🇹🇷 First Turkish-made main battle tank Altay is planned to be delivered to the country's armed forces in 2-3 weeks

💬 "We are now producing tanks ourselves. God willing, we will put our Altay tank into service and hand it over to the army within 2-3 weeks," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with the TV360 broadcaster.

▪️ Murat Yalcintas, the head of Turkish company BMC, has earlier said that Turkiye was ready to mass produce Altay tanks, adding that the first two tanks would be delivered to armed forces for trials on April 23. He added that Altay tanks are equipped with Korean-designed, while the Turkish ones will be produced by 2026. He did not rule out that Ankara could start exporting the Turkish tank to friendly countries.

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Macron-Xi Talks: French President Wants to ‘Relaunch Strategic and Global Partnership With China’

French President Emmanuel Macron and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen are due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday as part of the two’s visit to the Asian country.

Macron stressed that Europe should maintain its economic relations with China, despite unbalanced trade relations with Beijing.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 GBU-34 vs UPAB-1500B: Have a look at comparative characteristics of Russian and US guided aerial bombs

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Turkish Foreign Minister Likens Sweden to Nazi Germany Over Quran-Burning Verdict

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has slammed the Swedish administrative court's decision, which faulted the Stockholm police for denying permission for Quran-burning protests outside of the Turkish and Iraqi embassies earlier this year.

While the Swedish police justified the subsequent bans with security concerns and claimed that the Quran-burning made Sweden a "higher-priority target for attacks," the court ruled on April 5 that these considerations are not sufficient to limit the right to demonstrate and that such protests are protected by the country's constitution.

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🇫🇮 Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin resigns after defeat in parliamentary elections

💬 “Now is the time to get in line again and leave the chairman’s place,” Marin said during a news conference in Helsinki. She said she intends to continue as a lawmaker in Parliament.

▪️ The Social Democratic Party came in third in Sunday’s election, dashing Marin's hopes of staying on as prime minister.

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🇫🇷 "Normandie-Niemen" - the legendary Soviet-French air regiment that fought on the fronts of WWII between 1943 and 1945.

▪️ During the war years, the pilots of this regiment made over five thousand sorties, conducted about 900 air battles and shot down almost 300 enemy aircraft.

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🇮🇹 Silvio Berlusconi has been diagnosed with a serious blood disorder

▪️ The disease was also the reason Berlusconi was taken to hospital in March, Italian newspaper reported, adding that his recent health problems, including pneumonia, were in fact complications caused by the disease.

▪️ Earlier, Italian media reported that 86-year-old Berlusconi had been readmitted to Milan's San Raffaele Hospital due to cardiovascular problems. The former prime minister was reportedly having difficulty breathing. Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani later confirmed that the country's former prime minister had been hospitalized due to heath problems after suffering an infection.

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Latest statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️ There are no other ways for Russia, except for the continuation of the special operation; the situation does not demonstrate the prospects for a peaceful settlement. China has mediating potential, but in the case of Ukraine, the situation is still complicated;

▪️ the issue of lifting the moratorium on the death penalty has not been discussed in the Kremlin in any way;

▪️ Russia is taking measures to balance the security architecture on the continent in the face of NATO approaching the country's borders.

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❗️Hindu temple in Canada🇨🇦 desecrated by anti-Indian graffiti, in 2nd incident in four months

👤 The attackers spray-painted insults about the Indian prime minister on the outer wall of the Hindu temple.

There have been no comments from the Canadian authorities so far.

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US-South Korea Drills ‘Driving Situation on Korean Peninsula to Brink of Nuclear War’

The South Korean Defense Ministry earlier stated that the goal of the war games was to practice coordination and demonstrate the two’s “extended deterrence” against alleged threats issued by North Korea.

Pyongyang may respond with an "offensive action" to joint military drills conducted by Washington and Seoul, a North Korean media outlet has quoted "international security analyst" Choe Ju Hyon as saying.

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💬 No country can deploy nuclear weapons on foreign territory – France’s Macron during meeting with China’s Xi

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Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, joined us to discuss the concept of "full spectrum dominance"

🗣️”It [the concept] implies that the United States is not only the exceptional nation, but it is dominatingly exceptional. We do not want to get along with people. We want to control people. We want to impose our will on people around the world. No exceptions. That is what full spectrum means,” he claimed

🎧Listen to more of Ritter’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

❗️ Latest statements by President Putin at talks with the heads of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson:

▪️ 14 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered at one of the sites have been killed today by the Kiev regime today;

▪️ Russia in Ukraine is dealing with a regime that is cruel to the highest degree even in relation to its military personnel;

▪️ The task of Russia is to move the Armed Forces of Ukraine to a distance from which they cannot cause damage;

▪️ There are plans to build new sections of the railway in new regions of the Russian Federation;

▪️ The task of the military is to avoid shelling of Donbass at all.

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❗️Former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi has started a course of chemotherapy to fight leukemia, Italian media reports

❗️A quick reminder for Emmanuel Macron: where are US nukes stationed?

Spoiler: they are in three countries that have borders with France!

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▶️ 🐈 Spider-cat does whatever a spider can

This little cat without much embarrassment joined a prayer service, jumping on the Imam of Bordj Bou Arreridj mosque in Algeria.

The religious leader did not interrupt his prayer but continued to speak while caressing the cat

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Catch our Fault Lines show, where we provide updates and analysis on all the most vital stories! Here's our line-up for today:

🔺To kick things off, we’ll be discussing the new article by Seymour Hersh on Nord Stream
🔺Next, we’ll continue monitoring the Trump indictment as well as a political scandal in North Carolina
🔺Finally, we’ll speak about Macron’s visit to China

More trending stories coming your way! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 7am EST|4am PST|1pm CET via the website or app!

📻Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

⚡️ Lukashenko said he agrees with Macron on the issue of nuclear weapons: the Americans should withdraw them from the countries where they deployed them

▪️ Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus called on behalf of eco-activist Greta Thunberg and her father Svante to Hollywood actor Will Smith and his son Jaden.

▪️ The faux Swedish family of environmental activists gave the Smiths "good news": Greta and Will's son Jaden allegedly love each other, want to get married, and Greta is also pregnant!

▪️ Was the actor happy about this prospect? Is he ready to become a grandfather and what will they name their son? Check out the prank

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⚡️Around 100 rockets launched from Lebanon towards Israel on Thursday: media reports

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❗️ Sputnik correspondent from Lebanon reports: The IDF launched an artillery strike on the al-Layl valley in the south of the country after launching rockets from Lebanon