Both sides’ statements at the Trump-Jinping meeting naturally deserve attention. For example, Trump announced that the US intends to establish economic relations with China based on the principle of full reciprocity and parity.
 
Does this mean that the US president is abandoning the logic of economic sanctions, or is the statement just a diplomatic form, and in terms of content, Trump does not intend to maintain reciprocity and parity?
 
There is also a certain warning in Xi Jinping’s speech, which says that it is not necessary to allow the US-China relationship to fall into the “Thucydid’s trap”, when the struggle of the superpowers ends in a conflict.
 
The footnote of this review is remarkable, if we consider that the concept of “Thucydides’ trap” is defined in the sense that the newly forming power starts to oppose the already existing superpower. Perhaps Xi Jinping’s hint to Trump is that China is no longer an opposition to the US and is essentially not afraid of being a disproportionate victim in the event of a conflict.
 
Trump stated that personal contacts with Xi Jinping regularly helped to overcome complications. Trump also stated that Xi Jinping is a strong leader, and although many people don’t like him saying that, he will say again that Xi Jinping is a strong leader. “I always tell the truth,” Trump said.

Analyst Hakob Badalyan

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“Hraparak” daily writes.

The authorities recently conducted another internal survey and found out that the Armenian Apostolic Church, even after so many attacks and consistent discrediting, is the most trusted structure in Armenia. That is why the team was instructed not to talk much about the provisions against the Armenian Apostolic Church in the CP pre-election program, which are, in fact, anti-constitutional provisions. Let us remind you that the pre-election program of the CP party states that the actual head of the Church, that is, the Catholicos, should be changed.

“In order to solve the problem of having a valuable spiritual life, the renovation of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church is a vital necessity. In recent decades, as a result of the activities of the actual leadership of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, the religious community has been alienated and continues to be alienated from the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, which, among other things, is a problem of spiritual security, because it has created an opportunity for external forces to try to turn the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church into a stronghold of the hybrid struggle against the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia. The “Civil Contract” party supports the agenda of the improvement of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church and adopts the following road map: a) Removal of the de facto head of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church (retirement title), b) Election of the Catholicos vicar in the established order, c) Adoption of the Charter of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church.

According to the charter, structures should be established to ensure the maintenance of fixed principles, financial transparency and the good behavior of clergymen. In the ruling team, it can be said, a veto was placed on the discussion of this issue, with the calculation that after the elections on June 7, when they win, they will announce that they have also received approval for the implementation of their anti-Church plan, so they will start a new and stronger attack against the Holy Father and the Church.

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Yesterday, students and teachers took part in the “Civil Agreement” campaign in Aragatsotn region during school hours. This fact appeared in the press, raised a wave of criticism, which forced the CEC to issue a statement.

“The Central Electoral Commission reiterates that administrative resources are the human, financial, and material means possessed by public office holders and public service officials during elections, due to their control over personnel, finances, and allocations in the public sector.

It is prohibited to use administrative resources during the organization and implementation of pre-election campaign to those in public service, employees of healthcare or medical organizations, educational institutions, preschool educational institutions while exercising their powers or acting in their official capacity.

Once again, we call for the pre-election campaign to be carried out within the framework of the Electoral Code constitutional law,” the CEC statement said.

Human rights defender Anahit Manasyan also made a toothless statement, in which he lightly scolded the government, without pointing out the direct addressee.

“Regarding the published information about the disruption of the educational process during the election campaign, the Human Rights Defender considers it necessary to emphasize that the unimpeded, continuous and full realization of children’s right to education during the election process should be prioritized and guaranteed.

The defender reaffirms that the state, educational institutions and all competent bodies are obliged to guarantee such an environment where the educational process will not be disrupted by any external interference, including actions caused by political processes.

The defender of human rights emphasizes the provision of such practices by educational institutions and competent authorities, which will exclude the interruption or disruption of the educational process during class hours.

The Ombudsman’s staff continues to monitor the issues related to the protection of human rights during the electoral processes, ensuring impartial, independent and non-political activity within the scope of its mandate,” the HRD statement said.

