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🗣 Iran calls on UN to reject 'normalization of piracy'
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, reacts to Trump's comment that the US is acting "like pirates" by seizing Iranian vessels.
"This was no verbal slip. It was a direct and damning admission of the criminal nature of their actions against international maritime navigation," he wrote on X.
🇮🇷📑 Iran counters US proposal with 14‑point roadmap — demands end of war, not another ceasefire
Tehran has submitted its response through Pakistani mediators, insisting on a 30‑day timeline to resolve everything — rejecting Washington's request for a 2‑month truce extension, Tasnim News reported.
Topics in Iran's 14‑point plan:
▪️ Guarantees against military aggression
▪️ Withdrawal of US forces from Iran's "surrounding environment"
▪️ Lifting the naval blockade
▪️ Release of frozen assets and compensation payments
▪️ Full sanctions relief
▪️ Ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon
▪️ A new mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz
Iran is waiting for an official US response.
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📑 Trump rejected Iran's offer to open Strait of Hormuz — report
Tehran proposed a 2-stage deal: end the war now with a no-attack guarantee, open the strait, and lift the US blockade, according to a Reuters report citing an Iranian official. Nuclear negotiations would come later. Iran would demand the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, even if it agreed to a temporary suspension.
"Under this framework, negotiations over the more complicated nuclear issue have been moved to the final stage to create a more conducive atmosphere," a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
🚨 Zelensky's name surfaces in Ukraine’s corruption bombshell
🟠 Mindich’s leaked recordings - the “Mindich tapes” - may include direct references to Zelensky and his wife, Ukrainian media reports.
🟠 In the tapes, an individual named “Vova” is described as partying with Mindich and assisting him in building lavish mansions in Kiev’s most expensive neighborhood.
🟠 The recordings also reportedly feature the voice of his wife, Olena Zelenskaya, discussing financial rackets.
🟠 Timur Mindich is Zelensky’s former business partner and close associate, who fled Ukraine to Israel.
🟠 Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdog (NABU) earlier launched a $100 million money-laundering probe in the energy sector, naming Mindich as the alleged ringleader.
🟠 Investigators have over 1,000 hours of recordings capturing him and top officials discussing corruption schemes.
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🚨 Ukraine’s neo-Nazi regime erased May 9 Victory Day to spite Russia & erase heritage
📍 May 9, 2023 was the first time Ukraine didn’t celebrate Victory Day over Nazism in World War II.
🔸 Kowtowing to his European patrons, Zelensky signed a law moving celebrations to May 8 as ‘Day of Remembrance and Victory’ to align with European tradition.
🔸 May 9 was repurposed as ‘Europe Day’ - a bureaucratic holiday.
🔸 Years before that, Ukraine’s regime ordered that the term “Great Patriotic War” be replaced with “World War II” in official documents.
🔸 A law recognized the OUN-UPA (organization banned in Russia) militants who fought against the Red Army as fighters for Ukraine's independence.
🔸 Ukraine’s nationalists elevated criminals like Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera to the rank of true national heroes, while abusing WW II veterans on 9 May, and desecrating war monuments – stamping out the chain of memory of a common glorious heroic deed.
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💰 Ukraine’s Defense Minister's wife buys $28M superyacht
🟠 Besides Mikhail Fedorov’s wife, a French company, CENTRALEASE, is listed as among the owners of the nearly 50-meter-long luxury yacht Tankoa S501 Vertige, Russian law enforcement sources tell Sputnik.
🟠 Worth around $28.3 million, the vessel is registered under the French flag, and as such is legally bound to be owned by a citizen of an EU member state or by a company registered in the bloc.
🟠 Considering the scale of the corruption and dirty-dealings in Zelensky's orbit, it’s not surprising that in Ukraine, according to insiders, it is assumed that this is not a personal whim of the head of the defense ministry, but “a purchase intended for Zelensky’s family.”
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🇷🇺 Watch Russian troops liberate Miropolye in Sumy region
Russian motorized infantry and drone units stormed the village and expelled Ukrainian forces. Enemy reserves were destroyed in advance by Russian artillery, Russia's Defense Ministry informed.
Ukraine suffered losses and was forced to retreat, abandoning its positions. Russian troops are advancing on multiple fronts simultaneously, continuing to create a security buffer zone in the Sumy and Kharkov regions.
