🌍🚀 Sixty-two years ago today, on 12 April 1961, the first successful manned space flight was conducted by the USSR. The first human being to travel to space was 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

▪️Now Russia is preparing to establish a new orbital station and to study the planets and depths of the Solar System through automatic stations and telescopes.

🌕 In July, Russia is expected to launch Luna 25, the first lunar mission in almost 50 years, which will land in the south polar region of the Moon. The main objectives of the mission are to study composition of the polar regolith, and the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere.

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📹 Russian forces eliminated a Ukrainian tank column with a Kornet anti-tank missile system with thermobaric ammunition in the Ugledar direction (video courtesy of RVvoenkory)

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What would Indian 🇮🇳 cities look like if they were living people? The idea seems pretty far-out.

This is where AI technology comes in handy to help visualize even the craziest of dreams.

Check out our video if you do not believe it!

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Sweden to Hold Biggest Military Drill Since Cold War

Starting on April 24, Sweden will conduct its largest military exercise in over 30 years, involving around 26,000 personnel from 14 countries, including the US, UK, and various European nations such as Finland, Poland, Norway, and Denmark.

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⚡️ US working on 'universal' genetically engineered bioweapon, Russian parliamentary investigation says

Washington is working on a "universal" genetically engineered bioweapon designed to cause severe damage to enemies equivalent to that of a "nuclear winter," a Russian parliamentary commission investigating US biolabs in Ukraine has concluded.

💬 "The US aims to develop a universal genetically engineered biological weapon capable of infecting not only people, but animals as well as agricultural crops. Its use involves, among other things, the goal of inflicting large-scale and irreparable economic damage on the enemy," the commission wrote in its final report.

According to the commission, a key difference between traditional bioweapons programs and contemporary ones being pursued by the Pentagon is the propensity to use pathogens of little-studied natural infections with a high mortality rate, a long incubation period and symptoms typical of common diseases. This complicates the adversary's ability to discover the use of such weapons, and to quickly identify the attacker, the report said.

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🇫🇷 🇳🇱 Police tackle a protester after he ran shouting toward Emmanuel Macron during his state visit to the Netherlands

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Catch our Fault Lines show, where we provide updates and analysis on all the most vital stories! Here's our line-up for today:

🔺To kick things off, we’ll be discussing the latest Pentagon leaks related to the Middle East
🔺Next, we’ll cover the state of US banks that are clearly struggling to survive with dried up money supply
🔺Finally, we’ll speak about people’s quality of life in LA, NYC, and San Francisco, as statistics are showing depressing figures

More trending stories coming your way! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 7am EST|4am PST|1pm CET via the website or app!

📻Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

❗️(1) Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️In the Kupyansk direction, Russian forces destroyed up to 30 Ukrainian troops, as well as a Polish Krab and US-made Paladin self-propelled howitzer;

▪️In the South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, the Russian Army destroyed an ammunition depot. Ukrainian losses during the day amounted to 180 servicemen and one D-30 howitzer;

▪️In the Donetsk direction, Russian forces destroyed more than 245 Ukrainian troops, one tank, two armored fighting vehicles, one armored personnel carrier, as well as a D-20 and a Msta-B howitzer, and three Grad MLRS combat vehicles.

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❗️(2) Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️In the Krasny Liman direction, Ukrainian losses amounted to 80 servicemen, one D-20 howitzer and four armored fighting vehicles;

▪️In the Kherson direction, Russian troops neutralized up to 50 Ukrainian servicemen, three armored fighting vehicles, and an ammunition depot;

▪️The Russian Aerospace Forces shot down a Ukrainian Air Force Su-24 aircraft in Krasny Liman;

▪️Russian air defense systems also intercepted two HIMARS missiles, a US-made GLSDB missile, as well as five Ukrainian UAVs in the LPR, DPR, and Kharkov region.

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🇨🇳🇪🇺 Borrell postpones visit to China after positive COVID-19 test

💬 “I have tested positive for COVID-19 and therefore unfortunately will need to postpone my visit to China. I am feeling well and have no symptoms,” Borrell tweeted.

Earlier, Brussels announced EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell will visit China from April 13-15.

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🔙 Historical Flashback: During his world tour, Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin, the First Man in Space, visited India 🇮🇳, where he received a warm welcome by then-Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru, met with 🎞Bollywood star Raj Kapoor, enjoyed a yoga show 🧘🏾‍♂️ and traversed over 5,000 km across the country.

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🇺🇸Trump compares Macron's trip to China with "kissing *ss," comments on Biden's odd fist bump greeting with Saudi crown prince

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Is Bringing Dead People Back to Life With AI Chatbots Against Our Moral & Social Values?

💭 In a series of tweets posted on Saturday, Dr Desai 🇮🇳 suggested regularly recording voices of people one loves and uploading them to an AI platform to create a computerized avatar that can live forever after people have died.

🤔 The idea, although it seems a breakthrough at first glance, raises some serious ethical questions. 👉 LEARN WHY

❗️Key points of Vladimir Putin’s speech on the Cosmonautics Day:

▪️Russia needs to create sovereign space systems, new component base;

▪️Russia’s rocket and space industry is building up its potential;

▪️Russia has its own unique solutions for defending itself, space exploration;

▪️It is necessary to create sovereign space systems and move on to production in the interests of the Russian economy;

▪️Russia needs to increase production of satellites; these tasks can be solved;

▪️Russia's rocket and space industry is building up potential, with 100 launches already carried out in recent history without accidents.

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🇺🇸🇵🇭The United States and the Philippines have agreed to modernize the alliance between the two countries by intensifying high-level joint exercises and other related activity, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo said.

Manalo and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Carlito Galvez Jr. met with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and State Secretary Antony Blinken in Washington at the so-called 2+2 ministerial meeting.

"At today's meeting we have redoubled our commitment to modernizing the Philippine-US alliance, recognizing that our partnership will need to play a stronger role in preserving an international law-based international order," Manalo said at a press conference, adding that the modernization would imply intensified joint exercises between the countries, among other things.

The partnership between the US and the Philippines serves as "an instrument of peace" in the Indo-Pacific region and brings about economic benefits to the two states.

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Former UN weapons inspector in Iraq Scott Ritter joined us to discuss whether there is a need for NATO

🎧Listen to more of Ritter’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

🇷🇺🇬🇧Russia’s ambassador to London, Andrey Kelin, has claimed that an interview he gave to The Times about the situation in Ukraine has been deleted from the paper's website without explanation.

Kelin suggested that the decision may have been made following orders from the British authorities.

In the interview, Kelin stated that Russia was receiving offers of mediation from multiple states and groups in the UK and emphasized that Moscow does not depend on China's political support.

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Former UN weapons inspector in Iraq Scott Ritter joined us to discuss the US position during the Cold War and its unwillingness to comply with the START treaties

🎧Listen to more of Ritter’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour