

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❗️Latest statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin:

▪️Moscow and Minsk have agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus without violating obligations under the Start treaty;

▪️The construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is to be completed on 1 July;

▪️The West's supply of ammunition to Ukraine is only an attempt to prolong the conflict;

▪️Total number of tanks in Russia will be more than three times greater than the number of tanks in Ukraine;

▪️Russia is able to respond to depleted uranium ammunition, Russia has plenty of such weapons, but it has not used them yet;

▪️The West will increase the production of weapons, but it will be very difficult, even more difficult for other countries than for the United States.

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⚡Putin 'Fully Agrees' With Conclusion That Nord Stream Blasts Were Handiwork of US Intel

⚡Russia is completing the construction of a storage facility for its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus - preparing the Belarusian aviation for possible deployment

Protests against pension reform continue in France. Demonstrators have been taking to the streets and it's capital, Paris, as well as other cities, are inundated in unrest. Protectors blocked roads in Toulouse with burning debris and bins.

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Poland: Germany Not 'As Generous As It Should Be' In Sending Support to Ukraine

Berlin has been rebuked by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki for not "sending more weapons, more ammunition, and giving more money to Ukraine, because it is the richest and the biggest country by far".

"They have still not been as generous as they should have been... I still encourage them to be so," he added.

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Army medics tend soldiers and civilians during special military operation (video courtesy of Russian MoD)

Army surgeons save hundreds of lives. Operating theaters are open round the clock as medics remove shrapnel and stitch up patients.

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EU’s Hawkish Top Diplomat Claims China’s Ukraine Peace Plan ‘Not Sufficient’ to End Crisis

EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has claimed that China's 12-point peace plan for Ukraine is "not sufficient" to resolve the conflict. He also accused China and India of "taking advantage of the situation" in Ukraine, and claimed that China's President Xi Jinping urged Putin not to use nuclear weapons.

US President Joe Biden has dismissed the peace plan outright, and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky said it would be meaningless unless Beijing demonstrated it was "on our side".

A White House spokesman said any ceasefire stemming from Xi's visit to Russia would be "unacceptable".

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US Must Worry About 'Chinese Hypersonic Threat', Lawmaker Says, as American Tests Show No Progress

The US has been investing heavily in the development of hypersonic weapons in recent years, but the results remain questionable: in 2021 the testing program ended with three consecutive failures, after which - at the beginning of 2022 - funding was halved from $161Mln for the purchase of new prototypes to $80Mln. "There are things that we need to worry about: finance, research, development, and growth in areas such as hypersonic threats, especially from China," US House Representative Doug Lamborn said during an event at the CSIS research center in Washington, pointing out that "the US does not possess viable tech in this sphere to be on a par with its counterparts yet". Read more