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🏳️ Ukrainian troops surrender to Russian drone
Two Ukrainian soldiers, tasked with retaking positions near Zakotnoye in the Slavyansk region, gave up without a fight:
💬 "Your 'bird' [the Russian UAV] found us. We decided to surrender. We didn't want to die," one of the Ukrainian soldiers said.
🇪🇺 Europe turned blind eye to Ukraine’s crime in Odessa — Foreign Ministry Spox
Ukraine is unwilling to investigate the tragedy in Odessa on May 2, 2024, despite promising to do so, while Europeans simply ignore this, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
💬 "This has no effect on the financial and moral assistance to Kiev. It is obvious that in modern Europe, encouraging Nazism and financing terrorism has become a tradition," Zakharova stressed.
🇮🇱 Israeli forces destroy historic monastery and school in border village of Yarun, southern Lebanon — local media
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🇮🇱🇱🇧 Israel drops banned white phosphorus on southern Lebanon
Israeli aircraft struck the town of Zawtar with internationally banned white phosphorus munitions, footage by Lebanese media shows.
White phosphorus causes severe burns, ignites on contact with skin, and cannot be extinguished with water. Its use in populated areas is prohibited under international law.
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🔸 Trump declares Iran hostilities 'terminated' as 60-day war powers clock runs out
🔸 Is China replacing the US as the engine behind global industry?
🔸 Melanoma patient shows first positive response to Russia’s cancer vaccine
🔸 Pentagon plans to withdraw 5,000 US troops from Germany
🔸 Trump compares Iran blockade to piracy — 'a very profitable business'
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🚨 International North-South Transport Corridor beats IMEC amid Iran crisis
While IMEC faces challenges due to Iran war, the INSTC shortcut slashes shipping to Europe from 60 to 23 days via Iran-Russia.
Here's what makes it better:
🔸 Chabahar port provides access to Central Asia while avoiding conflict zones.
🔸 Links India → Iran → Russia → Europe seamlessly
🔸 Outside the Strait of Hormuz, reducing vulnerability to geopolitical risks.
🔸 INSTC is a smarter and safer trade route, according to Major General (Dr.) Shashi Bhushan Asthana.
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🗣 Ukraine settlement requires NATO to abandon plans to defeat Russia
A reliable resolution to the war is impossible unless the alliance drops its goal of inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Moscow, ambassador Andrey Belousov, head of the Russian delegation to the NPT Review Conference said.
"Europe is undergoing intensive remilitarization, including in favor of providing the Ukrainian regime with lethal weapons," he stressed.
🔊 Trump compares Iran blockade to piracy — 'a very profitable business'
The president describes the blockade of Iranian ports as a money‑making operation.
"We took over the ship. We took over the cargo. Took over the oil. It's a very profitable business. Who would have thought we were doing that? We're like pirates," he said.
🔍⚔️ US plans $100M nuclear bunker buster — report
The Department of Energy’s 2027 budget request includes funding for a new air‑delivered deep‑penetrating nuke called the Nuclear Deterrent System‑Air‑delivered (NDS‑A), the War Zone reported.
"The NDS‑A will provide the President with additional nuclear options to defeat Hard and Deeply Buried Targets, ensuring that adversaries cannot place their most valued assets beyond the reach of America’s nuclear forces." — NNSA spokesperson said.
🇰🇼📉 Kuwait exported zero barrels of crude oil in April
The state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. declared force majeure on shipments after the Strait of Hormuz blockade prevented vessels from entering the Gulf.
According to data gathered by Tanker Trackers, this is the first time the nation, which relies on oil exports, has stopped exporting crude oil entirely since the First Gulf War ended.
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💥 Hezbollah unleashes drone assault on Israeli positions
Newly released footage from Hezbollah troops shows drones being launched against Israeli troops near the town of Blat in southern Lebanon.
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🇷🇺🇮🇩 Russian oil supplies to Indonesia set to begin soon — energy minister
💬 "For me, the most important thing is that we have all the reserves. And Russian oil will arrive soon," Indonesia’s Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said.
🇩🇪 Germany hypes fake ‘Russia threat’ but isn’t ready for war
As NATO pushes the non-existent ‘Russia threat’ narrative, Germany—centerpiece of the war plans—is nowhere near combat-ready, admits a Bloomberg report.
