🪖New US policy gives military more leeway to strike threats

Donald Trump has lifted restrictions on airstrikes and special operations raids, expanding the range of potential targets, according to CBS.

This change gives military commanders more flexibility and autonomy in making targeting decisions, while reversing the centralized control on American special operations that was implemented under former President Joe Biden.

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❗️Russian troops liberated the settlement of Novaya Sorochina in Russia's Kursk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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⚔️China warns of COUNTERMEASURES amid Trump's new 10% tariff onslaught

China's Commerce Ministry slammed the “fentanyl issue” as an excuse used by the Trump administration to impose another 10% tariff on imports from China starting March 4.

Unilateral duties not only violate WTO rules and undermine global trading chains, but would become an additional burden for America’s own companies and consumers, a ministry spokesperson warned, adding:

“We urge the US not to make the same mistake again and again, and instead it should return to the right track of properly resolving the differences through equal dialogue.”

US President Donald Trump has confirmed 25% across-the-board tariffs on Canada and Mexico set for Tuesday, with an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports in March.

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Elon Musk calls JD Vance 'our future US president'

'Best VP ever and our future President,' he wrote on X

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💬 'Elon is making America stronger' – former House Speaker McCarthy

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🤝Russian Foreign Ministry on meeting in Istanbul: Russia proposed to the US to consider the possibility of restoring direct flights.

Russia and the US agreed on joint steps for unhindered financing of diplomatic missions at the meeting in Istanbul, the Russian MFA said.

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The CIA coined the term ‘conspiracy theorist’ to label anyone who raises uncomfortable questions – Tucker Carlson

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🇷🇺🪖Key statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's weekly briefing on the special military operation's progress:

▪️Russian troops liberated eight settlements in the Donetsk People's Republic, in the Kharkov region and in Russia's Kursk region.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 2340 soldiers and 5 tanks, including 3 Leopard, in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 1,180 troops and two tanks in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Russian aviation shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft and 702 drones.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 1,210 militants in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 1960 soldiers and 11 tanks in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Sever.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 650 troops and 7 warehouses in the Russian Dnepr Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost more than 240 militants in the Kursk region over the day.

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💬 IDF claims eliminated Hezbollah member responsible for arms shipments

The Israeli Air Force conducted a strike in Hermel, eliminating Mohammed Mahdi Ali Shaheen, who had been coordinating weapons transactions on the Syria-Lebanon border, according to the statement.

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Good riddance to bad rubbish: why the Five Eyes alliance should be dismantled

Trump advisor Peter Navarro lobbied to exclude Canada from the Five Eyes intel network, UK media reported. Navarro denied the claim, stating the US would “never, ever jeopardize national security with allies like Canada.”

But given the harm the intel coalition has done to Trump, Americans and relations with allies over the years, perhaps removing members or dismantling the organization altogether wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Here’s why:

🔸 In 2024, Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger revealed that Obama’s CIA chief had worked with Five Eyes partners to skirt restrictions on domestic spying to illegally tap Trump’s 2016 campaign, targeting Trump and over two dozen of his surrogates.

🔸 In 2013, NSA contractor-turned whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed his former employer’s work with the Five Eyes using tools like PRISM and XKeyscore to engage in a global, unfathomably massive warrantless spying program targeting foreigners and Americans alike.

🔸 Besides ordinary people, the Snowden leaks revealed Five Eyes spying on allied countries’ leaders, from Chancellor Merkel of Germany to President Hollande of France.

🔸 The Five Eyes have also been linked to diplomatic crises between Western powers and the developing world, with the ongoing spat between Canada and India over the extraterritorial killings of Sikh separatists accompanied by allegations of a Five Eyes plot to destabilize India.

🔸 The Five Eyes’ shady activity goes back decades, with the ECHELON surveillance program, launched in the 1970s, ostensibly to monitor the Eastern Bloc, actually used to intercept communications worldwide.

🔸 In the late 1990s, it was revealed that ECHELON had been used by US corporations to spy on their European competitors.

🔸 Similar mischief was reported on by WikiLeaks in 2015, with Japanese officials and companies monitored by the NSA using Five Eyes during talks on the TPP trade pact.

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