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Venezuelan president bans

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has issued a decree banning Elon Musk’s X platform from his country for 10 days. The move follows a bitter war of words with the tech billionaire in the aftermath of Venezuela’s disputed election last month. Mr Musk, 53, who bought the social media company formerly known as Twitter in 2022, branded Mr Maduro’s re-election a sham. The president, 61, responded by accusing Mr Musk of inciting “hatred, fascism and civil war”. “Elon Musk is the owner of X and has violated all the rules of the social network itself,” said Mr Maduro in a speech broadcast on state television on Thursday night. “X get out of Venezuela for 10 days!” he shouted. The row began when Mr Maduro declared himself the winner of the July 28 presidential election with some 51 per cent of the vote despite opposition claims he lost the vote by a more than 2-to-1 margin. Mr Musk immediately posted on X that there had been “major election fraud by Maduro”, adding: “Shame on Dictator
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With uncertainty across the Atlantic

With Trump's “America First” rhetoric drawing cheers from fervent supporters, the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is once again on the agenda. But this time, European leaders acknowledge the alliance must evolve to meet the challenges of the 21st century and say they are ready to shoulder more responsibility for their own defense. A lot has changed in eight years. First, Trump’s presidency forced Europe to recognize that U.S. military support was no longer guaranteed, then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscored the threat on its eastern border. Meanwhile, the U.S. has increasingly focused on China’s expansion in the Asia-Pacific, as well as Iran and North Korea. “Confronted with powers such as Russia and China, and a United States whose pivot to Asia seems inevitable, no matter who wins the next election, we Europeans need to do more to ensure our own security,” Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, wrote last weekend in The Times of London
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bomb may mean risking Ukraine

Russia is increasingly using its new 6,600-pound glide bomb in Ukraine. The massive FAB-3000 bomb is a highly destructive weapon that's hard for Ukraine to stop. Defeating this threat would require Ukraine to put its best air-defense system in a vulnerable spot. Russia has increasingly been striking Ukrainian positions with its new 6,600-pound glide bomb, a highly destructive weapon that's notoriously difficult to defeat. The massive FAB-3000 M-54 glide bomb made its combat debut last month. These weapons have special kits that convert them from dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions, enabling Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers to launch these weapons from a safe distance beyond the reach of Ukraine's top ground-based air-defense systems in their current positions. Warfare and airpower experts say Ukraine has very limited means to defeat this threat. Moving its best air-defense systems closer to the front lines makes them vulnerable to attacks, and Kyiv can't use lo
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With Palestinian deal and Ukrainian

In consecutive days this week, China brokered a deal between rival Palestinian factions and hosted Ukraine's foreign minister at a moment when pressure is mounting on the country to negotiate an end to the grinding war there. While it's unclear if the agreement between Hamas and Fatah will succeed where others have failed and there is little concrete progress towards peace in Ukraine, China emerged a winner, further cementing its role as a diplomatic force on the global stage, not just an economic powerhouse. As Beijing and Washington vie for influence around the world, China is increasingly playing a role that had previously been the domain of world powers like the U.S. and Russia. Earlier this month, Western countries called
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Multiple crew failures and wind shear

was caused by multiple crew failures, terrible winter weather and a last-minute brush with wind shear that resulted in all four members ejecting and the total loss of the $450 million warplane, Air Force Global Strike Command said Thursday. The command’s report was unusually blunt in describing what the investigation uncovered about the crews involved in the evening crash at Ellsworth Air Force Base. The investigators said the crash exposed an “organizational culture that tolerated decaying airmanship skills, a lack of discipline, poor communication, and inadequate focus on regulations." The report is what is used to inform Air Force decisions on disciplinary action, so it is not yet clear whether any of the crew or their leaders will be disciplined as a result of the crash. The B-1 is one of three long-range U.S. bombers. The supersonic aircraft carries conventional weapons and is capable of taking off from the U.S. to strike targets overseas in a single mission. The aging war
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Hungary to block EU funds for member states

The Baltic countries have already stopped buying electricity from Russia. And in a plan announced last year as part of moves to sever ties with Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, they will shift their grid connections next February to the main continental European energy network in a move to end reliance. Utility operators Elering of Estonia, AST of Latvia and Litgrid of Lithuania said that the exit notice was signed in the Latvian capital of Riga on Tuesday. The joint agreement with Moscow and Minsk will end Feb. 7, and the Baltic systems will be disconnected from the grid the next day. “We will disconnect and dismantle the last physical connections with Russian and Belarusian grids,” Litgrid CEO Rokas Masiulis said, calling the move an “ambitious energy independence project
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countries notify Russia and Belarus

The electricity grid operators of the three Baltic countries on Tuesday officially notified Russia and Belarus that they will exit a 2001 agreement that has kept Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania connected to an electricity transmission system controlled by Moscow. The Baltic countries have already stopped buying electricity from Russia. And in a plan announced last year as part of moves to sever ties with Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, they will shift their grid connections next February to the main continental European energy network in a move to end reliance. Utility operators Elering of Estonia, AST of Latvia and Litgrid of Lithuania said that the exit notice was signed in the Latvian capital of Riga on Tuesday. The joint agreement with Moscow and Minsk will end Feb. 7, and the Baltic systems will be disconnected from the grid the next day. “We will disconnect and dismantle the last physical connections with Russian and Belarusian grids,” Litgrid CEO Rokas Masiulis said,
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