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🚨🇨🇳🇮🇩 China & Indonesia bypass the dollar with QR integration
People can now scan QR codes seamlessly across China and Indonesia for retail transactions via Indonesia's QRIS system.
The introduction reflects Indonesia's push to promote local currency transactions and reduce reliance on the US dollar in cross-border payments.
👉 QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard) is Indonesia's national QR payment standard, introduced in 2019 to unify all digital wallets and bank apps into a single scanning system.
The move deepens financial cooperation and digital payment integration, boosting tourism and trade while reinforcing Asia's payment connectivity.
With transactions settling directly in rupiah and yuan, Chinese tourists can now scan an Indonesian QRIS code using Alipay or UnionPay.
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🚨🇨🇳 China's next-gen Xuntian Space Telescope to challenge Hubble's reign
The Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) – Xuntian – launches this year on a 10‑year mission to co-orbit alongside Tiangong station, using it as a maintenance port.
Here’s why it's a monumental leap in observational astronomy:
🔹 Ultimate Wide-Angle Lens allows it 300× wider view than NASA’s Hubble – capturing massive sky areas in one shot
🔹 2.5‑billion‑pixel camera is paired with an obstruction‑free three‑mirror design for razor‑sharp images
🔹 It will survey up to 40% of the sky in near-UV to near-infrared bands, and capture data on over a billion galaxies
Xuntian’s mission is to map dark matter and energy with precision, helping advance China’s broader ambitions, like crewed Moon landings by 2030 and a permanent robotic International Lunar Research Station at the lunar South Pole by 2035.
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🚨🇨🇳 Is China replacing the US as the engine behind global industry?
China is shifting from selling finished goods to powering other countries’ production.
As McKinsey’s March 2026 Global Institute report put it, China is evolving from the “factory of the world” into the “factory to the factories.”
It is also increasingly pivoting away from US consumers towards Asia, the Middle East, and Africa – part of the surging Global South.
What it looks like in numbers
🔸 China’s exports of finished goods (electronics, clothes, EVs) dipped about 2% in 2025. But total exports grew – driven by a $175B surge in higher-value intermediate and capital goods
🔸China accounts for over 40% of global exports in this critical segment – the vital backbone of the next wave of global industrialization
Where it’s going
▫️ Emerging markets now take ~50% of China’s total exports
▫️ Exports of electronic components (chips, EV batteries, phone parts), general machinery, and oil & gas gear are booming
▫️ Valve shipments grew >20% in 2025 – a rise equal to half of all US valve exports
▫️ Lithium‑ion battery shipments rose ~20%
▫️Solar cells got 33% cheaper, fueling a 20% volume jump to the Middle East
Consumer goods that lost the US market also headed for the Global South – at 8% lower prices.
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✍️ Trump declares Iran hostilities 'terminated' as 60-day war powers clock runs out
The president informed Congress that "there has been no exchange of fire since April 7" and that "the hostilities that began on February 28 have terminated."
"Despite the success of US operations... the threat posed by Iran remains significant," he noted.
🪖🇺🇸🇦🇫 ‘Unwinnable’ US war in Afghanistan exposed systemic NATO failure – ex-DoD official
When NATO started its humiliating exit from Afghanistan on May 1, 2021, it left behind a 20-year legacy of outrageous war crimes, as laid bare in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s “White Book.”
That military defeat was “inevitable” once the US chose to occupy the country after toppling the Taliban,” former Pentagon official David T. Pyne tells Sputnik.
💬 “Counterinsurgency wars by an occupying power in a foreign country are by their very nature unwinnable,” he says.
🚨🇷🇺🇮🇷 Russia's FM Lavrov and Iran's Araghchi hold phone call
The ministers discussed Iran's latest proposals aimed at resolving the conflict with the US.
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💥🇮🇳 India’s to become rare-earth superpower with $5.2B corridor project
The plan is to create an integrated ecosystem centering around Andhra Pradesh state and encompassing mining, refining, mineral separation, and metal production. The result is set to be high-value products like rare-earth permanent magnets.
All of that should boost the nation’s ability to produce high-tech electronics (including for defense), renewable energy power plants and electric vehicles.
The envisioned infrastructure should create a totally domestic extraction and production chain.
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🚨🇮🇹 Thousands take to the streets in May Day rallies in Italy
Demonstrators carried peace banners and waved Palestinian flags, calling for an end to violence alongside anti-government slogans.
