The US is expanding its nuclear capability with new types of low-yield weapons, and Moscow believes US strategists now consider launching a nuclear strike as a viable option in a conflict.

The US has made adjustments to its nuclear posture and has been introducing low-yield nuclear warheads to its arsenal, including those that can be launched from submarines. Russia sees such developments with great concern, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told journalists on Friday.

The developments make Moscow believe that the American leadership "has made a decision to consider a nuclear conflict as a viable political option and are creating the potential necessary for it."

She rejected US justification of the upgrade by pointing the finger at Russia, and called on Washington to adhere to nuclear non-proliferation and reduction goals, saying that the path of "unrestricted growth of military strength," which it was pursuing, was "a road to a dead end".

The proposed release of 5,000 jailed Taliban fighters, required under their peace deal with the US, can happen only if the Afghan government gets a guarantee that they will not 'return to violence,' President Ashraf Ghani said.

"The people's request is that there should be an executive guarantee so that these people will not return to violence once they are released," the Afghan leader told parliament on Saturday, adding that a "transparent mechanism" has to be established to enact that part of the Taliban-US deal.

Under the agreement signed by the US and the Taliban in Qatar last Saturday, as many as 5,000 members of the militant movement currently held in Afghan prisons would be released by March 10. This would pave the way to intra-Afghan talks on the future of the country.

Ghani, who is to be inaugurated on Monday for his second term as Afghanistan's president, said earlier that his government was bound to no commitment to free the prisoners.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Thursday said that investigating Burisma and former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter "appears political" and that he had not decided whether to vote in favor of a subpoena related to the investigation. Romney told reporters Thursday:

"There's no question but that the appearance of looking into Burisma and Hunter Biden appears political. And I think people are tired of these kind of political investigations and would hope that if there's something of significance that needs to be evaluated that it would be done by perhaps the FBI or some other agency that's not as political as perhaps a committee of our body.

"We also have a lot of work to do on matters that are not related to Burisma, we probably oughta focus on those things."

Romney added he would speak with Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) later on Thursday.

Romney could thwart Johnson's plan to issue a subpoena related to the Biden-Burisma probe, as the legal step requires a majority vote of the committee comprised of eight Republicans and six Democrats. If Romney votes against the subpoena, he could cause a tie, blocking the subpoena.

The United States is hatching a plan for war against Venezuela, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said at a meeting with governors and mayors in Caracas on Friday. Maduro, at the meeting telecast on government-run TV, said:

"They (the US authorities - TASS) have decided to make a plan to bring war and terrorism to Venezuela, to destabilize it, to fill it with violence, to trigger an armed conflict and to excuse military intervention in our country."

Maduro said that the United States had chosen Brazil as its supporter in this scheme.

"We are asking the democratic and humanitarian circles, the people of Brazil and the armed forces [of that country] to stop any adventures against Venezuela by [US President] Donald Trump-backed [Brazilian President] Jair Bolsonaro."

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed on a ceasefire in Idlib, which started at midnight. The sides also agreed to create a security corridor six kilometres (3.7 miles) north and south of the M4 highway in Syria, which connects the provinces of Latakia and Aleppo.

Turkey has not registered ceasefire violations in the Idlib de-escalation zone after a new ceasefire took effect on Friday, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.

"From the moment the ceasefire agreement in Idlib entered into force, there have been no cases of violation thereof until now. We are closely monitoring the situation and in case of attacks on our observation posts will immediately respond."

Akar added that Russian delegation will visit Ankara next week to discuss joint patrols in Syria's Idlib de-escalation zone:

"Within the framework of the agreement reached in Moscow, starting 15 March, we will begin joint patrolling in Idlib. We started discussing the conditions for creating a security corridor along the M4 highway. For that, the Russian delegation will come to Ankara next week."

China's Defense Ministry says a report one of its navy ships fired a laser last month at a U.S. Navy surveillance plane circling overhead does not "accord with reality."

