Sudan’s military seizes palace in key battle against RSF

"Sudan’s military has recaptured the Republican Palace in Khartoum, marking a significant victory against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Footage aired by Al-Arabiya on Friday showed soldiers inside the palace, which appeared partly in ruins. The army, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, has made steady advances in recent months." AfricaNews

U.S. Targets Chinese “Teapot” Refinery in Trump’s Iran Sanctions Blitz

 "The United States has escalated its economic war on Iran by sanctioning a Chinese “teapot” refinery and a network of oil traders.

This marks the fourth wave of penalties since President Donald

Trump relaunched his “maximum pressure” campaign in February. Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd., located in China’s Shandong province, faces U.S. wrath for purchasing $500 million worth of Iranian crude.
This highlights Beijing’s role as Tehran’s top oil buyer. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also hit the refinery’s CEO, Wang Xueqing, 19 shipping entities, and a Chinese oil terminal tied to Iran’s “shadow fleet,” including vessels like the Panama-flagged Aurora Riley.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called these deals “the primary lifeline” for Iran, accused of funding terrorism and nearing nuclear capability. The sanctions link the oil to Iran’s military and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, recently labeled terrorists by Washington."

RioTimes

Ukrainian air strike detonates ordnance depot at Russia’s Engels-2 airbase

"Ukraine used long-range missiles or drones to destroy a cruise missile stockpile at Engels-2, a Russian airbase that houses part of Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet." NV

USAID Censorship Scheme Exposed; Global Engagement Center Worked With UK Government And Media Firms To Deploy AI Tools

"America First Legal (AFL) released explosive new documents obtained through ongoing litigation against the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), exposing a vast, government-backed censorship operation to silence Americans under the guise of “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation.” 

The documents reveal a disturbing alliance between the GEC, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the British Foreign, Commonwealth, Development Office (FCDO), and media censorship organizations, all working in lock-step to manipulate public discourse, control media narratives, and suppress free speech.

The GEC, which was forced to shut down in December 2024, was designed to “combat foreign disinformation abroad.” However, through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, AFL uncovered that the GEC engaged in state-sponsored propaganda, repeatedly using willing participants from private media organizations. Further, AFL’s lawsuit against the GEC revealed that USAID had created an internal “Disinformation Primer” that explicitly praised private sector censorship strategies and recommended further censorship tactics.
The new documents released by AFL show: The GEC and USAID coordinated efforts to censor “COVID-19 misinformation” and counter “COVID-19 propaganda.”
The GEC collaborated with officials in the British Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office on disinformation efforts.
The GEC coordinated with private media censorship firms, including Poynter and NewsGuard, which provided samples of its Misinformation Fingerprints artificial intelligence (AI) tool, designed to identify and rate websites based on their perceived “misinformation.”
The House Small Business Committee found that Park Advisors received a GEC cooperative agreement award of more than $6 million. Park Advisors then distributed subawards to several companies, including NewsGuard, the Atlantic Council, and the Global Disinformation Index, a project funded by George Soros that generated lists of conservative websites it urged advertising companies to boycott. Together, these groups, not subject to international restrictions like GEC was, tested disinformation products, which led to the creation of the “Disinfo Cloud,” an unclassified platform used by the U.S. federal government, the European Union, the U.K. government, the Australian government, and the Estonian government “to counter adversarial propaganda and disinformation.”
Skibinski showed samples of the new GEC/U.S Cybercommand Testbed Pilot (Misinformation Fingerprints). This program utilized artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor “misinformation.” The House Small Business Committee report details that “there was no firewall in place to ensure that Federal resources were not being used to develop and promote technologies that would have domestic impacts.” 

ZeroHedge

166 combat clashes on frontline in past day

"The Ukrainian Defense Forces and Russian troops engaged in 166 combat clashes over the past day.
Eight attacks took place in the Kupiansk sector yesterday. Our defenders repelled the enemy's assault in the areas of Pishchane, Ivanivka, Kruhlyakivka, Zahryzove and in the direction of Petropavlivka.