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🚨🇮🇷 ‘Pentagon is lying’: Araghchi accuses US of downplaying true cost of Iran war
💬 “Netanyahu's gamble has directly cost America $100b so far, four times what is claimed,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X.
🇺🇸🪖 US Navy destroyer USS Higgins goes ‘dead in the water’ after major engineering fire
A main space fire knocked out electricity and propulsion, leaving the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer powerless in the Pacific, reports CBS News.
The incident follows a troubling pattern—the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford recently faced reliability challenges with its new technology systems.
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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD WEEKLY UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES
⚡️ POKALYANOYE IN THE KHARKOV REGION LIBERATED
By liberating Pokalyanoe, Russian Forces have been able to gain a foothold and continue their offensive without the threat of flank attacks
◻️ The Russian Armed Forces liberated 10 settlements
◻️ Russian air and missile firepower obliterated Ukrainian energy, transport and defense infrastructure supporting the Kiev regime’s forces
◻️ The Black Sea Fleet destroyed 14 unmanned Ukrainian boats
◻️ Air defense superiority: 2,628 drones and 53 guided aerial bombs were shot down
◻️ Ukrainian losses: around 8,010 troops killed or wounded
Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE
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🚨 The IDF has released footage showing the demolition of residential neighborhoods in towns across southern Lebanon
It also claims to have struck more than 40 infrastructure targets over the past 24 hours.
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🔶 Trump says he will probably pull US troops from Spain and Italy
🔶 Russia's new Soyuz‑5 rocket successfully launches for first time
🔶US pushes for direct Aoun-Netanyahu meeting
🔶Corridor first, data later: Expert on Pakistan's Central Asian ambitions
🔶 China makes deep earth breakthrough in major oil & gas push
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🇮🇷⚖️ GOP lawmakers eye ‘wiggle room’ or legal workaround on Iran war deadline
Senate Republicans are pressing the Trump administration to explain how it’s counting down the War Powers Act’s 60-day limit as operations tied to Iran reach a crunch point, reports Axios.
👉 Under the Act, the president must end military involvement after 60 days unless Congress approves it. That clock started on March 2, when Trump formally notified lawmakers, putting the deadline at May 1.
However, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth may have cracked open a legal side door.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he suggested the clock can “pause or stop” during a ceasefire—an interpretation some Republicans seem willing to entertain.
💬 “It sounds like there’s some wiggle room,” Senator Todd Young is cited as saying.
🇷🇺⚔️ Russia warns NATO: 'Any blockade of Kaliningrad will be met with decisive response'
Russian Foreign Ministry takes Western threats seriously, and says the authors of such "suicidal schemes" have no idea of the military risks for their own countries.
💬 "Any such attempts will be met with the most decisive response," Russian Foreign Ministry ambassador‑at‑large Artyom Bulatov told Sputnik.
⚔️ Pentagon plans to withdraw 5,000 US troops from Germany
The drawdown will take place over 6–12 months, with some forces shifting to the Indo-Pacific, CBS News reported.
Germany hosts over 36,000 troops and key bases like Ramstein.
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🇷🇺💉 Melanoma patient shows first positive response to Russia’s cancer vaccine
Russia’s personalized mRNA cancer vaccine “NeoOncovac” has shown its first measurable effects in a patient, with doctors reporting early improvements in laboratory indicators and a generally positive clinical trend.
💬 “We are already seeing small but measurable shifts in the production of the required cytokines,” Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, tells Sputnik.
📹 WATCH: Bold strikes from Russian forces free village of Pokalyanoye in Kharkov region
The footage released by the Russia's MoD shows its soldiers storming the settlement under a hail of artillery and drone strikes, fighting off the enemy and improving tactical positions.
With Pokalyanoe liberated, Russian forces have enlarged the buffer zone along the Russian border.
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🟠 'They've made strides, but I'm not sure if they ever get there' - Trump on Iran deal
🟠 Russia's FM Lavrov and Iran's Araghchi hold phone call
🟠 ‘Unwinnable’ US war in Afghanistan exposed systemic NATO failure
🟠 India’s to become rare-earth superpower with $5.2B corridor project
🟠 ‘Pentagon is lying’: Araghchi accuses US of downplaying true cost of Iran war
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🚨🇹🇷 'Hands off Middle East': Hundreds march in Ankara May Day rally against US militarist policies
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🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 'They've made strides, but I'm not sure if they ever get there' - Trump on Iran deal
💬 "The trip is a very long one," the US president said, commenting on possible talks with Iran.