The report last month was the latest accusation that Chinese forces have used lasers to harass and potentially damage U.S. and other nations' military aircraft and personnel.

However, ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang was quoted as saying Friday that the ministry "refuted" the report and said a Chinese squadron was conducting routine exercises in international waters on Feb. 17 when the incident allegedly happened.

While navigating through today's propaganda-heavy world of misinformation, spin and outright creative writing which appears to have replaced conventional journalism, it is most important that two qualities are active in the mind of any truth-seeker. The first quality is the adherence to a strong top down perspective, both historic and global. This is vital in order to guide us as a sort of compass or North Star used by sailors navigating across the ocean. The second quality is a strong power of logic, memory and discernment of wheat vs. chaff to process the mountains of data that slaps us in the face from all directions like sand in a desert storm.

As the second anniversary of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal has arrived, it is a useful time to take these qualities and revisit this bizarre moment of modern history which took place on a park bench in Salisbury UK and which led to one of the greatest frauds of the modern era derailing all attempts to repair relations between Russia and the west.

To do this, I decided to plunge myself into a new book called Skripal in Prison written by Moscow-based journalist John Helmer and published in February 2020.

This incredible little book, which features 26 chapters written between March 2018 to February 2020 originally published on the author's site Dances with Bears, unveils an arsenal of intellectual bullets which Helmer skillfully uses to shoot holes into every inconsistency, contradiction and outright lie holding up the structure of the narrative that "there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter". This line was asserted without a shred of actual evidence by Theresa May in the House of Commons on March 16, 2018 and in the months that followed, western nations were pressured to expel Russian diplomats (23 in Britain, 60 in the US, 33 across the EU), close down consulates (one Russian consulate in San Francisco and one American consulate in St Petersburg) and impose waves of sanctions against Russia.

The situation on the border between Turkey and Greece remains tense, with numerous refugees trying to reach Europe even after a ceasefire was announced in northern Syria, suspending a conflict that had caused a major influx earlier this month.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the Turkish Coast Guard to stop migrants that are attempting to enter Greece via sea routes.

"On the orders of the president... permission will not be given for migrants to cross the Aegean Sea because it is dangerous", the Coast Guard said. "The approach of not intervening against migrants wishing to leave Turkey remains in practice but this (new) approach covers sea crossings because of the dangers".

​In a series of tweets, the Turkish authorities also accused Greece of violating human rights, claiming that the Greek Coast Guard leaves refugees in the middle of the sea "in a desperate position".

President Trump made a surprise announcement on Friday night that Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., would become his new White House chief of staff, replacing acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

"I am pleased to announce that Congressman Mark Meadows will become White House Chief of Staff. I have long known and worked with Mark, and the relationship is a very good one," Trump tweeted.

Meadows has become one of Trump's most loyal defenders on Capitol Hill, particularly during the monthslong impeachment battle that ultimately ended with an acquittal in February.

Mulvaney became the acting White House chief of staff in January 2019, replacing Gen. John Kelly. Mulvaney was also serving as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director.

Trump also announced that Mulvaney would become the U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland.

"I want to thank Acting Chief Mick Mulvaney for having served the Administration so well. He will become the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. Thank you!" Trump said in a second tweet.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett's Twitter account was hacked early Saturday, posting an image of a Palestinian flag and the lyrics to Turkey's national anthem.

The tweets were swiftly deleted after being sent out at around 2 a.m.

"The hack lasted a number of minutes. The content was immediately erased and the account password was replaced," Bennett's office said in a statement. "The matter was brought to the authorized cyber elements in the security forces to be dealt with."

According to Channel 13 news, Israeli intelligence and cyber investigators were probing whether the hack also compromised Bennett's cellphone.

The defense establishment was working to determine if there was any security damage linked to the hacked, the report said.

The first tweet in the series posted on Bennett's account said "freedom for palestine..." with the Palestinian flag, and was followed by the entirety of Turkey's anthem in English, with images of the Turkish flag.

The last post credited the anthem's author, Turkish poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy.