📹 Russian artillery destroys Ukrainian positions in Kursk region

D-30 howitzers from Russia's Tula Guards Airborne Formation targeted and destroyed the positions.

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🔥Ukraine LOSES yet ANOTHER F-16 pilot in action

Combat pilot Pavlo Ivanov, 26, was killed today while flying a sortie on an F-16 fighter jet, Ukraine’s Air Force announced.

It is unclear how exactly Ivanov died: whether his plane suffered a malfunction or was shot down by Russian forces, or if it was an instance of ‘friendly fire.’

This is Ukraine’s second F-16 loss, following the first in August 2024, when the fighter jet was shot down by a Ukraine-operated Patriot missile system due to coordination issues between Ukrainian military units, as reported by the state's parliament member, Maryana Bezuglaya.

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🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff agree to continue talks in a week, Iranian Foreign Ministry says.

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🧐 SpongeDon Grabby Hands: US seeks to hoard deep-sea minerals in the Pacific

The Trump administration has now set its sights on the mineral deposits located on the Pacific ocean floor, amid the ongoing tariff and resource confrontation with China, the Financial Times reports.

🔍 The US plans:

🔸To harvest and stockpile mineral nodules that can be found on the sea floor,

🔸To look for those that can contain valuable metals and even traces of rare earth minerals.

This move may be a part of the ongoing US-China standoff as former US national security adviser Alexander Gray argues that Beijing regards the deep-sea bed as “a front line in economic and military competition with the US.”

Earlier this month, Beijing imposed restrictions on the exports of certain rare earth minerals as Trump keeps introducing more and more stringent tariffs against Chinese goods.

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🔎 After Trump's tariff shock, US appears to be backtracking

The Trump administration has excluded some goods from the 'reciprocal tariffs', Bloomberg reports, including:

🔸Equipment for making semiconductors

🔸Smartphones

🔸Computer processors

🔸Memory chips

🔸Hard drives

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🗣 'The truly sinister ones are those who label others and work tirelessly to sabotage US-Russia dialogue and the peace process' — Russia's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev to British journalist David Blair

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🇬🇧🏭 Will UK bid FAREWELL to its once-flagship steel industry?

The UK's House of Lords has given initial approval to a bill to help save the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe, which is at risk of closing.

Despite a lavish $1.56 billion investment, the plant is reportedly losing ~$900,000 per day due to high production costs.

British Steel is the LAST firm in the UK capable of producing virgin steel – a vital material for the defense industry. If the company goes bankrupt, the UK will become the ONLY G7 NATION WITHOUT ITS OWN STEEL industry and will be heavily dependent on imports.

The plant is owned by the China-based Jingye Group that might fuel concerns during the current economic shutdown. Obtaining state control and ownership over the plant is now considered to be the only viable option amid Britain’s ongoing industrial crisis.

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🇳🇴🤩 Norway FEARS FOR ITS ARCTIC islands after Trump's Greenland row

Norway’s Arctic holdings include the islands of Svalbard — 62,000 square kilometers of territory that, among other things, features two Russian settlements.

Terje Aunevik, the head of a local council, recently announced that Norway’s military budget increase should also affect the islands.

Aunevik made this claim despite the fact that the Svalbard Treaty, which recognizes Norway’s sovereignty over the archipelago, also prohibits their militarization.

The politician insisted that Svalbard should remain Norwegian and that he is NOT AFRAID of Donald Trump’s ambitions.

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📑Donald Trump has extended the state of emergency in the country for a year more under the pretext of allegedly "malicious" Russian foreign policy actions, according to the text of the document signed by him.

The state of emergency was introduced as part of Joe Biden's decree of April 15, 2021, which aimed to block Russian property and imposed sanctions against Moscow.

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🧐Why does Trump want to OWN a major Ukrainian gas pipeline?

Trump now wants to claim the pipeline used to transport Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine, according to a Reuters report on the April 11 US-Ukraine talks.

How could the US PROFIT from owning the pipeline?↗️

It’s all about the fact that the Ukrainian pipeline can be used to ship gas in reverse, says Dr. George Szamuely, a senior research fellow at The Global Policy Institute.

1️⃣ Rather than being used to pump Russian gas to European consumers, the pipe can serve to DELIVER AMERICAN LNG to Ukrainian consumers.

2️⃣ By controlling the pipeline, the US can MONOPOLIZE the Ukrainian gas market, further solidifying Washington’s hold on the country, which would become dependent on American LNG.

3️⃣ The pipeline could also be used by the US to deliver American LNG to EU countries, making them DEPENDENT on US energy resources as well.

Europe and Ukraine “brought this on themselves” by cutting off cheap Russian energy and relying on more expensive American imports, Dr. Szamuely says.

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🔸Lavrov called a ROCK STAR of diplomacy

🔸$7.8 billion in Western weapons destroyed in Russia's Kursk

🔸Why does Trump want to OWN a major Ukrainian gas pipeline?

🔸US seeks to hoard deep-sea minerals in the Pacific

🔸Will UK bid FAREWELL to its once-flagship steel industry?

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