WORLD

Russian ships have reportedly been transporting huge quantities of Iranian-made ammunition and hundreds of artillery shells across the Caspian sea to resupply Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, reported The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, the cargo ships in the past six months have transferred over 300,000 artillery shells and 1 million rounds of ammo from Iran to Russia.

The most recent shipment, which occurred on 8 March, was loaded onto a 460-foot-long Russian ship Rasul Gamztoz. The WSJ report claims that the ship carried 1,000 containers with over 2,000 artillery shells.

As the infighting between armed forces wages on in Sudan, world nations stepped up evacuation efforts to get their citizens to safety. Several Indian citizens were among the people evacuated by French aircraft on Sunday, French Embassy in India confirmed over a tweet.

According to the embassy several Indians were included in the 388 people taken to safety by France on Sunday night. "French evacuation operations are under way. Last night, two military flight rotations evacuated 388 people of 28 countries, including Indian nationals," the tweet read. The update also carried the airlifted people being accompanied out of the airstrip.

China's Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong has lodged solemn representations with the South Korean ambassador over "erroneous" remarks by the South Korean president about Taiwan, China's foreign ministry said on Sunday.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said increased tensions around Taiwan were due to attempts to change the status quo by force, and he opposed such a change.

"The Taiwan issue is not simply an issue between China and Taiwan but, like the issue of North Korea, it is a global issue," Yoon said.

All NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will eventually become a member of the alliance, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday, adding that the main focus now is to ensure more support for the country.

On his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion just over a year ago, Stoltenberg said “Let me be clear, Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family. Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO,”.

“The time has come for the (alliance’s) leaders to define the prospects of Ukraine’s acquisition of NATO membership, to define the algorithm of Ukraine’s movement towards this goal, and to define security guarantees for our state for the period of such movement — that is, for the period before NATO membership,” he said.

Moments after the Starship Super Heavy lifted off from Starbase in Texas, the world's most powerful rocket ship exploded mid-air. The spacecraft was on an orbital test flight to demonstrate that it could escape Earth's mighty gravitational pull. 

SpaceX founder Elon Musk congratulated the Starship team after the lift-off and said that they have learned a lot from Thursday's flight that could not make it to orbit.

"Congrats SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months," Musk tweeted after the failed launch. The billionaire had already said that while success is not guaranteed, excitement is.