Last December, Vladimir Putin held a secret award ceremony for North Korean generals who participated in the fighting against the Ukrainian army in the Kursk region. NK News reports this. The fact that such a ceremony took place became known after the opening of a memorial museum in Pyongyang on April 27, where photographs of the award ceremony were exhibited. In the photographs, Putin personally presents Russian state awards to the North Korean military.

Russian artist and political prisoner Vladimir Yarotsky, who was imprisoned for drawing a caricature of Vladimir Putin, has died in a penal colony. Independent Russian outlets Politzek-Info and SotaVision reported that Yarotsky committed suicide during the night of May 6 to 7 at the IK-7 penal colony in Khadyzhensk, a city in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai. His death was disclosed in a letter from Alexander Nozdrinov, another political prisoner held at the same colony.

In today's summary: In the Kharkov direction, the Russian military is conducting attacks in the Volchansk region and in the northeast of the Kharkov region On the Seversky ledge, the Russian Armed Forces announced the capture of the village of Krivaya Luka on the right bank of the Seversky Donets In the Konstantinovka direction, Russian attempts to envelop Konstantinovka from the flanks continue In the southern Donetsk direction, units of the Russian Armed Forces are advancing at the junction of

Plants survived the asteroid impact that destroyed the dinosaurs by doubling their own genomes, an international group of biologists came to this conclusion and published their work in the journal Cell. An analysis of 470 species of flowering plants showed that bursts of polyploidization (doubling of the complete set of chromosomes) occur precisely during periods of global climatic catastrophes and mass extinctions.

The Russian Ministry of Finance and the Federal Treasury are delaying the publication of monthly data on the execution of the federal budget. The last report for February appeared on March 23, new information for March was never published. Typically, brief monthly information on budget execution appears on the Treasury website on the 23rd–24th of each month.

Taiwan's parliament has approved a special defense budget of 780 billion Taiwan dollars (about $25 billion), which authorities say is necessary to strengthen defense against China. Bloomberg writes about this. Taiwanese President Lai Qingde initially asked for NT$1.25 trillion, but lawmakers cut the amount. At the same time, the approved package turned out to be larger than the proposal of the opposition Kuomintang party, which insisted on 380 billion.

The Russian Ministry of Justice added Igor Efimov, professor of biomedical engineering and medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, to the register of “foreign agents.” According to the department, Efimov disseminated “unreliable information” about the decisions of the Russian authorities and interacted with organizations recognized as “undesirable.” Along with him, the register included philosopher Mikhail Epstein, Free Russia Foundation project coordinator Anton Mikhalchuk, activists

Since February 15, 2024, the Belgian depository Euroclear has transferred about €6.6 billion from the income received from the reinvestment of frozen Russian assets to the European Fund for Ukraine. This is stated in the company's report for the first quarter of 2026, published on May 8. The next tranche in favor of Ukraine is estimated at €1.4 billion and should be transferred in July 2026.

Anthropic has published the research agenda of its new division, the Anthropic Institute (TAI). The document covers four areas: the impact of AI on the economy, security threats, the interaction of AI systems with society, and the independent acceleration of AI development. The economics section asks whether the spread of AI will lead to mass unemployment or unprecedented productivity growth.

TASS, RIA Novosti and other Kremlin media outlets talk about the spread of hantavirus infection in combat units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The report “TASS: Ukrainian Armed Forces are suffering non-combat losses from hantavirus” says : “Ukrainian military personnel sick with hantavirus do not receive medical care due to a corresponding ban from their commanders, Russian law enforcement agencies told TASS. "Hantavirus is spreading massively in the Kharkov, Sumy and Lviv regions.

The Dutch data protection regulator (AP) has fined MLU, which operates taxi service Yango in Norway and Finland, €100 million. This was reported by De Telegraaf with reference to the AP decision. According to the department’s findings, MLU transferred personal data of clients and drivers to Russia without sufficient security guarantees. The AP has been investigating since late 2023 together with regulators in Norway and Finland.

Trump said that on his initiative, from May 9 to 11, a truce will be declared between Russia and Ukraine, and prisoners of war will be exchanged in a 1000 to 1000 format. He announced this on his social network Truth social. “I am pleased to announce that during the war between Russia and Ukraine a THREE-DAY truce will be declared (May 9, 10 and 11).

The lead singer of the band Tokio Hotel, Bill Kaulitz, through the court, obtained the removal of homophobic publications by Julian Adrat, a member of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD). According to Der Spiegel, the Hamburg Regional Court banned Adrat from disseminating statements about the musician’s sexual orientation, considering them “targeted discredit.” The reason for the conflict was Adrat’s publications on Twitter (X) in March.

Turkey is preparing a bill to expand maritime jurisdiction in the disputed areas of the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, Bloomberg reports , citing sources familiar with the situation. The document should be Ankara's first step towards formalizing its claims and claiming rights to potential natural gas deposits in the region.

On the night of May 8, Ukrainian drones attacked several regions of Russia. Grozny, Rostov-on-Don, Yaroslavl, Perm and Moscow came under attack. In Rostov, a drone hit the administrative building of the Aeronavigation of the South of Russia branch, after which the Russian Ministry of Transport announced changes in the work of the regional air traffic control center in the south of the country.