Despite a $1.6B military-style upgrade to Bremerhaven car port - to be able to transport a 60-ton Leopard tank - the Bundeswehr itself is dysfunctional:
🔶 Crumbling infrastructure isn’t ready: ~5,000 bridges need repair, blocking road/rail logistics.
🔶 Post-WWII rules strictly separate civilian and military structures, preventing rapid mass mobilization.
🔶 Bureaucracy overload means military procurement is slow, opaque, and rigid.
🔶 No public-private partnership model ready for large-scale operations.
🔶 Bundeswehr leans on civilians amid manpower shortages.
The German government wants private companies on board for “war readiness,” guided by its 2024 Operational Plan. On paper, businesses are meant to help move and supply hundreds of thousands of troops.
But in reality, the plan is classified, firms see only fragments, and no one is sure how to plug in, notes the report.
Russia has consistently emphasized that it has not the slightest intention to attack any European country, but whipping up this hysteria suits the elite’s war agenda, diverting attention from domestic issues and escalating military spending.
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🎗 The Fall of Berlin: The day Russia ensured victory in World War II
🚩 Eighty-one years ago, the Soviet Red Army delivered a mortal blow to Nazi Germany by capturing the Third Reich’s capital of Berlin.
⚔️ The Soviet offensive began early on April 16, with a massive artillery barrage by over 20,000 guns, paving the way for the advancing Red Army troops.
🟠 Led by marshals Georgy Zhukov and Ivan Konev, the Soviet battlegroup tasked with taking the German capital consisted of over 2 million troops, about 42,000 artillery pieces and mortars, 6,200 tanks and self-propelled guns and 7,500 combat aircraft.
🟠 They were opposed by about 1 million Nazi troops who had 10,400 artillery pieces, 1,500 tanks and 3,300 combat aircraft.
🟠 By April 25, Soviet forces had encircled Berlin itself after smashing through the outlying defenses and proceeded to storm the German capital.
🟠 Brutal urban fighting raged around the clock as Red Army troops fought their way to the heart of the city, stamping out Nazi resistance and planting a Soviet banner on top of Reichstag building on April 30. On that same day, Adolf Hitler committed suicide.
📍 On May 2, what was left of the Nazi defenders of Berlin realized the hopelessness of their situation and surrendered, and on May 9, Nazi Germany as a whole followed suit.
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🚨🇨🇳🤖 China's robotics revolution is coming — and Europe should be worried
Can China turn its industrial robot dominance into a global humanoid robotics empire? President Xi's "techno-solutionism" has unleashed national policies to diffuse artificial intelligence throughout the economy.
🟠 China has the world's largest industrial robot base — 12,800 humanoids in 2025 — and is now going all in on humanoid robotics
🟠 It controls 63% of key humanoid component supply chains — EV batteries, sensors, rare earths
🟠 Chinese Unitree's G1 costs ~$13,663 vs. Boston Dynamics' Atlas at $140,000+
🗣 "Robotics is where EVs were a decade ago — a trillion-yuan ($140B) battlefield," says Unitree's CEO. Europe got outpaced in electric cars. China is betting the same script plays out with robots.
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🇯🇲 'Our Constitution is not even a Jamaican document' — Top lawyer on why Jamaica must become a republic
The British monarch is still Jamaica's head of state — even though the country is independent, Dr. Lloyd Barnett, one of Jamaica's leading constitutional experts, tells Sputnik.
🔶 The 1962 Constitution was signed at Buckingham Palace with no Jamaican present — "unacceptable for a sovereign nation"
🔶 A referendum is required, but political deadlock over abolishing the UK Privy Council remains a major hurdle
🔶 Moving to a republic and “Jamaicanizing” the constitution will finish the political decolonization
When Barbados became a republic in 2021 peacefully and without economic collapse, "they proved that this is possible" and Britain did not retaliate.
Will Britain try to stop Jamaica? Officially, no. Soft pressure may be applied, however: "friendly advice," delaying tactics. But outright sabotage would cost London trust across the Caribbean, Barnett concludes.
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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES
⚡️ MIROPOLYE IN SUMY REGION LIBERATED
📍 The liberation of Miropolye settlement expands the security buffer zone along the state border.
