Russian glide bombs are complicating Kiev's plans for a grand offensive, the UK outlet said

Russia is using bombs fitted with wings to bypass Ukraine's air defenses and pummel forces assembling for the much-heralded spring offensive, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. Kiev is citing this new development to once again demand F-16 fighters from the West.

"Russia's newest weapon is changing the course of Ukraine war," the Telegraph headline proclaimed, referring to glide bombs such as the FAB-500. Kiev officials have estimated that the Russian Air Force is using at least 20 such bombs per day.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yury Ignat said the weapon has been used "intensely" for the past month, and described it as a "serious threat."

Newt Gingrich obliterates pathetic attempts to defend Biden crime family

The walls are closing in on the Biden Crime Family and liberals are losing their minds. Far left Fox News contributor Juan Williams is exhibit A of this new reality.

Jim Hoft reported Sunday that Rep. Comer announced during an interview with Maria Bartiromo that he will hold a press conference on Wednesday with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). During the press conference, Comer said he will disclose specific Biden family bank records which could indicate alleged bribery from foreign adversaries.

"Senator Grassley and I received a tip on a whistleblower. Senator Grassley was the lead in this. We reviewed documents from the legally protected whistleblower, a highly credible whistleblower that would implicate Joe Biden in a pay-per-play scheme in trying to set up a deal to receive funds [for him] and his family in exchange for foreign policy decisions," Comer told Bartiromo.

Williams was debating former House Speaker Newt Gingrich regarding the Biden family on Fox News Sunday and things immediately went off the rails for the liberal.

Argentina recently announced that it will be adopting the Chinese yuan, rather than the US dollar, for trade with the Asian giant - the latest development in a wider global process of de-dollarization.

This comes as Argentina is currently pushing to formally join BRICS, for which it says it has the support of Brazil, India, and for which Russia and China have hinted at possible support in the past. Argentina is South America's second-largest economy with significant potential to contribute to BRICS, but the country is also in the grips of an increasingly extreme economic crisis with runaway inflation that's hitting new highs every week.

Can a multipolar financial system help struggling economies like Argentina? Can this move away from the dollar, and membership of BRICS, save the country from potential disaster? Yes, but only if Argentina stops flip-flopping on economic and foreign policy decision-making.

Argentina's economic turmoil has reached desperate levels, a result of debt slavery to the International Monetary Fund, lack of access to dollars, and a historic drought that has battered crucial agricultural exports. While the official exchange rate with the US dollar is 222 pesos for 1 USD, the 'Dollar Blue', the unofficial rate offered on the black market, reached up to 500 Pesos in recent days. For context, in 2014 under leftist President Cristina Kirchner, the official rate was 8 pesos for 1 USD and the unofficial rate hovered around 12-14 pesos.

In the Great Power competition, everything is connected: Uncertain negotiations between Russia and NATO over Ukraine may be impacted by Turkiye's post-election pivot and Syria's return to the Arab League.
West Asia is a region that is currently experiencing a great deal of geopolitical activity. Recent diplomatic efforts, initiated by Russia and overseen by China, secured a long-elusive Iranian and Saudi Arabian rapprochement, while Syria's return to the Arab League has been welcomed with great fanfare. The diplomatic flurry signals a shift away from the Imperial "Divide and Rule" tactics that have been used for decades to create national, tribal, and sectarian rifts throughout this strategic region.

The proxy war in Syria, backed by the Empire and its terror outfits - including the occupation of resource-rich territories and mass theft of Syrian oil - continues to rage on despite Damascus having gained the upper hand. That advantage, weakened in recent years by a barrage of western economic killer sanctions, is now growing exponentially: the Syrian state was further bolstered by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's recent official visit - pledging to expand bilateral ties - on the eve of Syria's return to the Arab League.

"Assad must go" - a meme straight out of collective western hubris - in the end, did not go. Imperial threats notwithstanding, those Arab states that had sought to isolate the Syrian president came back to praise him all over again, led by Moscow and Tehran.

Syria is extensively discussed in informed circles in Moscow. There's a sort of consensus that Russia, now concentrated in the "all or nothing" proxy war against NATO, will not currently be able to impose a Syrian peace solution, but that doesn't preclude the Saudis, Iranians, and Turks fronting a Russian-led deal.