However, as can be seen, none of these state speakers directly mentioned the name of CP party, that the children were cut off from school, and so were their teachers, just to participate in the propaganda of Nikol Pashinyan.

By the way, Pashinyan also assured the question addressed to him that any violation will not remain without consequences, an investigation will be conducted.

And we can imagine what legal consequences and information noise would arise if this happened during the opposition campaign…

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This government cannot manage, and if the government cannot manage, then it must go. Gagik Tsarukyan, the leader of the “Prosperous Armenia” party, announced this during the pre-election campaign in the communities of Tavush region.

According to him, an entire nation should not suffer and be discredited because of the government. He pointed out all the problems that these authorities have brought upon RA. Foreign debt reaching 15 billion dollars, a difficult social situation, and with those 15 billion dollars, no serious economic program was implemented, no factory was built.

“I didn’t graduate from Harvard, but I graduated from the school of life. Nothing is impossible, everything is solvable, you just need the right specialists, party affiliation should not matter, but a person’s knowledge, work, and respect. Today they say: you elected Tsarukyan, you will vote for Lukashenko, and I say: whoever voted for CP, will vote for Aliyev and Erdogan,” stated Gagik Tsarukyan.

The PAP leader urged the participants of the meeting to definitely participate in the elections, voting according to their conscience.

Details in the video

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In Armenia, an alarm of a fake batch of medicine has been received again. This is reported by the RA health and labor inspection body.

“According to the letter received by the “Drugs and Medical Technology Expert Center” SNOC on May 11, the Hoffman-La Roche company provided information regarding the counterfeiting of Perjeta (pertuzumab) concentrate solution for drip injection 30 mg/ml, glass vial 14 ml of drug N7796 series,” the message said.

AATM is requested to be careful and avoid the use of drug with series N7796.

It should be noted that the drug “Perjeta” is a means of fighting cancer and costs 999 thousand drams. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that fraudsters have counterfeited life-saving medication.

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The anti-corruption court accepted another lawsuit filed by the General Prosecutor’s Office regarding confiscation of property of illegal origin.

The department of confiscation of property of illegal origin of the General Prosecutor’s Office submitted a request to the court to confiscate in favor of the Republic of Armenia from Ruben Garniki Hovsepyan, former head of the Ajapnyak administrative district of Yerevan, former deputy of the RA National Assembly, and his related persons:

3 real estates, 2 of them in Yerevan city, 1 in Artashavan settlement of Ashtarak community.
1 vehicle.
Participation in 1 legal entity.
236 million 827 thousand drams as the balance of illegal funds.

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Davit Babayan, former foreign minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, who is in Azerbaijani captivity, appealed to all human rights defenders and people of good will. The audio message was transmitted to NEWS.am through Davit Babayan’s family, which we present below.

“Dear compatriots, Armenians around the world, people of goodwill around the world, human rights defenders, journalists,

I have to appeal to you, because I simply have no other alternative. You know that we have been here for three years now, legal proceedings are going on and, of course, with major violations, but recently another one has been added to these violations, my letter complaints addressed to the appeals court have disappeared, so that this case will also be reviewed in the appeals court, and we want to appeal to the international court.

My lawyer informed me about it on May 7, saying that it was the last day for submission of applications. It was, of course, a surprise, because the last day was supposed to be February 25, and on February 23, I sent two applications from the detention center, and one letter through the head of the detention center, requesting that this be sent. And all that has disappeared, is gone. I was forced to write another letter, but I don’t know the answer, so it is not excluded that they will try to prevent me from submitting my applications to the Court of Appeal.

Apart from that, my last appearance in the court of first instance on December 19, 2025 was also taken from the April 21 solitary confinement. This is also nothing but a move to destroy all critical speeches. Therefore, please all of you take this as information, to the international court as a proceeding, and to the international community for information, because we really want to go to the international court.

Therefore, I call on all Armenians and people of good will to help us in this matter. I am doing this for the sake of justice, democracy, protection of human rights, for true peace, and I think this is the only way in this direction. Therefore, I would also ask you to demand, to request that our last speeches be provided to you also on video, if they have not already been destroyed.

