🇷🇺🇻🇳 Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, shake hands during a meeting in Hanoi.

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⚡️Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group entered Grayvoronsky district in Russia’s Belgorod region, elimination process is underway, governor says

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🇪🇺 EU Commission fines Meta* a record €1.2 billion for breaching data privacy rules

According to a ruling by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the tech giant has been fined a record 1.2 billion euros and ordered to stop transferring data collected from Facebook users in Europe to the US, as that apparently violates EU data protection rules.

The penalty is touted as the largest under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation law. The ruling will be applied only to Facebook, sparing other Meta services from the fine. The company said it would appeal the decision, and has at least five months to comply with the ruling.

*Meta is banned in Russia over extremist activities

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❗️The aim of such sabotage acts is to divert focus from the loss of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) and minimize its negative political fallout, the Kremlin says

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

▪️In the Kupyansk direction, Russian forces destroyed up to 50 Ukrainian troops, one ammunition depot, and one D-30 howitzer. Three Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups were destroyed;

▪️In the Krasny Liman direction, Russian forces neutralized up to 55 Ukrainian personnel, two armored combat vehicles, as well as one Msta-B and one D-20 howitzer;

▪️In the Donetsk direction, Ukrainian losses amounted to more than 270 servicemen, four armored combat vehicles, as well as one D-20 and two D-30 howitzers;

▪️In the South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, Russian forces destroyed over 150 Ukrainian troops, two D-30 howitzers, as well as one ammunition depot;

▪️In the Kherson direction, Russian troops neutralized up to 20 Ukrainian servicemen, a Hyacinth-B towed gun, one Msta-B howitzer, as well as one ammunition depot;

▪️Russian air defenses shot down one Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter, five HIMARS missiles, and 17 unmanned aerial vehicles in the LPR, DPR, and Kharkov region.

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❗️ Three hospitalized after Ukrainian troops bombard the town of Grayvoron in the Belgorod Region, governor says

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🇩🇪♻️ German Green Party lawmaker finds out Bismarck was chancellor after 2 years in office

Emilia Fester has been serving in the Bundestag since 2021 as a member of the Greens, who are focused on climate change and social justice issues, and earned the noscript of “Baby of the House” for her status as youngest member of the parliament.

After the German parliamentary elections in 2021, Emilia said “young people bring pressure to parliament and that scares some of the older delegates because we want to shake up this dusty place.” The new wave of parliamentarians was considered the “wokest” in the history, and included “two openly trans women, an openly bisexual woman and a black woman.”

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❗️ Leader of the ATA bloc, Sinan Ogan, who bagged 5% of the vote in the first round of Turkiye's presidential election said that he would support Erdogan in the runoff

Kremlin on grain deal: position of Western countries complicates process

"This is one of the indicators that, despite all the efforts of the UN, Guterres, he is faced with, let's say, the unconstructive position of some Western [states]. It really complicates this process. It complicates, perhaps, the implementation of the Russian part of the Black Sea initiative, the Black Sea deal. But, nevertheless, contacts, as we said, continue, will continue because, yes, the deal has been extended for 2 months, but 2 months is a fairly short period, it will end fairly quickly," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

In an interview with a Russian newspaper released earlier in the day, spokesman for EU foreign affairs Peter Stano said that the bloc may restore access to the SWIFT payment system for Russian banks, including Russian Agricultural Bank, only after the conflict in Ukraine ends.

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🗣️”So the CIA was involved in this demonization and regime change operation of Putin, and they pushed the Russiagate narrative”: Author & Managing editor of CovertAction Magazine Jeremy Kuzmarov on the unexamined role of the CIA in pushing the Russiagate narrative & how that fit into US foreign policy goals in Russia

🎧Listen to more of Kuzmarov’s analysis in our podcast By Any Means Necessary

🌾 The International Day of Biodiversity, observed on May 22, was established by the UN General Assembly in 2000.

The day highlights the vital role of biodiversity in sustaining civilizations, as well as providing food, medicine, and ecological services. It also emphasizes the threats posed by biodiversity loss to human health and the environment.

It encompasses a wide range of plants, animals, microorganisms, genetic variations within species, and ecosystems that contribute to the functioning of our planet.

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⚡️ Eight people were injured in the Belgorod region as a result of an attack by a Ukrainian sabotage group, with no reported fatalities, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the region’s governor, said.

🗣️”What is Zelensky looking for in the at the Hiroshima summit? I certainly think that he is going to try to play 'the nuclear war trump card', basically saying that 'unless Ukraine is provided with all the means to wage the war, then Putin will have no choice but to nuke Ukraine.' I feel like this would be the main core of his message”: International Director of the El Ciudadano media platform, Denis Rogatyuk, on Zelensky attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima

🎧Listen to more of Rogatyuk’s analysis in our podcast Political Misfits

Bundeswehr wiping away tons of 'unfitting' toilet paper

Twelve pallets, around 3.3 tons in transportation weight. These are the goods that the Bundeswehr has offered for sale via the Federal Sales and Marketing agency Vebeg.
In the case of this specific batch of toilet paper, the unwinding device is different from the one on the standard roll. Therefore, it does not fit on universal toilet roll dispensers. Which brings us back to the procurement problem – obviously somewhere had botched the job.

"At the end of 2020, it was decided to replace the toilet paper dispensers of one company with the universal dispensers from another supplier. However, it transpired that the toilet paper from the first company cannot be used in a universal hygiene dispenser," a spokesman for the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Infrastructure, Environmental Protection and Services told local media.

Interested parties can pick up the toilet paper at the Schill barracks in Wesel. The auction runs until May 31.

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Mystery disappearance of 30-ton shipment of explosive chemicals in California probed

About 27000 kg of the chemical ammonium nitrate, which can be used both as a fertilizer and in explosives, was manufactured by Dyno Nobel. The shipment was loaded into a Union Pacific rail car, with the train leaving Wyoming on April 12. The seals "were still intact" when it arrived two weeks later in California. Accordingly, a report was filed on May 10 at the National Response Center for railroad incidents.

“The initial assessment is that a leak through the bottom gate on the rail car may have developed in transit,” a Dyno Nobel statement said.

An investigation is ongoing. It should be noted that the train involved - Union Pacific - is from the same company that saw a dozen or more freight cars laden with coal go off the rails in a derailment in Nebraska in February. That incident was at least the third major train derailment in the US in a matter of weeks.

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🗣️”All these young people have lost their lives for what? Because of these geopolitical designs, some grand strategists in Washington and think they're so smart, and yet they cause disaster after disaster for humanity”: Author & Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine Jeremy Kuzmarov on Washington’s scheme for regime change in Russia, because they disapprove of the current president

🎧Listen to more of Kuzmarov’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines