Important Takeaways:
- Lavrov explained that the US and allies were responsible for blocking the recent review cycles of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which, Lavrov says Washington long used to pressure its foes. He also noted the potential danger posed by the three-way AUKUS agreement between the US, UK and Australia, which is becoming “increasingly similar to a military bloc,” as well as NATO, which has been boosting its military spending.
- According to the senior official, the West’s support for Ukraine is also fraught with danger, especially as the three major Western nuclear powers, the US, UK and France, are among the main sponsors of the “criminal Kiev regime” and the “main organizers” of provocations against Russia.
- The US and their NATO client states are still dreaming of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia and are ready to carry on with their policy of deterring our country ‘to the last Ukrainian…’ The West is balancing on the dangerous edge of a direct military confrontation between nuclear powers, which could have catastrophic consequences.
- In his address, Lavrov reiterated this stance, saying that he saw “no basis whatsoever” for an arms control dialogue with the US “in the face of a total hybrid war being waged against our country.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- As World Marks Easter, ISIS Urges Global Attacks on Christians, Jews in Honor of Ramadan
- As the Christian world celebrates Easter, the Islamic State (ISIS) is calling upon Muslims to attack Christians and Jews globally during the closing weeks of Ramadan, specifically targeting Western and democratic nations, including America, Israel, and European states, as part of its ongoing jihad campaign.
- The directive was issued via Telegram by Islamic State spokesperson Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari, who also praised the recent deadly attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall music venue that saw at least 143 people killed by terrorists from ISIS-K (the Afghanistan affiliate of ISIS) who fired on some of the estimated 6,000 attendees of a rock concert.
- Following the attack, the Islamic State faction circulated a selfie taken by the gunmen, lauding the “bloody attack” against a “large crowd of Christians.”
- Urging the group’s supporters to attack “crusaders” everywhere, the terror group’s spokesman told them, “We ask God that you make it to Palestine so you could fight the Jews face to face in an endless religious war.”
- Furthermore, he called for increased attacks by ISIS members in Mozambique and the Philippines.
- The disclosure comes as French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced last week that the terror threat system had been raised to its highest level. It had previously been raised to its highest level in October after a teacher was stabbed to death by a Chechnyan migrant amid calls from the Palestinian terror group Hamas for a global “day of jihad” in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks on Israel.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Moody’s sours on banking sector outlooks for Germany, Britain and France
- The credit rating agency Moody’s said on Thursday that it was downgrading its outlook for the banking sector in a number of European countries as weak economies erode profits.
- It changed the outlook to negative from stable for the banking sectors of Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden.
- Rising losses for unpaid loans and higher funding costs will chip away at profits, Moody’s said.
- “A deteriorating operating environment with low economic growth and high borrowing costs will hit credit growth as well as loan performance in the largest European countries, particularly in the corporate sector,” said Moody’s analyst Effie Tsotsani.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday warned France that Russia has “no more red lines” for the country.
- His warning was directed at French President Emmanuel Macron, who earlier in the day reaffirmed Paris’ firm support for Kyiv in its war against Russia’s invading forces while meeting with France’s other party leaders at the Elysee Palace.
- Le Monde reported that after the meeting, Fabien Roussel—national secretary of the French Communist Party—said Macron had expressed how “France’s position has changed” regarding the war, and that “there are no more red lines, there are no more limits.
- Medvedev addressed the report from the French newspaper in a threatening X post.
- “Macron has said, ‘there are no more red lines, there are no more limits’ in terms of supporting Ukraine (Le Monde). Then that means, Russia has no more red lines left for France,” Medvedev wrote.
- The Kremlin official then added, “In hostem omina licita,” a Latin phrase that roughly translates as “everything is legal if it is done to an enemy.”
- “Nothing should be excluded,” the French President said, following a gathering of Ukraine’s backers in Paris on February 26. “We will do anything we can to prevent Russia from winning this war.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- ‘Catastrophic scenario’ if NATO troops deploy to Ukraine – top Russian senator
- The possibility mulled by the French president could be taken as a declaration of war on Moscow, Konstantin Kosachev has said
- The potential deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine will lead to a “catastrophic scenario,” and could be interpreted as a “declaration of war” on Moscow, top Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev has said.
- The Vice Speaker of Russia’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, offered his take on remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron on the possibility of sending troops in a Telegram post on Tuesday. The approach exhibited by the French leader carries a risk of the situation devolving into a “catastrophic scenario,” Kosachev warned, stating that the move would not be tolerated by the Kremlin.
