Day: May 29, 2026

The group had been hunting for gold when they were cut off inside the cavern in an isolated part of the country after flash floods hit on 20 May, News.Az reports, citing the BBC.

Five were discovered alive on Wednesday when rescue divers found them huddled together 300m (984ft) from the cave mouth. Two other men are still missing.

On Friday one of the divers put a picture on Facebook showing a man being dragged to safety. The Thai rescue group added: “The first victim has been successfully rescued out of the cave.”

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The rescue in the remote mountain area of central Xaysomboun province has been a race against time.

Thunderstorms had been predicted for Friday evening along with rain in 60 per cent of the region.

Thai rescue team member Kengkard Bonggawong said on social media: “One person has got out of the cave safely.

“We will assess the other four and we will hunt for the other two tomorrow.”

Footage of the five men shot on Wednesday showed them miserable and caked in mud, telling rescuers they were suffering chest pains and starving hungry.

The rescue comes after experts had originally planned to pump out flood waters that were stopping the men from getting to safety.

That plan initially failed and a last resort was discussed of teaching the trapped men how to scuba dive and swim out.

It has not yet been disclosed exactly how the first man was brought to safety, but the rescuers say they will explain later.

The trapped group’s plight has captured the imagination of the international diving community and on Friday more help arrived.

Specialist divers from Thailand, Indonesia, France and Australia landed in Laos to provide extra expertise.

The rescue is similar to the case of the Thai youth football team, who were trapped in cave for 18 days in 2018.

Finnish diver Mikko Paasi was involved in that rescue and the current emergency in Laos.

The post First of five men found alive in flooded Laos cave rescued​ appeared first on azeritimes.com.

He said Iran must agree to never have a nuclear weapon or bomb, that the Strait of Hormuz be reopened for “unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions”, and that any mines in the waterway are “destroyed”, News.Az reports, citing the BBC.

Trump said Friday’s meeting was held in the White House’s Situation Room, used for dealing with major crises. Iran earlier said it was not negotiating its nuclear programme.

US officials said on Thursday the two countries had agreed a framework of a deal – known as a memorandum of understanding – pending the approval of Trump and Iran’s leadership.

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The deal would reportedly extend the ceasefire for 60 days and launch talks on the future of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Since the ceasefire came into effect on 8 April, Trump has repeatedly suggested the US and Iran are close to a deal and negotiations are progressing, but so far there have been no substantive results.

In Friday’s post on Truth Social, Trump said he was prepared to lift the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and ships caught in the waterway “may start the process of ‘heading home!’”

He also insisted Iran allows the US to remove and destroy its enriched uranium.

“No money will be exchanged, until further notice,” he said. “Other items, of far less importance, have been agreed to.”

Later on Friday, a White House official confirmed to the BBC that the meeting in the Situation Room had concluded. The official provided no further details.

US and Iran ‘very close’ to deal but ‘not there yet’, Vance says

Iran’s Fars news agency cited informed sources as saying that Trump’s latest comments were a “mixture of truth and lies”.

There was no provision to destroy nuclear materials in the sides’ memorandum of understanding, the agency reported.

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told state TV it was “focused on ending the war, and there are no negotiations on the nuclear issue”.

The US has long demanded that Iran stop producing highly enriched uranium and dispose of its existing stockpile, which in theory could be used to create nuclear weapons.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and denies it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

On Thursday, US Vice-President JD Vance said negotiators were “going back and forth on a couple of language points”, which include the “question of enrichment”.

“We’re not there yet, but we’re very close and we’re going to keep on working at it,” he said.

Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said earlier on Friday that it has “no trust in guarantees or words”, only actions.

“No action will be taken before the other side acts,” he said in a social media post. “The winner of any agreement is the one who is better prepared for war the day after.”

The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February. Iran responded by attacking Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf, and effectively closed the strait, which has sent global oil prices soaring.

Both Iran and the US have accused each other of violating the ceasefire in recent days.

On Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it targeted a US air base in Kuwait that was “the source” of earlier strikes on Bandar Abbas, a strategic Iranian port city near the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command said the attack on Kuwait was an “egregious ceasefire violation”.

The post Trump holds meeting to make “final determination” on Iran deal​ appeared first on azeritimes.com.

