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Putin says a ‘real war’ is being waged against Russia in Victory Day speech

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President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russians were united in a "sacred" fight with the West over Ukraine but the strains of war were evident at one of the most pared back anniversaries of the victory over Nazi Germany in decades.

Putin has repeatedly likened the war in Ukraine - which he casts as a defensive move against a West which wants to carve up Russia - to the challenge Moscow faced when Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Reuters reported.

"The decisive battles for the fate of our Motherland have always become patriotic, all-national and sacred," the 70-year-old president told veterans and soldiers assembled on Red Square for the annual Victory Day parade.

"A real war has again been unleashed against our homeland," he said.

Putin hailed Russian forces in Ukraine as heroes who were fighting for the country's future against a West which, he said, had forgotten the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany.

"The whole country rallied to support our heroes. Everyone is ready to help, praying for you," he said of those taking part in what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation".

Putin cheered for "Russia, for our valiant Armed Forces, for victory!"

Cheers rang out across Red Square, with a gun salute and the Russian national anthem, though with a much curtailed show of military hardware - and no aviation. A single tank took part - a T-34, a type used in World War Two.

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, including many millions in Ukraine, but eventually pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945.

Kyiv and its allies accuse Putin of waging an unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine to seize land. They deny Putin's claim that the expansion of the NATO alliance to Russia's borders poses a threat to its security or justifies Moscow's invasion.

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Trump sworn in as 47th US president

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the inauguration. Tech tycoon and Trump’s biggest supporter Elon Musk also attended the ceremony.

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Donald Trump sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday at the Capitol Rotunda by Chief Justice John Roberts.

At the ceremony, Trump vowed to make America "greater, stronger and more exceptional" than ever before.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the inauguration. Tech tycoon and Trump's biggest supporter Elon Musk also attended the ceremony.

The inauguration ceremony took place indoors due to the cold temperatures in Washington, DC, unprecedented in decades.

In the meantime, Trump signed a barrage of executive orders following the ceremony.

The new orders include tougher anti-immigration measures as well as pardons for people convicted for their role in the Capitol Hill attack on January 6, 2021.

Ahead of his inauguration, Trump met at the White House with the outgoing president Joe Biden – a courtesy the Republican had denied his Democratic successor in 2021.

Earlier, Trump had attended a church service. Alongside, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google's Sundar Pichai and Apple's Tim Cook, some of the most powerful tech moguls in the world, attended the service.

Trump, 78, was a political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017 as the 45th president.

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Trump promises harsh immigration crackdown on inauguration eve

Trump repeated his campaign pledge to launch the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, which would remove millions of immigrants

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Donald Trump told thousands of roaring supporters he would impose severe limits on immigration on his first day in office, vowing to swiftly fulfill the central promise of his presidential campaign at a rally on Sunday inside a packed Washington arena a day before he returns to power.

"By the time the sun sets tomorrow, the invasion of our country will have come to a halt," he said to cheers at a "Make America Great Again Victory Rally" at the Capital One Arena.

Trump repeated his campaign pledge to launch the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, which would remove millions of immigrants. An operation of that scale, however, would likely take years and be hugely costly, Reuters reported.

The rally resembled the free-wheeling campaign speeches that have been a Trump staple since his first serious White House run in 2016, with the former and future president delivering a mix of boasts, false claims and sweeping promises to the delight of the crowd.

"This is the greatest political movement in American history, and 75 days ago, we achieved the most epic political victory our country has ever seen," he said. "Starting tomorrow, I will act with historic speed of strength and fix every single crisis facing our country."

The event marked his first major address in Washington since his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol by an angry mob of his supporters. 

Trump has said he will pardon many of the more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the attack.

Trump's rally, along with his inaugural address on Monday, could preview the tone he plans to adopt during his second White House term. 

In recent weeks, Trump has bewildered foreign allies by musing aloud about taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal and turning Canada into a U.S. state.

He vowed to repeal "every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden administration" within hours of assuming the presidency at noon.

A source familiar with the planning said Trump will take more than 200 executive actions on Monday.

Border security will figure prominently in Trump's first executive orders, another source said, including classifying drug cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations," declaring an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and moving toward reinstatement of the "Remain in Mexico" policy that forces non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. court dates.

Trump's deportation plans have unsettled immigrants subject to removal, including some who immigrant advocates say are law-abiding, long-term residents with U.S.-citizen spouses and children.

Trump said he would "get radical woke ideologies the hell out of our military" and order the military to construct a missile defense shield over the U.S., though he has yet to offer details on how to carry it out.

He also pledged to release classified documents relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and his brother Senator Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., both in 1968.

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Fuel tanker truck blast kills at least 70 in Nigeria

The accident in Niger state follows a similar blast in Jigawa state last October that killed 147 people, one of the worst such tragedies in Nigeria, Reuters reported.

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At least 70 people were killed and more injured in northern Nigeria on Saturday when a petrol tanker truck overturned, spilling fuel that exploded, the country's national emergency agency said.

The accident in Niger state follows a similar blast in Jigawa state last October that killed 147 people, one of the worst such tragedies in Nigeria, Reuters reported.

"As of this report, over 70 bodies have been recovered, 56 individuals are injured, and more than 15 shops have been destroyed," the National Emergency Management Authority said in a statement.

"The injured have been transported to hospitals for treatment, while recovery efforts for the deceased are ongoing."

A Reuters witness said residents and officials were digging graves with a view to bury the victims on Saturday night in accordance with Islamic rites. Niger is a largely Muslim state in Africa's most populous nation.

Earlier, Kumar Tsukwam, the Federal Road Safety Corps sector commander for Niger state, said most of the victims were impoverished local residents who had rushed to scoop up the spilled petrol after the truck overturned.

"Large crowd of people gathered to scoop fuel despite concerted efforts to stop them," Tsukwam said in a statement.

Tsukwam said firefighters had managed to put out the fire.

Such accidents have become common in Africa's largest oil producer, killing dozens of people in the country grappling with its worst cost of living crisis in a generation, read the report.

The price of petrol in Nigeria has soared more than 400% since President Bola Tinubu scrapped a decades-old subsidy when he came into office in May 2023.

Bologi Ibrahim, spokesperson to Niger state governor, said residents should give priority to their safety when petrol tanker trucks are involved in accidents.

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