The enemy attacked in the Lyman sector 22 times. They tried to break into our defense in the areas of Novyi, Novomykhailivka and near Yampolivka, Kopanky and Nadiya.
In the Siverskyi sector, the enemy made three attempts to advance in the area of Bilohorivka, as well as in the directions of Verkhnekamianske and Ivan-Daryivka.
In the Kramatorsk sector, the occupants attacked four times in the areas of Minkivka, Stupochok, and in the direction of Oleksandr-Shultyno and Predtechyno.
In the Toretsk sector, the enemy made 25 attacks near Dachne, Druzhba and Toretsk.
In the Pokrovsk sector, our defenders stopped 53 aggressor's assault actions in the areas of Panteleymonivka, Oleksandropil, Zelene Pole, Tarasivka, Yelizavetivka, Novotositske, Promin, Lysivka, Pokrovsk, Zvirove, Kotlyne, Udachne, Preobrazhenka and Andriivka, as well as in the directions of Muravka and Kotlyarivka.
In the Novopavlivka sector, the enemy conducted 15 attacks in the direction of Shevchenko and in the areas of Vilnoye Pole, Kostiantynopol and Rozlyv.
In the Orikhiv sector, the occupation forces advanced four times towards the positions of our defenders in the direction of Shcherbaky and Stepove." Ukrin

Russia pounded Ukraine’s Black Sea city as the Czech president visited

"Russia pounded Ukraine’s Black Sea city of Odesa late on Thursday with one of its biggest drone attacks, injuring three teenagers and sparking fires as the Czech president visited, Ukrainian officials said." ms

Ukrainian troops advance in Belgorod while Russia pushes near Toretsk and Pokrovsk

"Ukrainian forces have recently advanced in western Belgorod Oblast, Russia, while Russian troops are pushing forward near Toretsk, Pokrovsk, Velyka Novosilka, and in Kursk Oblast." NV

Key Russian gas transit point to Europe goes up in flames

"Videos of a fireball rising into the sky at a recently closed gas pumping and metering station in the town of Sudzha in Russia's Kursk Oblast were posted by Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels.
The station was the only point through which some 40 million m3/day of Russian gas passed through Ukraine to Europe until a transit agreement expired on January 1. The second transit point, the Sohranivka gas interconnector, was closed in 2022." NV

Trump Is Concerned About Minority Persecution & Caliphate Threats In Bangladesh

 "Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently told Indian media during her trip to the country that Trump 2.0 is concerned about the persecution of minorities and growing caliphate threats in Bangladesh. That country’s interim authorities predictably denied that either is a problem, which prompted a State Departmentspokesman to remind them that “We’re watching.” This back-and-forth shows that the future of their ties is no longer as clear-cut as before.
Tulsi’s comments show that the US is no longer giving Bangladesh’s new rulers a blank check. They might even sanction them if the situation deteriorates.
Hasina was a heavy-handed secular leader who was overthrown by Islamist-instigated street violence and the “Arab Spring” precedent shows that such regime changes usually end badly with time.
Bangladesh has long struggled to contain radical Islamist sentiment within its society, but the new authorities no longer share their predecessors’ threat assessment of such movements, instead partnering with them to legitimize the new order that came to power after Hasina fled to India. That’s problematic from the US’ perspective and is made all the more worrying by reports that Bangladesh has since improved its ties with Pakistan, including in the military and possibly also intelligence domains too." 

ZeroHedge

Huge fire closes UK’s Heathrow Airport all day Friday after massive power outage — global flight schedules disrupted

"London’s Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest in the world, shut down operations all of Friday — disrupting hundreds of flights across the globe — after a massive fire at a nearby electrical substation cut off power to the airport.

Flyers are being advised to avoid the airport for the entire day as planes had already begun being diverted away from the British travel hub in the early morning hours.
“Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage,” Heathrow said in a statement posted to X. “To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March.” More than 1,300 flights are affected by the emergency closure, with potentially over 100,000 people having their travel plans altered." NYP