Biden says debt ceiling talks ‘moving along’ but no ‘crunch point’ reached

"They are moving along," US President Joe Biden told the White House press pool, adding that there was "real discussion" but that negotiators were "not there yet."

"We’ve not reached the crunch point yet," the president said.

He did not answer the question about the date of his next meeting with congressional leaders.

The White House and Republicans in Congress have been locked in a dispute on a deal that would avert an unprecedented national default as early as June.

The Financial Times on Saturday cited people familiar with the matter as saying that the pact was beginning to take shape ahead of a meeting between Biden administration officials and aides to the Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. At the heart of the deal is reportedly a plan that will limit domestic spending.

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🪐 Saturn has more moons than Jupiter: new discovery

Jupiter has lost its status as the planet with the most moons after research from multiple astronomers revealed Saturn has 62 more moons than previously known, bringing its official total to 145.

“Saturn not only has nearly doubled its number of moons, it now has more moons than all the rest of the planets in the solar system combined,” said professor Brett Gladman, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia who was involved in the observations.

The exciting discovery was made by a team led by Edward Ashton, a postdoctoral fellow at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

While this image system, referred to as “shift and stack,” has been applied to Neptune and Uranus, this is the first time the technique has been used in researching Saturn.

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India to Launch Campaign on Return of Artifacts Taken by British Empire

Diplomats and other government officials will intensify their efforts to achieve "reckoning with the past," which will include the return of the famous 💎Koh-i-Noor diamond alongside many other historical objects of Indian origin taken from the country during the British Raj.

It can become the largest restitution claim that the 🇬🇧UK has ever witnessed, according to the report.

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#SputnikInfographic: 🇹🇷 2023 Turkish presidential election in numbers

Turkiye's presidential and parliamentary elections are taking place on May 14. If no candidate gains 50% of the vote in the presidential election's first round, then a second one is scheduled for May 28.

The candidate who obtains a simple majority of votes will be declared the winner. A total of 64 million Turkish citizens will be able to vote, according to Turkiye’s Central Election Commission.

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🇮🇹 "Not welcome here": Residents of Rome greet Zelensky with protest

Activists belonging to the Front of Communist Youth staged their protest at the Colosseum with a slogan "No weapons in Ukraine".

During his trip on Saturday, Zelensky told Italian media that he had refused an offer by Pope Francis to mediate in the conflict with Russia.

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📹 Combat work performed by crews of the 152mm Akatsiya self-propelled artillery mounts

The Akatsiya is a self-propelled artillery system equipped with a 152mm howitzer and can fire a variety of munitions, including high explosive and anti-tank rounds. The system has a top speed of 60 km/h and a range of up to 420km.

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‘US pressure’ on Kiev to deliver battlefield success could ‘botch’ counteroffensive

Washington and its NATO allies have poured billions of dollars worth of military aid into bolstering the Kiev regime, so high expectations for Ukraine to show battlefield results could "torpedo" a counteroffensive, according to a US media report.

💬 "There are many in the US and NATO who are concerned this is going to be a forever war, that it will go on for years and the West will continue to pour money into it without much progress," Mark Cancian, a former US Marine Corps colonel was cited as saying.

A former Australian army general, Mick Ryan, agreed, saying that, "regardless of what happens on the ground, this has to be seen as a success to the Ukrainian people and US and European politicians."

A former commander of US Army Europe, Ben Hodges, told the outlet that "monumental pressure" from the West might "screw up" any attempt at a counteroffensive before it got off the ground.

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📹 Russian forces test-fire mini-version of MLRS Grad

A detachment from the Tsarskiye Wolves has destroyed a Ukrainian stronghold in the Zaporozhye direction using a new mini version of the Grad MLRS called Marusya, which can be carried manually or loaded on a pickup truck, the head of the Tsarskiye Wolves science and technology center, Dmitry Rogozin said.

He added that Marusya provides accurate target engagement at ranges of up to 11 kilometers and has already been tested on the frontline.

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🇪🇺 G7, EU may ban imports of Russian pipeline gas in some areas after summit in Hiroshima on 19 to 21 May

One of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told British media that the move aims “to make sure that partners don’t change their mind in a hypothetical future”. The decision will affect countries such as Poland and Germany.

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❗️Russian writer and politician Zakhar Prilepin is planning to return to the special military operation zone once he recovers

His recovery will take at least six months, Prilepin’s spokesman said.

Prilepin sustained serious injuries on 6 May when a car was blown up on a highway in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region. His associate Alexander Shubin was killed in the blast.

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🚀 SpaceX’s rocket delivers another 56 Starlink satellites into orbit

"Deployment of 56 @ Starlink satellites [into orbit] confirmed," the SpaceX corporation tweeted.

The Falcon 9 rocket took off from the launch center on Cape Canaveral in Florida at 1:03 local time (05:03 GMT).

Shortly after the launch, the rocket's first stage landed on the floating platform.

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🇬🇧🇪🇪 UK to send over 1,500 troops to Estonia for NATO drills

The Spring Storm annual exercise will involve around 14,000 military and become the largest NATO drills this year, British media reported. This year, the UK sent more troops following its decision to increase the number of its forces under the Enhanced Forward Presence program.

The NATO unit will train various combat tactics, including trench storms, light infantry combat, coordination with armored vehicles and reconnaissance operations, according to the report.

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