Pakistan orders all illegal foreigners to leave by March 31

“In continuation of the government’s decision to repatriate all illegal foreigners, national leadership has now decided to also repatriate ACC holders. All illegal foreigners and ACC holders are advised to leave the country voluntarily before March 31, 2025,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced in a statement on Friday.

This includes holders of special Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC). The UN's International Organization for Migration estimates that Pakistan has repatriated nearly 825,000 Afghan refugees since September 2023, including 18,500 expelled in January 2025 alone.

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✅UN mission urges Afghan authorities to lift restrictions on women, girls

"On International Women’s Day, the United Nations in Afghanistan reiterates its urgent call for the de facto authorities to lift restrictions that strip women and girls of their fundamental rights. The UN also urges Member States to take action by amplifying Afghan women’s voices, supporting their leadership, and investing in their future," the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

The mission warned that the systematic exclusion of women from education, employment, and public life violates human rights and hinders the country’s progress, deepening poverty and isolation for millions.

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💬 'Brussels is trying to prevent peace negotiations' - Hungarian PM on Ukraine talks

"The vast majority of the world wants peace, the twenty-six member states of the European Union voted to continue the war," Peter Szijjarto said.

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💬 'There was a lot of lying on the part of France. They did not implement the Minsk Accords' - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Former leaders of Germany, Ukraine, and France openly admitted that they had no intention of fulfilling them.

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🔥Watch: Russian Iskander SMASHES Ukrainian HIMARS

...and the US may not send more😬

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

▪️Ukraine lost up to 595 militants and a Leopard tank in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 195 servicemen in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 155 troops in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 245 militants and 3 warehouses in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 110 soldiers in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr and Sever.

▪️Ukraine lost more than 180 servicemen and seven armored vehicles in the Kursk region over the day.

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📹Doctors and patients are escaping from a hospital severely affected by heavy flooding in Bahía Blanca, Argentina

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💶 France and Germany feud over defense funding after Trump turns off the money spigot

A proposed €150B EU defense fund is at risk before even being agreed — thanks to a squabble over whether to allow weapons purchases from non-EU countries.

Macron wants to keep spending EU-restricted, while Scholz insists it should include partners like the UK, Norway, Switzerland and Turkiye.

The feud comes as a previously approved €1.5B defense fund has already been delayed for over a year.

“If €1.5B couldn’t pass French objections, how do we push through €150B?” one flustered EU diplomat told FT.

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🔍China is making further advances in developing military spy drones disguised as birds

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💸Crypto power play: Are Russia and China leaving the US in the dust?

President Donald Trump is pushing to make the US the world’s crypto capital, establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a US Digital Asset Stockpile—but his ban on a “digital dollar” sets the US apart from global trends.

🇺🇸US: pro-Bitcoin, anti-CBDC

🟠While supporting Bitcoin and digital assets, Trump has officially banned the establishment, issuance, circulation, and use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the US.

🟠He argues that CBDCs—state-backed digital versions of fiat currency—threaten financial stability, privacy, and national sovereignty.

Meanwhile, 133 countries are exploring or piloting CBDCs, with the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Nigeria already launching theirs. China, Russia, and BRICS nations are expanding their CBDC projects, leaving the US behind.

🇷🇺Russia: Advancing the digital ruble & Bitcoin

1️⃣Launched a digital ruble pilot in August 2023 with 600 individuals, 30 businesses, and 12 banks across 11 cities.
2️⃣By March 2024, Russia’s Central Bank had recorded 25,000 digital ruble transactions.
3️⃣Legalized and regulated crypto mining, introducing taxation, and oversight.
4️⃣Launched an experimental crypto transaction platform within the National Payment System.
5️⃣Putin reaffirmed RUSSIA’S CRYPTO LEADERSHIP at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in September 2024.

🇨🇳China: Expanding & globalizing the digital yuan

🟠A CBDC pioneer, China began developing the digital yuan (e-CNY) in 2014, launching trials in 2019.
🟠e-CNY can be transferred directly between e-wallets, bypassing commercial banks, even offline.
🟠Project M-Bridge connects China’s CBDC with UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other central banks, expanding its global reach.

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🔍Finland’s investigation concludes: Not Kremlin sabotage, just a broken cable

Finnish officials involved in the probe “weren’t able to uncover enough evidence” to issue arrest warrants or press charges for deliberate wrongdoing in the damage to the Estlink 2 power line, The Wall Street Journal reported.

With “no link between the damaged cable and the Kremlin or any other government,” Finland has released the Eagle S tanker, which was seized in late December after being accused of dragging its anchor over the power line connecting Estonia and Finland.

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🇫🇷 Macron’s bitter pill: he’s no Napoleon, and modern French Army is no Grande Armée

France’s president is beating the drums of war with Russia, mulling an expansion of the French nuclear umbrella over Europe, and reraising the idea of European troops in Ukraine.

But behind the big talk lies a stark reality: France’s Army is ready for low-intensity wars and neocolonial deployments at best, but does not have the resources or wherewithal for a large, continental conflict.

Strong on paper:

1️⃣The French Armed Forces total around 270K personnel, with 118.6K in the Army, including 9.5K Foreign Legionnaires and 25K reserves.

2️⃣The Army fields 220+ Leclerc tanks (200 more in storage or upgrades), up to 5K APCs, recon, and IFVs, along with 70+ CAESAR howitzers, 100+ TRF1 towed guns, and ~400 120mm mortars.

Paper tiger in practice:

🔸 France hasn’t won a major war in over a century. From WWII and colonial conflicts in Indochina and Algeria, to the 1956 Suez Crisis and embroilments in West Africa, apart from the 1991 Gulf War, the French Army has not emerged victorious from a single major conflagration since 1918.

🔸 In proxy wars too, French boots-on-the-ground, training and/or arms support have proven less than stellar, with participation in conflicts in the Congo (1960-1963), Nigeria (1967-1970), Angola (1975-2002), Chad (1969-2008), Libya (2011-present), Mali and the Sahel (2013-2022) failing to secure victories for their clients.

🔸 In Ukraine, deliveries of up to €3.2B ($3.4B) in French arms aid, plus training and intel, have done little to shore up the NATO’s proxy’s capabilities, with tens of millions of euros in French equipment destroyed, and reports coming in regularly on French mercs and trainees being wiped out.

🔸 French and European media have also reported at length over the past three years that France’s military would run out of ammunition WITHIN WEEKS OR EVEN DAYS of a “high-intensity conflict” breaking out.

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