The little elephant and his love of fruit

Have you ever seen a small elephant 🐘 that is so stubborn that it stands on its hind legs to get fruit it desires from a 🌳 tree? This hilarious scene is quite common in the wild.

Young elephants love to eat fruit 🥭 and berries, and their appetite sometimes reaches such proportions that they use every possible means to get to their food.

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently warned that unless the congressional limit on the country’s debt servicing is raised by June 1, the US government will likely begin defaulting.

With a US default scenario grabbing global headlines, Sputnik has reached out to renowned experts to ask them about the possible implications of a default and what ordinary people should do if it happens.

What is the 2023 US default all about? Will the US default? What should the US and its citizens do?

🇨🇳🌌 China successfully completes test of reusable spacecraft

▪️China has successfully completed a test of a reusable spacecraft after it returned to Earth on Monday morning, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said

▪️The uncrewed spacecraft returned to the Jiuquan launch center in northwest China on Monday as scheduled.

🗣 "The test was successful, showing China's breakthrough in the field of research of reusable spacecraft technologies," CASC said in a statement

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📹 A 100-year-old WWII veteran in Russia's Republic of Altai celebrates his birthday with family.

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Ukraine claims Kiev targeted with heaviest attack since launch of special operation

Ukrainian media has reported a series of powerful explosions around the country, including Kiev, on Sunday night. Authorities in the capital stated that a tank with diesel fuel was damaged in the Solomensky district. Explosions and fires were also reported in Odessa.

"This is the most massive attack (…) on our city," Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The attacks come after Ukraine organized a number of terrorist hits on Russian territory, including the recent drone attack on the Kremlin that was thwarted by Russian security services.

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History repeating itself? Rising US-led militarization shows Europe failed to learn from WWII

Military expenditures by Central and Western European nations have surpassed the levels seen in 1989, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

With the collective defense budgets of the European Union (EU) and the UK now exceeding those of China and Russia combined, there are growing concerns about the ongoing militarization of Europe.

Some experts believe that the rearmament of NATO members is driven by the geostrategic interests of the United States, which is seen as the hegemonic power that is militarizing Europe.

Paolo Raffone, a strategic analyst and director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels, discusses the reasons behind the surge in military expenditures by European nations and the implications of this trend for the region's economic and political stability.

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🇳🇬 Nigeria's president to inaugurate world’s largest single-train refinery

▪️Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will commission the multi-billion dollar Dangote Refinery in Lagos in two weeks, Buhari’s Special Assistant on Digital Communications, Bashir Ahmad said

💭 "Efforts by the Federal Government to make Nigeria self-sufficient in local refining of crude oil to save the scarce foreign exchange used in the importation of petroleum products have received a boost as the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery is set for inauguration on May 22nd, 2023, by President Muhammadu Buhari," the assistant said.

▪️He also noted that Dangote Refinery in Lagos, the construction of which started in 2016, is the world’s largest single-train refinery

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Iran willing to provide advanced defense weapons to Syria

Iran's Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani has stated that Iran is ready to provide Syria with advanced defense weapons to boost the security of the Syrian people.

Ashtiani also emphasized Iran's willingness to cooperate with Syria in building plants and launching production of strategic defense weapons to strengthen the republic's military capabilities.

In another meeting, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri stated that Iran is prepared to share its vast experience in countering terrorism and conducting modern warfare with Oman.

Bagheri also offered Tehran's help in fighting maritime drug trafficking and invited Omani military officials to visit Iran.

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📹 Russian gunners using D-30 howitzers destroy the enemy in the forest

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🗣 “What could be worse than an enemy? A traitor. Here is Zelensky. A New Incarnation of Judas in the 21st Century“

So Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on Zelensky's decree on the establishment of May 9 as Europe Day instead of Victory Day, the celebration of the defeat of Nazism in World War II.

“Having canceled Victory Day on May 9, he betrayed his ancestors once and for all: those who fought in the ranks of the Red Army, those who suffered and were tortured in concentration camps, and those who worked for the Victory in the rear. One for all. An accomplice of the Nazis 80 years later," she wrote in her Telegram channel.

Earlier, the Ukrainian parliament had reported that the bill on making Victory Day May 8 (when it is celebrated in Europe and the US, due to a time zone difference) would be adopted ahead of schedule.

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