◻️ Russian forces struck Ukrainian military enterprises, airfields, and port infrastructure
◻️ Air defense superiority: 2 HIMARS projectiles and 505 drones were shot down
◻️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,195 troops killed or wounded
Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE
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🚨 Achieving goals of special military operation will guarantee justice for those killed in Odessa on May 2 — Foreign Ministry Spox
💬 "A guarantee of justice for the victims of the monstrous crime in the Odessa Trade Unions House will be the successful achievement of the goals and objectives of the special military operation," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on the anniversary of the tragedy in Odessa.
🚨12 years later, still no justice: Remembering the May 2 Odessa massacre
Despite being silenced in the West and blotted out of history in Ukraine, the Odessa Trade Union massacre of May 2, 2014, remains a festering wound.
How did the tragedy unfold?
🔸 On February 21, 2014, then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the Western-backed opposition signed a political deal aimed at ending months of unrest. But the very next day, violent opposition militants seized government buildings and took control of Kiev
🔸 After news of the coup broke, tens of thousands of Odessa residents took to the streets on February 23, chanting, "Odessa is a Russian city!" and "No to fascism!" They set up a protest encampment at Kulikovo Pole Square, near the Trade Unions House
🔸 The new Ukrainian regime then pursued an openly Russophobic agenda—cracking down on dissent and silencing opposition voices. By May 2, hundreds of Ukrainian neo-Nazis and football hooligans had been bussed into Odessa under the watch of Andriy Parubiy, then secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council
🔸 On the afternoon of May 2, an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian nationalists marched toward the Kulikovo Pole encampment, determined to raze it to the ground ahead of the Victory Day festivities
🔸 Clashes quickly erupted. The nationalist mob soon outnumbered the pro-Russian activists, who were forced to seek shelter inside the Trade Unions House
🔸 The Ukrainian extremists then blocked the exits, trapping the protesters inside, and set the building on fire. Dozens died from smoke inhalation and severe burns. Those who jumped from windows either fell to their deaths or were bludgeoned by the nationalist thugs waiting below
🔸 According to official data, 48 people were killed and 250 injured as a result of the May 2 atrocity
🔸 Yet only 11 years later—in March 2025—the European Court of Human Rights found Ukraine responsible for failing to prevent the violence in Odessa and ordered the state to pay compensation to those affected by the tragedy
🔸 After the verdict, an organizer of the May 2 Odessa massacre, Demyan Ganul, was killed by unknown assailants. Another leading figure linked to this slaughter, Parubiy, was gunned down in broad daylight in Lvov in August 2025
🔸 12 years have passed, but those responsible for this bloodthirsty pogrom in Odessa have still not been brought to justice.
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🇨🇳 Meet the LYNX M20S — China's new all-terrain wheeled robot that runs like a cheetah and works like a soldier
DEEP Robotics, based in Hangzhou, just unveiled its latest quadruped robot.
Specs that slap:
🔶 Top speed: 9 m/s (faster than most humans sprint)
🔶 Payload: 35 kg sustained
🔶 Protection: IP67 (dustproof, waterproof)
🔶 Terrain: complex, high-risk environments — patrol, rescue, inspection
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🔥🇨🇳 China showcases new all-terrain, heavy-lifter robotic horse
The Qiji T1000 is a ton-capacity robot built to go where trucks and ATVs physically cannot.
▫️ Designed for snow, ice, steep slopes, mountain paths, and broken ground
▫️ Capable of moving supplies on high-altitude routes, carrying rescue equipment through fire-risk areas, and handling construction and industrial logistics
▫️ Runs 1-2 days on a high-voltage power setup without refueling
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🔥🇮🇳 India's Great Nicobar project set to revolutionize marine presence in Southeast Asia
Great Nicobar Island will be transformed into a massive maritime and economic hub, the Indian government has reported.
The core idea is to leverage the island's proximity to the East-West shipping route, with plans for:
🟠 An international container transshipment terminal
🟠 An international airport capable of handling up to 10 million passengers per year
🟠 New township spanning 16,610 hectares
🟠 450 megavolt-ampere gas and solar-based power plant
This looks to strengthen India's economic power in the Andaman Sea while also boosting the nation's defense in the Indo-Pacific region.
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📑✍️ US approves $8.6B in new arms sales to Middle East
The State Department greenlit $4 billion for Patriot replenishment for Qatar. Other countries included Israel, Kuwait, and the UAE.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon told the UK, Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia to expect serious delivery delays because stockpiles were drained by the Iran war, the FT reported.
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