And now I would like to briefly present the court process, who knows what will happen to me tomorrow, so that you will be aware of what is happening in general. This ongoing trial is, of course, fake, all norms of humanity, justice, fairness, international law, their own legislation are grossly violated. I call for our patriotic Armenians to unite and defend our rights, because we will appeal to the international court. All their arguments are fabricated, empty, very weak. This trial is not a trial, it is an ethno-political vendetta, an ethno-political lynching aimed at the past, present and future of our people.

There were so many abuses and violations that even some lawyers mentioned it, saying that the time will come when they will be ashamed of all those violations. I would also say it will be painful, because there are certain ideas, certain unwritten laws, written laws, related to faith, the violation of which, even more so knowingly, voluntarily and daringly, is never forgiven. I have also quoted a saying from their Qur’an, which says that God does not like arrogant and self-righteous, self-satisfied people, and this is very important. I think it had an effect.

There are so many such violations that sometimes it even reaches a tragicomedy. For example, the first thing that catches the eye is that they wrote in the indictment that during the search they found two metal objects, white and yellow in color, they are my gold necklace with a cross and a silver tzbeh, both of them are handmade. Now it is mentioned as some kind of metal things of white and yellow color.

Then, the so-called explanations of the witnesses are very interesting. a witness who “recognized” me first told me: you are Vitaly Balasanyan, I remember you well, you beat me, tortured me. Then everyone said that he was a different person, but this one did not rest. My defense attorney said, he is not himself, this disrespected the defense attorney, he considered him an Armenian, then he saw that the situation was complicated, he started to do some kind of simulation.

The other one who “recognized” me was a man who said that I tortured him in the winter of 1994 and said that you have not changed at all, you are the same two meters tall, with a golden beard, mustache and hair, you have not changed in any way. Pointing to that, he said that in 1993 or 1992, we were beaten in a cruel way, we were hung with our heads down, we were kept in that situation for seven days, we were beaten with iron rods and some kind of sticks.

I say even bats that have evolved for millions of years can’t hang for seven days straight, how did you hang? Do you understand, in a normal court, at least three answers should be given to them, or these people should apologize, or they should be medically examined, maybe they have some problems, or they should be considered as defamation and sued.

Nothing happened, on the contrary, they came to all the trials, many, many other sessions, and they were shown the foreground, on their television.

It was also interesting that during a preliminary investigation they brought and showed the picture of the deputy of the NKR National Assembly Davit Galstyan, they said that this is a well-known mafioso, he sold weapons. I said, that person has nothing to do with it, then it turned out that this is another Davit Galstyan, the person called “Boss Davo”. But the problem is that 73 people have already testified against that deputy and personally, as if they saw him. When I told them, they got mixed up, left, came back after about two hours, said we changed, you will say that you saved Davit Galstyan’s life.

When we were accused of illegal economic activities, they said that the unrecognized states are illegal entities and to have economic ties with them is already a crime in itself. But what happened, during the trial, the simultaneous translation device was made in Taiwan. In other words, they judge separatists using the techniques of a separatist country, but they say that it is impossible to maintain contact with those states. This is despite the fact that their leadership visited China twice only in 2025 and announced there that they recognize Taiwan as part of China.

I am telling this based on the facts, this is the situation. I think there is state and geopolitical hatred, I have also pointed it out in my speeches.

Ordinary people don’t matter, people are normal everywhere, and we really saw a lot of people here, also very normal people who treated us well. In general, there is no bad nation, for that I am grateful to all normal people. Therefore, we must tell the truth as it is. We want justice, that’s why we present all this to the international community.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our friends who were by our side during these years, both in the homeland and in the diaspora, and our friends in different countries around the world, who even have serious problems with each other. Europe and America are especially active, and that is very good.

Don’t worry, everything is still normal with us in prison and so on. Thank you very much, because that struggle is not only for us, it is for justice, human rights, democracy”, stated Davit Babayan.

[SEE VIDEO]

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