Russia enters top 20 world food exporters in 2022

Russia entered the top 20 world food exporters in 2022, ranking 17th, the Russian Federal Center for the Development of Exports of Agricultural Products (Agroexport) said on Tuesday, citing ITC Trade Map data as of June 5.

"Among the largest suppliers of food products and agricultural raw materials, Russia took 17th place, increasing its share to 2.1%. At the same time, among the top 20 countries, Russia showed the largest increase in exports of agricultural products over the past 10 years - a 2.5 times increase," the agency said in a statement.

In 2022, Russian agricultural exports grew by 12% to $41.6 billion compared to the previous year, the statement read, adding that revenue from the export of grain increased by 18%, of meat products by 23% and of the food and processing industry by 1.6%. At the same time, exports of fish and seafood decreased by 12% and of dairy products by 1.9%.

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While European missile manufacturer MBDA announced its intent to develop an interceptor capable of defending against “hypersonic threats”, it remains unclear how fruitful this venture is going to be

Military expert with independent Russian military affairs think tank Center for Military-Political Journalism, Boris Rozhin, told Sputnik that it seems unlikely that some MBDA prototype interceptor would be adopted in the next three years or so.

As Rozhin pointed out, even the United States is currently experiencing serious problems with the development of an air defense system capable of dealing with hypersonic weapons, and Europe currently lags behind the US in that sphere.

“Some additional funds will definitely be allocated, additional research and development teams will be assigned,” he pondered. “But I don’t think that Europe will be able to acquire within the next two-three years more variants of air defense system that could effectively combat modern hypersonic missiles.”

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Soyuz-2.1b rocket with 42 small satellites launched from Vostochny cosmodrome

Russia has launched a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a Meteor-M weather satellite and 42 small spacecraft, including three foreign satellites from the Vostochny cosmodrome, according to a broadcast by the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos on Tuesday.

In 9 minutes 24 seconds after the launch, the rocket will put the Fregat upper stage with satellites into the reference orbit. It is expected to turn on its propulsion system twice and, 50 minutes after separation from the third stage of the rocket, to deliver the Meteor-M to the calculated orbit.

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🗣️”I think that US, the United States, no matter how you cut it, would be better served if he had stuck with his original premise that escalating in Ukraine was a blunder”: Dr Gerald Horne, professor of history at the University of Houston, TX, author, historian, and researcher, told Sputnik

🇭🇺 Hungarian prime minister says sanctions against Russia are useless

🗣 Western sanctions not only failed to bring Russia to its knees, but also failed to play a positive role in the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, as the EU initially wanted, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban admitted. "The sanctions failed. I am surprised that we [the EU] (...) were not able to develop them adequately," Orban explained.

▪️ The Hungarian leader added that the EU failed to both "bring Russia to its knees" and achieve peace in Ukraine. "None of this happened," the Hungarian prime minister stressed.

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Tel Aviv is developing the "global cyber iron dome" system to identify and tackle threats using artificial intelligence (AI)

"The Iron Dome that the Shin Bet is developing in cyberspace is already taking its first steps, the array of alliances is emerging and it has already come into action," Ronen Bar, the head of Israeli security agency Shin Bet, said.

"We are already cooperating with a number of significant countries in the field and we see the global cyber iron dome beginning to take shape."

Bar said that the agency was effectively using AI technology to prevent terror threats, adding that "the AI technology was assimilated into the Shin Bet's countermeasures machine naturally."

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The United States is obsessed with the idea to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia

"With further deliveries of military equipment, Washington only confirms its obsession with the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on the Russian Federation. To do this, pushes its clients towards more and more desperate adventures," the Russian Embassy in Washington said in a statement.

"The lives of Ukrainians mean nothing to the American authorities."

The US Department of Defense on Tuesday announced a package of additional military aid for Ukraine worth $500 million, including 30 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 25 Stryker armored personnel carriers, Stinger anti-aircraft systems, as well as more munitions for Patriot defense systems and HIMARS systems.

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📹 Combat work of Zmei Gorynych

Russian engineers made passages in minefields and destroyed enemy strongholds in the zone of the special military op.

They used the UR-77 self-propelled mine-clearing rocket launcher to accomplish their tasks, which was nicknamed "Zmei Gorynych" by the troops.

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📹 Russia's Rezky corvette shot down a Moskit anti-ship cruise missile using its air defense equipment during factory sea trials in the Sea of Japan

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The US is considering new curbs on exports of artificial intelligence chips to China due to security concern

The US Commerce Department could announce new curbs as soon as early next month to prevent the exports of chips made by American IT companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and other chip-makers to China and other countries, posing similar security threats, without first obtaining a license, the US news outlet reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

The new set of export control measures, which is expected to be part of the final rules codifying and expanding the export control measures announced in October, could also restrict the leasing of cloud services to Chinese IT companies, which they used to circumvent the export bans on advanced chips, the media reported.

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Kiev realizes that at this stage a decision on Ukraine's membership in NATO is unlikely, the head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.

The minister also added that the main events of the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are yet to come, and what happened in recent weeks was only a "preview"

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Ukrainian officials who seek to transfer the Christian Orthodox relics from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to Europe do not respect the faith of the people of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

"Taking the relics out would mean that neither the faith of the people nor the values of the Orthodox church are respected by those who make such decisions," ROCOR Synod of Bishops Chancellor Serafim Gan said.

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said earlier this week that the Ukrainian authorities and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have reached an agreement on removing the relics from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to transfer them to Western European countries.

The SVR said the agreement stipulates the Lavra’s valuables would be moved to museums in Italy, France, Germany and the Vatican under the pretext of allegedly rescuing them from Russian missile strikes.

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New York is trying to source a supercomputer capable of running AI programs in order to regulate the technology more effectively

New York is looking to both obtain capable hardware and hire professionals to run the programs, media said, citing New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent Adrienne Harris, whose agency is looking into AI and machine learning beyond its use in the private sector.

According to Harris, DFS is using data-driven approaches leveraging data analysis to enhance the agency's ability to predict and respond to events in the marketplace, the report said.

With many major private tech and software companies shifting toward AI, Harris told media, it makes the most sense for regulators to be adopting the same tools.

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📹 Destruction of Ukrainian armoured vehicle column in South Donetsk

The reconnaissance attack helicopter crews detected an advancing Ukrainian armoured vehicle column and destroyed it with guided missiles.

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Ukrainian President Zelensky has submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, that will officially establish the status of English in Ukraine as the language of international communication

According to the document, heads of local administrations, police officers and prosecutors are required to speak English.

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🥴 "What’s a Uyghur?": US presidential hopeful Francis Suarez seemed unaware of the existence of the Uyghur ethnic group of northwest China

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🇸🇪 Swedish police authorize Quran burning outside Stockholm mosque amid the ongoing Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha

Earlier, when Sweden's entry into NATO was discussed, a Swedish activist had arranged a public burning of the holy book, which caused difficulties with its accession to the block due to Turkiye's protest.

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