Sputnik International

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The growing number of Americans has been expressing interest in the Orthodox faith in recent years, the dean of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia’s (ROCOR) Synodal Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in New York, Archpriest Andrei Sommer, told Sputnik.

BEIRUT (Sputnik) - Israeli air force planes carried out a series of strikes on several areas of southern Lebanon on Sunday night, a Lebanese military field source told Sputnik.

Russian forces have liberated the settlements of Popovka and Sidorovka in the Sumy Region, as well as Chugunovkain the Kharkov Region, Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said.

The US has repeatedly expressed concern over the fact that the mining and processing of critical minerals, which include rare earths, is dominated by China.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi outlined Beijing’s vision ahead of a planned summit between President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump.

Oil-rich Alberta is preparing for a possible independence referendum later this year, with supporters crediting President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for energizing their movement, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The US military surge around Venezuela that culminated in the military aggression and abduction of President Nicolas Maduro is approaching a $3 billion price tag, Bloomberg reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Italy has received an invitation to join the US-led Board of Peace as an observer and plans to accept, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday.

PRETORIA (Sputnik) - French President Emmanuel Macron has committed to doing everything in his power to overthrow Niger's current authorities, Nigerien President Abdourahamane Tchiani said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday that Europe has decided to go to war with Russia by 2030 and that preparations are already underway in certain European countries.