A senior Iranian commander claimed his country has managed to take control of several US drones. As proof of Tehran’s claim, it has released some footage, apparently taken from the drones’ cameras.
“Seven to eight drones that had constant flights over Syria and Iraq were brought under our control and their intel was monitored by us and we could gain their first-hand intel,” Iran’s FARS news agency quoted Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

The general heads the air force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Iran’s powerful quasi-military force.

The agency released a video, which it called “one of the many proofs in support of General Hajizadeh's remarks.”

https://www.rt.com/news/452116-iran-clai...us-drones/

this is an act of war actually

Britain will not be able to replicate the European Union’s trade deal with Japan before it leaves the bloc on March 29, the government has said. It issued a document on Thursday setting out its progress on transitioning existing agreements. London is seeking to roll over around 40 deals. However, the government said in the document that it may not be able to replicate them all by exit day if Britain leaves without a deal. Other deals it said it was either unlikely or unable to replicate in time included those with Algeria and Turkey, Reuters reports.


https://www.rt.com/newsline/452097-brita...rade-deal/

ran will launch a three-day annual navy drill from Friday in a vast area of the Gulf and the Indian Ocean including a sensitive global shipping route, state TV said on Thursday. “The drill will be held in the waters of Strait of Hormuz, Makran coast, Oman Sea and the north of the Indian Ocean, covering 2 million square kilometers,” said Iran’s navy commander, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi. The exercise aims to evaluate the navy’s equipment, practice launching weapons and “enable the troops to gain readiness for a real battle,” AFP quoted him as saying. About a third of the world’s seaborne oil pass through the strait at the mouth of the Gulf every day.

https://www.rt.com/newsline/452099-iran-...vers-gulf/

Starting Thursday evening, Venezuela is closing its border with Brazil, President Nicolas Maduro has announced. He added the same measure may apply to the border with Colombia, though he does not want to order it.
The Venezuelan military was ordered to enforce the travel ban in airspace and on the sea until further notice, Maduro said during a televised address from a military headquarters.
https://www.rt.com/news/452105-venezuela...-colombia/

French President Emmanuel Macron’s vow to outlaw “anti-Zionism” as racism has less to do with actually fighting hate crimes and more to do with courting votes, according to French commenters.
“Anti-Semitism is hiding itself behind anti-Zionism,” Macron said Wednesday, speaking at the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (Crif) and announcing that France seeks to define “anti-Zionism as a modern-day form of anti-Semitism.”

Macron’s declaration comes after a spate of anti-Semitic incidents and attacks in France, ranging from swastikas daubed on Jewish shopfronts earlier this month, to the brutal murder of an elderly Holocaust survivor last year.

https://www.rt.com/news/452113-france-an...m-zionism/

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Thursday he is closing the country's border with Brazil amid tensions over foreign aid deliveries to the embattled country.
https://thehill.com/latino/430974-venezu...ith-brazil

Watson said in his video that YouTube's algorithm has helped facilitate the ability of pedophiles to trade social media contacts, provide links to "actual child porn" and trade "unlisted videos in secret."


https://thehill.com/policy/technology/43...pedophilia

As the virus spreads, local health systems are overwhelmed, mass panic ensues, exacerbated by media reports and a 13-day delay in correctly identifying the outbreak. The number of infected quickly rises to 2,000 cases, including doctors, at which point nurses go on strike. The first wave of 32,000 vaccinations arrive in Fiji just as another, larger attack occurs in a more populous country in Asia.
In the study’s worst-case scenario, only 50 percent of people infected with the disease are isolated and only half of the people they had contact with are tracked and vaccinated. This leads to a “catastrophic blow-out in the epidemic.”

https://www.rt.com/news/452079-smallpox-...te-planet/

Pyongyang’s special representative for the US, Kim Hyok-chol, arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday with a North Korean delegation, ahead of a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un next week, AFP reported. “A team of North Koreans arrived on a flight from Beijing,” a source at the airport said. Kim Hyok-chol was seen walking into a government guesthouse where other North Korean officials in town for pre-summit preparations were staying over the weekend. The official is expected to meet with his US counterpart, Stephen Biegun, who is en route to Hanoi, later in the week, to lay the groundwork for talks between Trump and Kim in Vietnam’s capital on February 27-28.


https://www.rt.com/newsline/452007-korea...oi-summit/

All-powerful tech giant Google has apologized for forgetting to tell users that it’s Nest Secure home security system had a built-in microphone. Nothing to see here, guys!
Google’s Nest Secure system allows users to connect dozens of motion detectors, magnetic door alarms and security cameras to a centralized control unit. The unit monitors the user’s home, sending alerts if anything is amiss. Its initial tech specifications mentioned nothing about the potential spy devices hidden inside.

Naturally, Google caused a stir when it announced earlier this month that owners could use their Nest Secure hub to ask Google Assistant questions like “activate my alarm,” “do I need an umbrella today?,” or “are you spying on my every move?”

https://www.rt.com/usa/452018-google-nes...icrophone/

If the US choses to deploy intermediate-range missiles in Europe, it would escalate the tension to a level similar to that of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis for no reason whatsoever, Russian President Vladimir Putin argued.
The Russian president met journalists on Wednesday night to elaborate on his earlier address on the state of the nation, in which he outlined Russia’s moves in response to a potential deployment of American intermediate-range missiles in Europe, among other things. Such a deployment will be made possible if US actually withdraws from the INF treaty over the next six months.

https://www.rt.com/news/452014-putin-mis...an-crisis/