🇰🇪🇷🇺 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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❗️LIVE NOW: Russia's FM Sergey Lavrov holds presser in Nairobi
Join the live stream here or follow this link to Sputnik’s website

❗️ Russian armed forces have opportunity to respond to intentions of Netherlands and Denmark to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16, Lavrov says in response to a Sputnik's question

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🇨🇳🚀 China to launch Shenzhou-16 space mission to orbital station on May 30, Deputy Director of the China manned Space Agency Lin Xiqiang confirms

Shenzhou-16 is planned to dock with the core module of Tiangong, and its taikonauts will replace the crew members of the previous six-month Shenzhou-15 mission, which will be the second crew rotation in the station’s history.

The crew Shenzhou-16 is scheduled to stay in orbit for about five months.The Tiangong space station is China’s first long-term orbital station. It operates in low Earth orbit between 210 and 280 miles above the surface. Its first module, Tianhe, was launched in 2021.

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#SputnikInfographic: 🇹🇷🗳 Results of Turkish presidential election runoff

Turkiye went to the polls on Sunday for a second round of voting in the country’s presidential elections after no candidate managed to win over fifty percent of the vote in the first round of voting on May 14.

Incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip has secured victory in Turkiye’s presidential runoff, defeating his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

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🇹🇷🇺🇸 In 2019, Joe Biden said that the US needs to “embolden” the Turkish opposition in order to defeat Erdogan. “Not by a coup, not by a coup,” he underscored.

Looks like four years of effort didn’t lead to anything 🤷‍♂️

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❗️Latest statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️ There is a ‘huge vacuum’ in the strategic stability area, an international security agreement needed;

▪️ Russia will not feel direct consequences of the denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, it was already a non-working mechanism;

▪️ Moscow counts on preserving momentum when it comes to implementation of joint projects with Turkiye after reelection of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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