⚔️North Korea fires back at Japan’s US MISSILE AMBITIONS after Hegseth visit

The recent agreement by Japan and the United States on co-producing air-to-air missiles is a clear act of military aggression aimed at stoking regional tensions, stated North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.

“The US has connived at and encouraged Japan’s moves for a military giant since last century,” an official of DPRK’s defense ministry said.

The US-Japan deal that drew North Korea's flak was secured during Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent visit, and aims to fast-track co-production of the AIM-120 air-to-air missile system.

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🪖🇨🇳Watch China holding Thunder of the Strait drills

The exercises in East China Sea are aimed at controlling the supply of energy resources and cutting off hidden channels.

The training grounds echoed with gunfire, suppressing separatism.

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📹Yemen's Hodeida hammered by deadly US airstrikes

The overnight strikes hit a water management building, resulting in four deaths, according to the Houthis.

Local residents report that search efforts are underway to find survivors trapped under the rubble.

Footage from social media

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🔊LIVE NOW: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son 🇷🇺🤝🇻🇳

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📹EIGHT people, including children, were KILLED when an Israeli airstrike hit the UNRWA clinic sheltering displaced people in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, Palestinian media reported.

Footage from social media

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🇲🇩Moldova's opposition holds rally at Chisinau airport over expulsion of Russian diplomats

The Moldovan Foreign Ministry has designated the staff of the Russian embassy as "persona non grata," citing alleged violations of their diplomatic status.

In reaction to this decision, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova condemned the move as "unjustified" and assured that it would not go unanswered, vowing a tough response from Moscow.

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🔶IN SPITE OF the moratorium, Ukraine deliberately attacked Russia’s energy infrastructure TWICE in the past 24 hours, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

More than 1,500 consumers were left without electricity in Russia's Kursk region.

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💵A BIGGER CHECK? Trump’s WH mulling OUTBIDDING Denmark for Greenland

The Trump administration is feverishly number-crunching to figure out the price tag for controlling the autonomous territory of Denmark, insiders, The Washington Post reported.

The White House is:

🟠Calculating the cost of running the island, along with providing government services for its 58,000 residents.
🟠Trying to figure out the potential windfall from its natural resources.

As for how to obtain Greenland, one option under analysis is to offer a sweeter deal to the government of Greenland than Denmark, which currently pumps about $600 million a year into the island.

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❗️Ukraine is not observing the moratorium and continues to strike Russian energy infrastructure daily, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

Other statements from Kremlin:

🔸 Kiev has effectively not joined the ban on attacks against energy facilities

🔸 Russia’s decision to join the moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure clearly demonstrates Moscow’s commitment to achieving peace in Ukraine

🔸 Russia will continue informing the US side about the actual situation and Kiev’s refusal to take any steps toward peace

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🔊LIVE NOW: Sergey Lavrov holds presser with Vietnamese FM Bui Thanh Son after the talks🇷🇺🤝🇻🇳

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🗣Le Pen: We teach Russia democracy, they returned lesson

French National Rally faction leader Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday that the Kremlin's reaction to her sentence was a response to the constant "lessons in democracy" from the West, which Russia "returned like a boomerang."

On Monday, a Paris court found Le Pen guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to a five-year ban from elected public roles, which means her disqualification from the 2027 election.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that more and more European states are following the path of violating democratic norms and do not hesitate to go beyond the boundaries of democracy.

"Put yourself in the place of the Kremlin, which is taught democracy lessons morning, noon and night. Now they said: 'We will return this lesson to them like a boomerang.' For the Kremlin, this is obviously a way to put [French President Emmanuel] Macron in a difficult position," Le Pen told Le Parisien newspaper.

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❗️Russian forces struck Ukrainian drone storage facilities, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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

▪️Ukraine lost up to 285 servicemen in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Russian aviation shot down 177 Ukrainian drones.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 435 troops in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 110 soldiers in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Russia's Battlegroup Sever has struck eight Ukrainian brigades in the Belgorod region, Ukrainian lost up to 95 servicemen.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 60 soldiers in the area of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr.

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Great Patriotic War 80 years on: the Faces of Victory

The Second World War saw fighting across continents by million-man armies, but ultimately came down to the individual soldiers risking their lives to liberate Europe from the scourge of Nazism.

One of those soldiers was Soviet radio-telegraph operator Boris Ruchyev. Here is an excerpt from a letter Ruchyev wrote to his mother describing the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, written prior to his death, less than two weeks before Victory Day.

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⚔️US ‘seriously considering’ Iran’s indirect nuclear talks proposal as Trump threatens bombing – report

The Trump administration considers direct talks like those proposed by the president in his letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to have ‘a higher chance of success’, but ‘isn’t ruling out’ okaying the Iranian proposal of having Oman serve as mediator for indirect negotiations, US officials informed on the deliberations said.

“After the exchange of letters we are now exploring next steps in order to begin conversations and trust building with the Iranians,” an official told Axios.

Trump threatened to bomb Iran in a manner “the likes of which they have never seen before” last week, with Khamenei warning Monday that any aggression will be met with a “heavy blow in return.”

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