🌍Pepe Escobar, geopolitical analyst and author, in an interview with Sputnik for our new show New rules, described how Moscow had changed after his last visit and how he has not noticed the effects of sanctions on local life. Even Moscow became more beautiful and clean.

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🇿🇦 💎 🇬🇧 South Africans are calling for Britain to return the world's largest diamond, which is now part of the royal scepter

🗣"The diamond needs to come to South Africa. It needs to be a sign of our pride, our heritage and our culture," stated South African lawyer and activist Mothusi Kamanga, who initiated a petition on the return of the diamond to its home.

▪️The 530-carat Star of Africa diamond was discovered in South Africa back in 1905, when the country was under British rule, and given to the monarchy at the time.

▪️The petition, which has already gathered around 8,000 signatures, comes amid a global discussion about returning various artifacts and pieces of cultural heritage that were plundered in the colonial period.

🗣"I think generally the African people are starting to realize that to decolonize is not just to let people have certain freedoms, but it's also to take back what has been expropriated from us," the activist said

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💬 "And the political leadership don’t understand simple math or physics for that matter. And the American system, in terms of the military industrial complex, it’s basically for profit, is not to actually make weapons capable of fighting wars," geopolitical analyst and author Pepe Escobar said in an interview with Sputnik.

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🦆 In a world where you can be anything, be kind: in Moscow, people blocked the roadway so that a duck with ducklings could cross the road

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#SputnikInfographic

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a Eurasian political, economic, and security bloc founded in 2001, has great potential to become a United Nations for the non-Western world, according to Robinder Sachdev, geopolitical and economic diplomacy analyst and founder president of the Imagindia Institute.

The two-day summit of the SCO foreign ministers kicked off on May 4 in the Indian state of Goa. The SCO foreign ministers are due to focus on the expansion of the organization.

Currently, the organization consists of eight permanent members, namely, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; and nine dialogue partners – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkiye, Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

Our infographic shows the comparison of the total population of the SCO and the collective West.

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🇮🇷🇮🇱 Israeli minister claims Iran has enough enriched uranium for five nukes

💬 "Make no mistake – Iran will not be satisfied by a single nuclear bomb. So far, Iran has gained material enriched to 20% and 60% for five nuclear bombs," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, speaking alongside Greek Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos during a visit to Athens.

The Israeli defense minister did not elaborate on how Iran’s uranium stockpiles were sufficient for five bombs, given that uranium must typically be enriched to 90% or more to be considered weapons grade. The US nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945 had an average enrichment rate of about 80%.

Tel Aviv successfully lobbied Washington into scrapping the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, since holding joint drills with US forces practicing attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. Tehran has denied having any ambitions to build a nuclear bomb and blasted the West over its silence on Israel's own widely suspected nuke stockpiles.

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🇨🇺 Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has condemned the Ukrainian attempted assassination of Vladimir Putin

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🇷🇺 🇮🇳 WATCH: India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar welcomes Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa.

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🇷🇸 8 dead in second mass shooting in Serbia in a week

At least eight people have been killed, and 13 people wounded in a shooting in the Serbian villages of Dubona and Sepsin, Serbian media reported.

Police are looking for a 21-year-old suspect, who opened fire in Dubona and then fled the scene. He reportedly had an argument with a police officer, went home to fetch a firearm and then shot his "antagonist" and his sister.

The latest incident comes after a shooting took place on Wednesday in a school in the center of Belgrade. Eight children and a guard were killed, and another six children and a teacher were wounded and transferred to an ambulance center and a children's hospital.

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US F-16s in Ukraine would be ‘completely outmatched’ by Russia's S-400 air defense

John Venable, a US Air Force veteran, says fighter jets like the F-16, would be "completely outmatched in high-threat environments" because of advanced air-defense systems like Russia's S-400 due to the aircraft's lack of stealth features.

💬 "Giving Ukraine more MiG-29s will not help the battlefield. And even if we gave them modern F-16s — I would say more modern F-16s — it's not going to change or influence the battlefield in a year, much less in time for a spring offensive," Venable said in a reference to the much-touted Ukrainian “counteroffensive”.

The US-made F-16s have topped Kiev's wish list since the start of the Ukrainian crisis, and the Zelensky regime has been asking the West for deliveries of the fighter jet for over a month now.

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🇩🇰 Denmark to spend billions to 'plug holes' in defense, meet NATO demands

The government has announced that it will invest DKK 38Bln ($5.6Bln) to modernize its defense over the next 10 years and rectify the mismanagement and neglect which has resulted from misguided political decisions.

The Danish Ministry of Defense said in a statement that it will allocate some DKK 27Bln ($4Bln) on gear, equipment, buildings, information technology and personnel, and a further DKK 11Bln on new investments, citing "the current geopolitical situation" which needs "more resources" to ensure present levels of defense.

Denmark's own press described the process as "plugging holes". Earlier, a major audit of the Danish armed forces revealed that equipment and barracks had suffered a huge degree of wear and tear, there were severe personnel shortages and massive IT challenges. The review set in motion further budget negotiations.

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SCO sees significant progress in accession of 🇮🇷 Iran and 🇧🇾 Belarus to grouping: Jaishankar

🇮🇳 India's EAM Subramanyam Jaishankar noted the progress that had been made in adopting Iran and Belarus as full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

💭 "I am pleased to note the progress in the ongoing process of accepting Iran and Belarus as full members of the SCO. I thank the secretariat for their efforts in this direction. Similarly, I am glad that four new dialogue partners will sign a memorandum of association with the SCO today in Goa. We welcome our new dialogue partners and hope to intensify cooperation with them in the SCO format," he said during the meeting of SCO foreign Ministers.

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❗️LIVE NOW: Sergey Lavrov gives press conference in Panaji after SCO FM meeting
Join the live stream here or follow this link to Sputnik’s website

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky is the West's puppet, Lavrov told reporters after the SCO meeting in Goa, adding that Russia is ready to talk with Western nations as sooner or later, the talks are inevitable

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Check out highlights from 🇷🇺 Russian FM's presser after SCO meet in Goa 🇮🇳:

On Drone attack on Kremlin:

▫️ Zelensky is doing everything so that any self-respecting country doesn't want to communicate with Ukraine;

▫️ Russia will respond not with talk, but with concrete actions to attempted drone attack on Kremlin by Ukraine;

▫️ Without knowledge of its Western overlords, Kiev terrorists could not have conducted attack on Kremlin.

On SCO Agenda:

▫️ Work on expanding use of national currencies for settlements between SCO countries can no longer be stopped;

▫️ Schedules are being finalised for summit of SCO leaders;

On Afghanistan:

▫️US tries once again to interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs.

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