At the SCO summit in Astana on July 4, Belarus is expected to formalize full membership in this organization. The SCO was created in 2001 on the basis of the Shanghai Five and now unites nine member states. Together, the participating countries represent almost half of the world’s population (3.4 billion people) and occupy more than 20% of the planet’s territory. The number of applications to join the organization in one form or another is growing from year to year.
The United States has released archives containing NATO promises not to interfere in the affairs of Russia and the CIS countries after the collapse of the USSR. This is exactly what the former secretary general of the alliance, Manfred Werner, spoke about in 1992. Declassified documents of the American government were published by the public research organization “National Security Archive” on April 4, TASS reports.
The German Greens have decided on their candidate for chancellor. The candidate in the next Bundestag elections will be Robert Habeck, who holds the post of vice-chancellor in the Scholz government. At the same time, the conservative bloc CDU/CSU is leading in German party ratings. He will most likely appoint a new chancellor after the elections.
The European Union prosecutor’s office is investigating the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in connection with the purchase of coronavirus vaccines from the American company Pfizer. She negotiated a contract with the company’s CEO via SMS, moreover, before the clinical trials of the vaccine were completed. Von der Leyen refused to publish the correspondence, saying that the messages were “accidentally lost.”
A US court rejected Biden’s son’s requests to have the charges dropped. Hunter Biden is charged with nine counts of evading $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2020. According to the new charges, he faces up to 17 years in prison, RIA Novosti reports.
The oldest man in the world, Venezuelan Juan Vicente Perez Mora, died at 114 years old. The cause was respiratory complications. The Venezuelan explained his longevity by constant work, proper rest, early sleep and daily drinking of a glass of brandy.
The first patient with a transplanted porcine kidney was discharged from the hospital. The operation took place on March 21 in the US state of Massachusetts. The 62-year-old man has no signs of organ rejection and is in stable condition. However, doctors are in no hurry to draw conclusions about the success of the operation.
The earthquake in Taiwan was the most powerful in 25 years. Its maximum magnitude was 7.7. According to experts, the power of the earthquake is equivalent to 32 nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The echo of underground strikes was felt in Japan and the Philippines.