🇹🇷 Thousands of supporters awaiting the re-elected president and allies from his electoral alliance at the Presidential Palace in Ankara

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🇹🇷❗️The People's Alliance Party supporters gathered at the Presidential Complex are waiting for President Erdogan to speak from the balcony

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⚡️⚡️ The Supreme Election Council: Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been elected as the president of Turkiye

What is a recession and how can you prepare for one?

President Biden and GOP House speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a last-minute deal on the debt ceiling Saturday, with Biden boasting that the agreement would prevent a “catastrophic default” and punishing recession.

What are recessions? What can ordinary folks do to cushion their blow?

Sputnik explains

🚅🇷🇺 Russian Railways ready to build high-speed rail, launch first train in 2027

"Today we are ready to build the high-speed rail. And we think it is necessary now. Now is the time," Russian Railways CEO Oleg Belozyorov told a Russian TV channel.

A specialized train fit for the high-speed rail is now being built and will be ready by 2027, the Russian Railways head said.

A high-speed railroad is a specialized electrified double-track line for operating trains with speeds of 200 to 400 kilometers per hour (124-248 miles per hour). There are no such roads in Russia now. Authorities picked the Moscow-St. Petersburg route for the maiden high-speed rail. It is planned that the trains will cover the way between the cities in 2 hours 15 minutes.

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Israeli Foreign Minister to travel to Central Europe to bolster ties with EU allies

"The diplomatic visit to Central European countries is strengthening strategic coordination with our friends, allowing Israel to promote our political and economic interests on the continent," Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a statement.

"Friends of Israel in the EU are playing a central role in our relationship with a united Europe — from economic, cultural and technological cooperation to the joint fight against terrorism and Iran’s nuclear project," he added.

Cohen will visit Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria and meet with senior government officials. This will be his seventh trip to the region in five months and the first ever visit to Slovakia of an Israeli foreign minister. He will also take part in a meeting of his Slovak, Austrian and Czech counterparts.

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Over half of Britons want UK to forge closer ties with EU - poll

The survey of more than 10,000 adults, conducted by Focaldata between April 20 and May 9, found that 53% wanted London to pursue closer ties with Brussels, compared to 14% who wanted a more distant relationship and 23% who wanted it to remain uncharged.

Almost two-thirds of those sampled said they believed Brexit had created more problems than it had solved, up from just 57% recorded in December 2021. Only 21% of respondents said the United Kingdom's departure from the EU solved more problems than it had created.

"In just a few short years, public opinion in Britain has moved on from being pro-Brexit, to believing [then Prime Minister Boris] Johnson’s deal has done more harm than good, to now supporting a closer relationship with the EU," Best for Britain chief executive Naomi Smith summed it up.

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China’s UnionPay overtakes Visa in debit transactions as Global Financial Realignment continues

China’s UnionPay has edged out Visa to become the number one debit card in the world, accounting for $40.03 for every $100 in transactions (compared to $38.78 for Visa) in 2022, according to new figures by credit and debit card industry monitor Nilson Report.

UnionPay debit card payments reached $160 billion last year, compared to $155 billion for Visa and $85 billion for MasterCard. The big two US giants outranked the Chinese bank card issuer in credit card transactions, accounting for $87 billion and $65 billion, respectively, compared with $53 billion for UnionPay.

Credit cards are more tightly regulated in China – UnionPay’s main market, than they are in the US. Visa’s lead on credit cards gave it a larger overall market share in credit and debit cards of 39 percent compared to UnionPay’s 34 percent.

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🇰🇪🇷🇺 Russian FM Sergey Lavrov arriving in Kenya's capital Nairobi during the first leg of his Africa journey.

I will be covering his visit. Stay tuned for more.

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Text of US Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal bill released

The bill spans 99 pages and includes several key provisions. It raises the debt limit for two years, introduces stricter work requirements for federal public assistance programs, and rescinds around $28 billion in unused COVID-19 funding. Defense spending is capped at $886 billion for fiscal year 2024 and $895 billion for fiscal year 2025.

The proposed legislation has faced criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. Some lawmakers from both parties have expressed opposition to certain aspects of the agreement, indicating potential hurdles during the voting process in the House and Senate.

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📹 Russian Buk-M2 air defense system crews in action

The Russian Defense Ministry said the crews destroyed over 40 targets, including Bayraktar UAVs and HIMARS rockets.

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🚀 ISRO launches its advanced navigation satellite GSLV-F12 and NVS-01 from Sriharikota 🇮🇳

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🥴 UK propaganda blames Kiev for Lindsey Graham’s “Russians dying” remark

A UK media outlet claims that in a “complete” release of Graham’s speech by the Ukrainian president’s office, there were “no links” between US financial assistance and the senator’s “best money ever spent” remark.

The outlet mentioned that “initial extracts of the conversations” by the Zelensky’s office did not make that clear, meaning part of Graham’s speech was edited by the Ukrainians.

The neocon chickenhawk himself responded to Russia’s criticism by saying that he was “simply praising Ukrainian resistance.”

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❗️Russia’s Interior Ministry puts Lindsey Graham on wanted list

Earlier, Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin ordered a criminal inquiry into the US senator’s Russophobic comment caught on video, where Graham is seen in the clip released by UK media, stating that “Russians are dying”, and then boasting that US military aid to Ukraine was “the best money we’ve ever spent”.

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📹 Russia’s Solntsepyok flamethrower system wipes out Ukrainian stronghold with thermobaric shell during advance on Svatovo

While advancing on Svatovo in Donbass, a Solntsepyok unit from the Western Military District eliminated a Ukrainian stronghold with personnel using a thermobaric projectile, the unit’s commander, who goes by the call sign ‘Ural’, told Sputnik.

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CAESAR self-propelled howitzers not suitable for military action in Ukraine

French activist Xavier Moreau, a military academy graduate who served in a French airborne regiment, said the self-propelled vehicles supplied to Ukraine are unarmored, and they were mainly used in Africa, where the threat of counter-battery fire is very low.

The CAESAR can shoot up to 40 kilometers, "if it has normal ammunition," Moreau explained. At the same time, he noted that "normal ammunition" was not sent to Ukraine because "it is very expensive," and France does not produce it itself but buys it from Germany.

Moreau noted that the CAESAR should not be used in conditions such as those in the Donbass, otherwise it would fail quickly and would have to be "repaired". However, according to him, these howitzers "cannot be repaired," "the secret of CAESARs" is that they have to be rebuilt.

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🇰🇵🇯🇵 Japan vows 'destructive measures' after North Korea announces satellite launch

The statement by Japan’s Defense Ministry comes after Pyongyang informed the Japanese coast guard of a scheduled launch into orbit of its satellite in the coming days.

💬 “We will take destructive measures against ballistic and other missiles that are confirmed to land in our territory,” the ministry said, adding that it was preparing to use its Standard Missile-3 or Patriot Missile PAC-3 for the purpose.

Pyongyang had specified that the launch window was between May 31 and June 11, as per the Japan Coast Guard website.

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⚡️ Vladimir Putin signed law on denunciation of Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe

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