Warhawk Mitch McConnell to step down as US Senate Republican leader in November.

McConell has been one of the most vocal supporters of additional Ukraine funding among Congressional Republicans. He also has agitated for confrontation with China, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, and Libya.

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Donetsk is a symbol of resistance to the world

The story of the uprising in Donetsk is the ultimate David and Goliath story, says Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley(@TXDPR).

“Even though in the beginning, the Donetsk People’s Militia were manning roadblocks with maybe shotguns or baseball bats, they fought the full force of the Ukrainian army, which had airstrikes, artillery, tanks, and they fought them to a standstill. They set an example for the world just like the Vietnamese or Cubans did. “

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▪️Putin’s upcoming Federal Assembly address: What we can expect

▪️Are there NATO military personnel in Ukraine?

▪️A former Neo-Nazi that was part of Azov claims that Russian "nuclear weapons aren't so scary"

▪️Transnistria (the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) bordering Ukraine that turned to Russia for help

▪️US sole nuclear weapons manufacturing plant shuts amid wildfire threat

▪️Pentagon's attempt to track Putin failed

▪️Abrams destroyer: What we know about the Piranya drone

▪️'What the .... is this?’ Ukrainian soldiers mistook video glitch for UFO

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Syrian air defense systems have taken down most of the Israeli missiles near Damascus, Syrian state-run broadcaster Al Ikhbariyah reported.

Earlier in the day, the broadcaster reported that the air defense was repelling an attack in the vicinity of Damascus, and explosions were heard in the city.

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The EU-established European Endowment for Democracy (EED) fund is interfering in the parliamentary elections to come in Georgia by financing various political parties, Georgian parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili said.

"EED does not disclose its own expenses in Georgia. Apparently, the fund directly finances political parties and interferes in the elections," Papuashvili told reporters.

If not stopped, foreign funding will harm the elections, which are scheduled to take place in the country, on October 26, and hinder the choice of the Georgian people, the parliamentary speaker added.

"We are seeing that a significant part of the opposition is being financed directly from abroad and, given the fact that the current year is an election year, this is equivalent to foreign interference in the elections in Georgia. Foreign interference is one of the threats expected in these elections … For the elections to be transparent, it is necessary to prohibit and stop direct or indirect funding of parties in Georgia through European channels," Papuashvili said.

Established in 2023 by the European Union, EED officially aims to promote democracy in the European Neighborhood, the Western Balkans, and Turkiye.

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Europeans and Americans cannot afford to ignore their governments’ violence abroad

Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley (@TXDPR) warns that it is only a matter of time before the weapons that Western governments use against their foreign enemies are turned against their domestic opponents as well.

“What they’re doing to people in Gaza, the Donbass, Syria, Yemen, they’re going to get around to doing to their own people. They will find out what real war is like when their owners and masters bring it to them on their street, in their house, to their family.”

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The United States will have to explain during an upcoming meeting on March 4 the reason for casting a veto on a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, General Assembly presidential spokesperson Monica Grayley said.

"On Monday, March 4, the General Assembly will call the plenary debate on use of the veto," Grayley said during a press briefing.

The debate will be held at the General Assembly hall under the agenda item "The situation the Middle East, including the Palestinian question" and will take place at 10:00 a.m. ET, Grayley said.

The president of the General Assembly will chair the meeting, Grayley added.

On February 20, the United States vetoed an Algeria-drafted UN Security Council resolution that was calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Thirteen members of the UN Security Council voted in favor of adopting the resolution, with the United Kingdom abstaining.

The US has regularly impeded any resolution on Gaza that may hinder Israeli military operations. On December 8, Washington blocked a United Arab Emirates-drafted resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a Brazil-drafted resolution on October 18.

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❗️ Negotiators in Congress struck a government funding deal; lawmakers will vote on the stopgap measure by the end of week, Politico reported.

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Anti-Houthi naval effort makes EU party to the ‘Israeli-Palestinian war’

The deployment of a German frigate Hessen to the Red Sea to help US anti-Houthi naval operations is a “worrisome development,” says Nikolas Kosmatopoulos, assistant professor of public policy and international affairs at the American University of Beirut.

