❗️Riot police disperse pro-Palestine protesters at the University of Texas at Austin

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▪️Gambling with taxpayers' money: Will Ukraine repay its debt to US?

▪️What's known about Iran-North Korean relations?

▪️Fall of Project Maven? How US target recognition system failed miserably in Ukraine

▪️Ukraine attacks 'Valkyrie' Russian ballerina-turned-militia fighter with FPV drones

▪️US Secret Service has started preparing for Trump's imprisonment

▪️Why is China dumping US Treasuries for gold?

▪️‘Tsar grill’: Russian ‘turtle tanks’ defy Ukrainian FPV drones

▪️Kalashnikov's brand new drones presented to Russia’s Defense Ministry

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The United States admits the possibility that Russia could make additional territorial gains in Ukraine over the coming weeks, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.

"And it is certainly possible that Russia could make additional tactical gains in the coming weeks," said Sullivan during a press briefing.

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❗️ The UN Security Council failed to adopt an amendment sponsored by Russia and China that would extend a ban on the placement of any type of weapons in space rather than just the weapons of mass destruction sought by the United States and Japan, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

The amendment failed in a 7-7 vote with one member abstaining.

If adopted, the amendment would have required states to "take urgent measures to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space and the threat or use of force in outer space, from space against Earth and from Earth against objects in outer space."

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❗️ Russia blocked a US- and Japan-sponsored draft resolution that would have urged against developing nuclear weapons or other types of WMDs specifically designed to be placed in orbit after its amendment was rejected, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

Thirteen UNSC members voted in favor, while China abstained.

Prior to the vote, Russia and China proposed an amendment that would have extended the ban to include the placement of any type of weapons in space rather than just nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

The amendment failed in a 7-7 vote with one member abstaining.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said earlier this month that the UN Security Council is not the right body to adopt resolutions on outer space activities that affect all UN members.

He said that the US and Japan were seeking to politicize the matter and use the draft resolution to promote "groundless" allegations about Russia aiming to deploy nuclear weapons in space. At the same time, the US is refusing to take any obligations not to develop other types of weapons specifically designed to be placed in outer space, Nebenzia stressed.

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Hand over them goodies! How European countries ‘volunteer’ to donate arms to Ukraine

Speculation abounds that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may be going to try and pressure German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in supplying Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. However, this would hardly be the first instance of a European country being pressured into arming the Kiev regime, according to numerous reports.

A similar drama unfolded a little over a year ago when the German leadership was proving reluctant to provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 main battle tanks, before finally caving in to pressure in early 2023.

As the Ukrainian air defenses today prove to be woefully inadequate in the face of efficient and destructive Russian airstrikes against military installations, European countries that possess Patriot surface-to-air missile systems - such as Spain and Greece – also found themselves urged by other NATO powers to donate these weapons to Kiev.

The recent decision by the US lawmakers to approve yet another multi-billion dollar military package to Ukraine, among other things, has prompted Kiev to insist that the EU states should follow suit and donate more of their money and weapons to their forces.

Yet, the Ukrainian conflict has shown that the respective military-industrial complexes of the United States and its allies apparently cannot churn out weapons and munitions fast enough to satisfy Kiev’s ever-increasing appetites.

The fact that the US and EU's existing military stockpiles have been seriously depleted by Washington and Brussels’ efforts to fan the flames of the Ukrainian conflict does not help either.

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The money allocated to help Ukraine by the Biden administration will be sufficient until the end of 2024, according to the White House.

Moscow has repeatedly warned NATO countries that by supplying arms to Ukraine, they are both prolonging the conflict and dangerously escalating it.

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The United States is still in talks with its European partners about how to use Russian frozen assets to aid recovery in Ukraine, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.

"Russian assets are going to remain immobilized until they are put to use for recovery in Ukraine. The precise way in which that happens. . .is still a matter of consultation with our European partners," Sullivan said during a press briefing.

Sullivan added that the subject will be a prominent topic at the G7 summit in June.

After the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine in 2022, the EU and G7 froze almost half of Russia's foreign currency reserves amounting to about 300 billion euros ($320.8 billion). The EU is discussing ways to use frozen Russian assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. The European Central Bank warned that this could pose reputational risks to the European currency in the long term, and advocated looking beyond that isolated conflict.

Moscow has on many occasions said that any attempts to confiscate frozen Russian assets are an expropriation of property and a violation of international law. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik that Russia would do everything possible to return the seized assets.

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Russia will soon submit its draft resolution on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in space, taking into account discussion of the US-Japan project, and ideas approved by the majority, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said.

Russia is ready to sign an international agreement “even tomorrow” to ban placement of any kind of weapons in space, not just WMDs, Nebenzia emphasized.

Earlier the Russian diplomat clarified that a US- and Japan-sponsored draft resolution that would have called against developing nuclear weapons and other types of WMDs specifically designed to be placed in orbit represents a cover-up for a cunning plan by the West.

"Yet, behind this fig leaf, there was a cunning plan that was concocted by our Western colleagues," Nebenzia told the UN Security Council before a vote on the draft resolution.

Russia blocked the draft resolution after a Russian-Chinese amendment to extend the ban on the placement of any type of weapons in space rather than just the weapons of mass destruction was rejected in a 7-7 vote with one abstention.

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About 40% of Americans don’t believe Joe Biden would last through the end of a second term if he is reelected, according to a poll conducted by JL Partners.

Scarlett Maguire, the director of the firm, told The Sun that many US voters worry about Biden's age - and his ability to face off against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We asked the American people whether they even thought Biden would still be alive in four years time, by the end of his second term. Four in ten didn't think he'd be able to make it to the end," Scarlett emphasized.

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