Had it not been for the aggressive behavior of Straussian neo-cons in the Washington Beltway, a comprehensive multi-territorial peace could have been achieved, including everything from Syria's sovereignty, to a demilitarized zone in the Russian western borderlands, stability in the Caucasus, and a degree of respect for international law.

However, such a deal is unlikely to materialize, and instead, the situation in West Asia is likely to worsen. This is due in part to the fact that the North Atlantic has already shifted its focus to the South China Sea.

Taiwan is in talks with the Pentagon for half a billion US dollars in free weapons following delays in much-needed arms deliveries, the island's defence minister said on Monday.

Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told the Taiwanese legislature that the talks had been under way for at least four months, confirming for the first time that the United States would send the free munitions.

"These extra weapons will be given to us for free and will not be deducted from the purchase list which has been delayed by the US," Chiu said when pressed by lawmakers on the deal.

In the current era of great power competition, the main goals of the U.S. Defense Department are to modernize military forces and forge alliances with partners in order to deter China.

In the space domain, the plan is to be in a state of "perpetual competition," said Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force.

Saltzman, who assumed command of the Space Force in November, spoke about the security challenges in the space domain March 7 at the Air & Space Forces Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado.

Saltzman said China is developing "remarkable capabilities on orbit," and in response, the U.S. has to figure out how to protect its space assets while also deterring rivals from launching attacks that could make outer space unusable for human activities.

The U.S. will provide $1.2 billion more in long-term military aid to Ukraine to further bolster its air defenses as Russia continues to pound Ukraine with drones, rockets and surface-to-air missiles, U.S. officials said Monday.

The aid package is expected to be announced on Tuesday and the money will be provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Unlike the U.S. equipment, weapons and ammunition that are more frequently sent to Ukraine from Pentagon stocks — so they can be delivered quickly — this money is to be spent over the coming months or even years to ensure Ukraine's future security needs.

The assistance initiative will fund HAWK air-defense systems, air-defense munitions and drones for air defense. It will also buy artillery, rockets, satellite imagery assistance, and funding for ongoing maintenance and spare parts for a variety of systems, according to the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid package has not yet been formally announced.

Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, in an interview with Yahoo News published Friday addressed the recent string of assassinations and cross-border attacks on Russian territory.

In reference to the August car bombing death of Daria Dugina (Yahoo underscored in its lead-in that "U.S. intelligence has attributed Dugina's killing to the Ukrainian government"), Gen. Budanov offered the following ultra-provocative statement:

"we've been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine."

To an alien from another planet, where curiosity starts with naivety, the question is being asked why earthlings calling themselves the state media of Russia report analysis of an attack on the most obvious symbol of their state from two Americans who have spent their active service careers sworn to defeat what that symbol stands for — one of them in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the other in the US Marine Corps (USMC).

Having retired years ago, and lacking access to the secret CIA and USMC intelligence which was once their stock in trade, everything they know about Russia comes - they sometimes admit - from Russia.

The naïve but curious alien might therefore be forgiven for asking the earthlings to explain why the following headlines in the Russian state news agency Sputnik could possibly be believable - at least to an alien: "Former CIA Officer Reveals Possible Motive Behind Kremlin Drone Attack"; and "Scott Ritter on Kremlin Strike: Zelensky Gov 'Now a Legitimate Target'".

How could these two retired warfighting soldiers against Russia possibly know?

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) arrested Gonzalo Lira, a US-Chilean national residing in Kharkiv, on suspicions of harbouring pro-Russian sentiments. This marks the second time Lira has been apprehended by the SBU. Lira, an author and filmmaker who relocated to Kharkiv years ago and married a Ukrainian, was initially detained in April 2022 but was released after a week without charges. He was subsequently instructed not to leave the city and prohibited from discussing his arrest.

As reported by Ukrainian media, the SBU's statement accuses Lira of publicly justifying Russia's armed aggression, denying or glorifying supposed Russian war crimes, and undermining Ukraine's top military and political leadership and Defence Forces.

On May 5, the SBU website published a statement in Ukrainian titled "SBU detained a foreign blogger in Kharkiv who denied the crimes of the Russian Federation and insulted Ukrainian defenders." The statement alleges that Lira was among the first to support Russian invaders and glorify their war crimes. It also accuses him of discrediting Ukraine's military-political leadership and Defense Forces. The SBU claims that Lira filmed provocative videos featuring Ukrainian defenders and insulted them.