According to him, the decision made by Germany and other EU states to send their warships to the Red Sea leads to “extreme militarization of the waters” in the region.

“It also means that the EU becomes a party to the war waging in Israel-Palestine,” Kosmatopoulos notes, pointing out that the Houthis started their attacks on Israeli-linked cargo vessels in protest against Tel Aviv’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

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Russian troops destroyed a group of Ukrainian saboteurs who were attempting to land on the Tendrovskaya kosa (an island near the northwestern coast of the Black Sea) in the Kherson region, said Vladimir Vasilenko, the spokesman for the region's governor, to Sputnik.

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US Army restructuring suggests neocons scheming new 'forever wars'

"They're once again looking to the older conventional type of warfare on the battlefields, such as what they're witnessing now in Ukraine," Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, tells Sputnik.

"We [the US] need to be pulling our troops back. We need to be shutting down a lot of our bases, because they are a magnet for tensions and for wreaking havoc around the world," the military expert continues.

The US Army is cutting its force by 24,000 and restructuring to be capable to fight the next major wars as it struggles to recruit new troops, according to a new service document noscriptd "Army Force Structure Transformation."

The proposed changes include bolstering the US Army's anti-drone and air defense capabilities.

"Taking into account the fact that technologies on the battlefield are going to be absolutely critical, I think they've learned a lot from the battle with Ukraine," Maloof suggested.

The future "great power" conflicts the army is bracing for could envisage the US taking on China and Russia, which would be "mindless" and "crazy", as per the expert.

"We're never going to muster enough troops to counter what Russia is capable of putting together or China or a combination of the two. It's suicidal and it's crazy. We need to be working together in this world and with healthy competition, not military competition," he concludes.

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Drones are the most deadly weapon of the Ukraine conflict

Whereas artillery was the most lethal weapon in previous conflicts, it has taken second place to drones over the past two years, Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley (@TXDPR) explained.

“Drones have also made the use of artillery twice as deadly as it was before because now they can hover over an area and correct the fire within meters,” he added.

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The US Supreme Court said it would consider former President Donald Trump’s immunity claims in the 2020 election interference case and has scheduled to hear oral arguments in the week of April 22.

The Supreme Court granted a certiorari in the case earlier on Wednesday and ordered lower courts to suspend consideration of the issue until the top court sends down its judgment.

The Supreme Court set the required briefs in the case to be filed on or before March 19.

Earlier this month, a US federal appeals court ruled that Trump is not immune from prosecution in his 2020 election interference case, which Trump appealed to the Supreme Court.

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US President Joe Biden remains fit for duty and fully executes responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations, physician Kevin O’Connor said after conducting an annual physical examination of the US president.

Biden did not take a cognitive test during his physical because he “doesn’t need it,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed.

“He passes a cognitive test every day,” she insisted.

Commenting on his physical exam Biden said, “They think I look too young.”

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US lawmakers reached a deal to temporarily fund the federal government with a continuing resolution to allow more time to pass appropriations bills and avert a government shutdown, congressional leaders said in a joint statement.

“To give the House and Senate Appropriations Committees adequate time to execute on this deal… and to allow members 72 hours to review, a short-term continuing resolution to fund agencies through March 8 and the 22 will be necessary, and voted on by the House and Senate this week,” the statement said.

The statement was issued by House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Lawmakers face a partial government shutdown deadline on Friday and a full shutdown deadline on March 8.

Congressional negotiators agreed to six appropriations bills, on which lawmakers will vote prior to March 8, the statement said. The remaining six appropriations bills will be finalized and voted on prior to March 22, the statement said.

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Is the West admitting defeat in Ukraine with the CIA’s ‘limited hangout?’

Serbian-American journalist Nabojsa Malic joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines program to discuss French President Emmanuel Macron’s threats of military force in the Donbass as well as Sunday’s revelations of the CIA’s decade-long involvement in Ukraine.