- “This is the line beyond which it’s no longer just NATO’s involvement in the war – this has been happening for a long time, but can be interpreted as the alliance entering direct hostilities, or even as a declaration of war,” Kosachev wrote.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- France Says Russia Threatened to Shoot Down Its Military Aircraft
- Russian forces threatened to shoot down French flights patrolling last month in international airspace over the Black Sea, signals of increasingly aggressive behavior from Moscow as its invasion of Ukraine struggles to make headway, France’s defense minister said Thursday.
- French flights include long-range patrols by its AWACS surveillance aircraft. Flying high above the Black Sea coast, they use their powerful radar and other surveillance gear to peer across to the Crimean Peninsula that was seized from Ukraine by Russia and annexed in 2014. The surveillance flights can spot missile launches, airborne bombing runs and other military activity in the Ukraine conflict.
- Russian pilots have at times made clear that they don´t like being watched.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- France, Germany and Italy called for the European Union to set up a special sanctions scheme to target Hamas as EU foreign ministers met on Monday to consider possible next steps in response to the Middle East crisis.
- In a letter to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the foreign ministers of the bloc’s three biggest countries said it was important the EU take “all necessary measures against the terrorist group Hamas and its supporters”.
- Hamas is already listed by the European Union as a terrorist organization, meaning any funds or assets that it has in the EU should be frozen.
- The EU said on Friday it had added Mohammed Deif, Commander General of the military wing of Hamas, and his deputy, Marwan Issa, to its list of terrorists under sanction.
- Some suggested a decision last week by the United States, Israel’s biggest backer, to start imposing visa bans on people involved in violence in the West Bank could encourage EU countries to take similar steps.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Over a Million Left Without Power as 100mph+ Storm Rips Through Britain and France
- Strong winds and rain also battered southern England and the Channel Islands, where gusts of more than 160 kph (100 mph) were reported. Hundreds of schools stayed closed in the coastal communities of Cornwall and Devon as downed trees and flooding hindered morning commutes.
- Flights from airports on the Channel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney were canceled. Dutch airline KLM scrapped all flights leaving and arriving in the Netherlands from the early afternoon until the end of the day, citing the high sustained wind speeds and powerful gusts expected in the country.
- “It looks like a once-in-every-few-years storm for the U.K. and France,” Bob Henson, a meteorologist and science writer with Yale Climate Connections said Wednesday, adding that Ciaran could turn into “a once in a generation storm.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- France and the European Union Are No Friends of Israel
- At the recent European Summit in Brussels, the heads of state and government did not make the call for “humanitarian pauses” conditional on the release of the Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
- Thirty-five French citizens were murdered by Hamas on October 7, and nine others are being held hostage (among approximately 230 hostages), but France wants to provide aid to those who are holding them?
- Unsurprisingly, according to reports, Hamas has been hoarding the food and medicine intended for the suffering people of Gaza… Cement for “rebuilding Gaza” has instead been diverted to building attack tunnels, and water pipes from the European Union are made into rockets. Hamas has also reportedly hoarded food, water, medicine and fuel, with the fuel being used in their rockets.
- Central, however are the hostages. Their release will not be facilitated by a ceasefire or humanitarian corridors; quite the contrary. France and the European Union should have made their aid to Gaza conditional on the hostages’ release, and stated that no “humanitarian” aid will be provided until Hamas releases them. Hamas has created this situation, not Israel.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven
Important Takeaways:
- Violence Spiraling Out of Control in France: Massive Police Deployment Fails to Quell Burnings
- The French government is considering “all options” including a nationwide state of emergency after another night of violence which saw hundreds of arrests and injured police officers, and thousands of fires, including many symbols of the state including town halls, schools, post offices, and buses destroyed.
- Some 40,000 police officers were deployed across France on Thursday night in an attempt to forestall a third night of violence triggered by the death on Tuesday of a delivery driver at the hands of a police officer in a Paris suburb after he refused to comply with a traffic stop. Yet the enormous show of force by the French state failed to prevent even greater levels of destruction.
- Per France’s Le Figaro reports there were 875 arrests overnight nationwide, which saw protest and violence spread to urban areas across the country and even to neighboring Belgium, the home of the European Union. Figures that underline the considerable scale of the attacks reveal there were some 3,880 fires set overnight, 249 police officers injured — although none seriously — and 492 buildings damaged.
- Le Parisien cites the Interior Ministry to report 80 police stations were damaged overnight, 34 town halls burnt or otherwise damaged, 28 schools, and 57 other state buildings nationwide. Attacks on symbols of the state appeared so targeted even individual post-boxes were attacked.
Read the original article by clicking here.