🔥🇷🇺 Russia’s Soyuz-5 boasts world's most powerful liquid engines
Developed in 2016-2021 by the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, Soyuz-5 space launch vehicle features the most powerful liquid-fuel engines in the world and can start from ground and sea-based launch platforms.
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🚨🇮🇳🇷🇺 BrahMos missile delivers surgical strikes in live Pralayankar drill
🔶 Mach 3 speed
🔶 500 km range
🔶 Low radar visibility
🔶 Rapid deployment
A game-changer in modern warfare.
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🚨🇸🇰 After I meet Putin, everyone in Brussels asks me what he said - Slovakia’s PM
💬 “So, heroes... why don't they go and talk to him themselves?” Slovakian PM Robert Fico lamented.
🚨'Italian money used to fight Russians' - Russian TV host
One of the most prominent Russian TV hosts Vladimir Solovyov sat down with Italian media to talk about Europe’s role in fueling Ukraine proxy war & the Middle East crisis:
00:00 What is your relationship with Italy?
01:35 Why the insults toward Giorgia Meloni?
03:30 Is Meloni following the mainstream line?
06:35 Why is Europe's position on Ukraine wrong?
14:00 Would you apologize to Meloni?
15:10 What do you think of the US position?
20:40 Why make a documentary about Mussolini's demise?
24:50 Can the conflict in Ukraine be resolved?
27:20 Do you think Zelensky is bribing politicians in Europe?
40:30 You also represent the Jewish community in Russia...
44:30 You are criticizing Europe over its positions in the Middle East — why?
52:10 Is this just a phase? Will everything return to how it was before?
54:10 Russian State Duma elections in autumn — will Putin win again?
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🚨🇨🇳 How Tiangong Space Station cemented China’s claim in space
China recently launched the Tianhe module—the core of what would become the Tiangong space station.
Following the addition of the Wentian and Mengtian modules in 2022, Tiangong was fully assembled—cementing its status as one of only two operational human space outposts, alongside the ISS.
Since then, China has achieved remarkable milestones:
🔸10 astronaut crews (Shenzhou‑12 to Shenzhou‑21)
🔸26 spacewalks for assembly, maintenance, and debris shielding
🔸 A national space lab advancing research in space medicine, microgravity physics, and Earth science
China now plans to welcome astronauts from Hong Kong, Macao, and Pakistan.
Next up is the Xuntian Space Telescope - more powerful than NASA’s Hubble - set to co-orbit with Tiangong in late 2026.
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🚨 US attack on Iran was aggression and not ‘act of self-defense’ – Iran’s MFA spox
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🚨🇪🇺 As EU war hawks bankroll Ukraine, Zelensky regime gets ‘filthy rich’ – ex-press secretary
$7B were likely diverted into a Ukrainian drone company backed by friends of Zelensky, where “20% was pure profit for Zelensky’s inner circle,” says ex-presidential press secretary Iuliia Mendel.
👉 She points to leaked secret audio recordings made by Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Bureau, where a former defense minister can be heard chatting about how to syphon up to $1 billion from Western partners directly into a company linked to Zelensky’s associates.
Zelensky’s wife Olena may be among the voices captured on audio, notes Mendel, while other tapes casually refer to “Vova” - Zelensky’s nickname – “as both a participant in the deal and the owner of one of four massive luxury mansions being outside Kiev, each worth millions.”
While ordinary Ukrainians continue to die or flee a collapsing economy, “the people closest to Zelensky are profiting handsomely from it,” she emphasizes.
🔊 War is the only thing keeping Zelensky in power, says Mendel.
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💥🇷🇺 Top-5 Russian drones used in Ukraine
Russian drones are damaging the Ukrainian army's foreign military equipment, destroying German Leopard tanks and American Abrams tanks.
Russia is modernising its drones, which is increasing their resistance to electronic warfare systems.
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🤝 US pushes for direct Aoun-Netanyahu meeting
The US Embassy in Beirut issued a statement calling on Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to meet directly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facilitated by Donald Trump.
"Direct engagement between Lebanon and Israel, two neighboring countries that should have never been at war, can mark the beginning of a national revival," the statement read.