“On one level this could have been an attempt by Macron to, I guess, intimidate Russia,” said Malic of Macron’s meeting with European leaders, “which backfired horribly because Russia is not being intimidated by this. It seems like the rapid disavowal of this option by everybody else countermanded that.”

Discussion then shifted towards reporting over the weekend on the CIA’s role in turning Ukraine into an anti-Russia beachhead. Malic speculated whether the “limited hangout” represented by The New York Times’ article was intended to serve as a “smokescreen” for an upcoming terrorist attack by Ukraine. The term “limited hangout” refers to a PR tactic wherein the public is given limited, carefully-selected information about something to distract from a broader, often incriminating narrative.

“It could be that all of this noise is just a smokescreen for some kind of abandonment of Ukraine because it clearly hasn't worked,” said Malic, comparing the article to revelations about the CIA’s role in Syria near the end of former US President Barack Obama’s presidency.

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❗️ A US judge ordered the removal of former President Donald Trump from the Republican primary ballot in the state of Illinois, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The report said that Cook County judge Tracie Porter ordered the state election board to remove Trump from the March 19 primary ballot but put her order on hold until Friday.

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The explosive truth of the US’ Nord Stream Pipeline sabotage could ‘destroy’ NATO, says investigative journalist Dan Lazare.

The journalist made the claim on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program after Denmark officially dropped its investigation into the 2022 Nord Stream explosions, finding they were an act of “deliberate sabotage” but refusing to investigate who was responsible.

“Everybody is afraid to say'' that the United States was responsible, said Lazare, pointing out that rightwing parties like Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland stand to benefit as establishment political forces avoid the subject.

“The US engaged in an act of war against a fellow NATO member,” he claimed. “Once people admit what happened, NATO essentially goes up in air because an alliance is not a scheme for one member to attack another.”

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BRICS nations rally for trade in national currencies, ditching the US dollar

Most countries at a meeting of BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors supported the departure from the dollar, agreeing that settlements in national currencies are what the countries in the bloc need, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov told Sputnik.

Additionally, Chebeskov reiterated that the Russian Finance Ministry favors the creation of a unified digital platform, a kind of technological gateway for the possible unification of both digital currencies from central banks and national systems of financial messaging.

"Technologies now make it possible to create software to which any bank from the BRICS countries can connect and, in fact, work through this gateway, through this platform, to make settlements without having corresponding relations with a huge number of banks from other countries," Chebeskov said.

"We propose to simplify in this way interactions between banks and create independent channels for payments and the transmission of financial messages," he clarified.

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Russia's Soyuz-2.1b was cleared for the first launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in 2024

A Russian state commission has cleared a Soyuz-2.1b rocket carrying the Meteor-M No.2-4 weather satellite, 17 small Russian space probes and an Iranian satellite for refueling and launch, a spokesperson for Russian state space corporation Roscosmos told Sputnik

Roscosmos said earlier that the deployment of Meteor-M into orbit would take approximately one hour, after which Fregat would deliver the remaining satellites to their target orbits.

In addition to the weather satellite, the rocket is carrying 17 satellites manufactured by Russian private company Sputnix, owned by Russian multidisciplinary IT company Sitronics Group. Of them, 16 satellites would be added to the SITRO-AIS constellation, the Russian automatic identification system for tracking marine vessels, and the Zorkiy-2M spacecraft will join the constellation of ultra-small Earth remote sensing satellites.

On Wednesday ahead of the launch, Iranian Communications Minister Eisa Zarepour said the Russian rocket will put into orbit the Pars-1 research satellite.

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Russian energy exports to China, India are key to thwarting US sanctions

US sanctions on Russia have not had the desired consequences of slowing Moscow's economy due to the continued flow of Russian energy exports, former member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board Hossein Askari told Sputnik.

"Two countries that need oil and gas are China and India, these are big countries that are willing to defy secondary US sanctions," Askari said. "As long as the price of oil and gas is at an acceptable discount and they know that the US cannot afford to sanction them too, especially not China."

Askari added that Russia has learned some lessons on how best to evade certain sanctions.

Overall, the United States has imposed some 3,500 anti-Russia sanctions on individuals and entities since the start of Russia's special military operation in February 2022.

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