Speaking at a press conference in Astana on 29 May, Putin said the economic implications of such a move should be carefully assessed, News.Az reports, citing News Armenia.

He compared recent economic growth trends in Russia and the European Union, stating that Russia recorded GDP growth of 4.1% in 2023, 4.9% in 2024 and around 1% in 2025, amounting to 10.3% over three years.

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By contrast, he said EU growth stood at -0.4% in 2023, 1.1% in 2024 and 1.5% in 2025.

Putin also highlighted economic performance within the EAEU, stating that the bloc recorded growth of 4.3% in 2023, 5% in 2024 and 1.7% in 2025, amounting to 11.4% over the three-year period.

The post Armenia could lose 14% of GDP if it quits EAEU, Putin says​ appeared first on azeritimes.com.

Het weer vandaag en de weersverwachting tot 14 dagen vooruit. Bekijk het weerbericht, buien radar voor meer dan 2,3 miljoen plaatsen op Meteovista.

Among nearly 20,000 bottles are rare wines and spirits linked to Napoleon Bonaparte, Russian emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II, as well as Joseph Stalin, News.Az reports, citing News Georgia.
The Georgian National Wine Agency has launched a large-scale study of the historic enoteca. Experts are expected to catalogue and identify each bottle, determine its origin, age and potential collector value. The rarest items may later be offered for sale at international auctions.
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Officials say the collection is already being described as one of the most valuable wine archives in the post-Soviet space.
Even without the high-profile names attached to some bottles, the cellar contains 19th-century Georgian and European wines, vintage cognacs, champagne associated with the Bagration-Mukhrani princely family, and other rarities. Some bottles are believed to be more than 200 years old.
The enoteca is located on the grounds of the former “Wine Factory No. 1” in Tbilisi’s Vere district. The complex was built in the 1890s with funding from entrepreneur and philanthropist David Sarajishvili, the founder of a major Georgian brandy enterprise, and was considered one of the most advanced wineries of its time.
At its peak, the collection reportedly included around 120,000 bottles. Wars, revolution and the Soviet period led to the loss of much of the archive, though roughly a third of it has survived.
Today, the site has been converted into a public space with bars and restaurants, while the historic bottles remain stored in an underground cellar at a constant temperature of around 18°C, covered in decades of dust.
The collection is also tied to a popular local legend claiming that some of Napoleon’s cognacs were brought to Tbilisi after the 1812 war, allegedly seized during the French retreat from Moscow. There is no documentary evidence to support the story, but it has long contributed to the cellar’s near-mythical reputation.
Interest in the project has already extended beyond Georgia, with representatives of major auction houses, international collectors, and Pierre Lurton, president of the French wine estate Château d’Yquem, attending a presentation of the collection.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze described the archive as “an instrument of cultural diplomacy”, saying it could help draw global attention to Georgia as the cradle of winemaking.

The post Georgia to auction rare historic wine collection from century-old Tbilisi cellar appeared first on azeritimes.com.

The statement, signed by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Russian Federation and made public by the Kremlin, supported a proposal for Armenia to hold a nationwide referendum “in the shortest possible time” on whether to pursue EU membership or remain within the Eurasian Economic Union, News.Az reports, citing News Armenia.
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It cites actions taken by Yerevan, including what it describes as the Armenian parliament’s approval in 2025 and the president’s signing of a law initiating the process of accession to the European Union. It also references the EU’s endorsement of Armenia’s European aspirations at a joint Armenia–EU declaration adopted on 5 May 2026.
The signatories said that representatives of the EAEU intergovernmental council from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia would report at the next meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in December 2026 on possible consequences of suspending the EAEU treaty in relation to Armenia.

The post EAEU leaders call for Armenia referendum over EU path, Kremlin says appeared first on azeritimes.com.

Humans and robots jointly took part in the Mach 33: Physical AI Fashion Show held in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. According to the organizing company, Galaxy Corporation, this was the world’s first fashion show where “human imagination and cutting-edge technology merged on a single stage”, AzerNEWS reports.

Humans and robots jointly took part in the Mach 33: Physical AI Fashion Show held in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. According to the organizing company, Galaxy Corporation, this was the world’s first fashion show where “human imagination and cutting-edge technology merged on a single stage”, AzerNEWS reports.