1 Russia The Russian National Defense Control Center reported that the Russian Northern Fleet escorted 4 NATO missile frigates. The NATO warships entered the Barents Sea on the morning of 4th of May, on Monday. 2 Venezuela The press service of the Venezuelan Ministry of Defense announced the start of a new stage of the military exercises »Bolivarian Shield 2020». «The priority will be given to the coastal region» — the press service quoted the head of the Venezuelan Ministry of Defense, Vladimir Padrino Lopez. It was underlined that the Venezuelan military will monitor the coastal areas in order to prevent the infiltration of «individuals, or even cells of conspirators who want to undermine the peace in Venezuela». Earlier the Venezuelan authorities reported that they prevented an invasion of a group of mercenaries from Colombia. The mercenaries intended to carry out a coup in Venezuela. According to the chairman of the Venezuelan Constitutional Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, the mercenaries tried to enter Venezuela by boats, from the sea. The Colombian Foreign Ministry denied the accusations by the Venezuelan authorities regarding the invasion of mercenaries to carry out a coup d’état in Venezuela. The ministry stated that Caracas accuses Bogotá in order to distract the attention from the internal Venezuelan problems. 3 Lebanon The Lebanese President, Michel Aun, said during an interview to the RIA NEWS that the Western states intentionally impede the Russian initiative to return the Syrian refugees back to their homeland. “The international community is using this issue in a bad faith. They want to leave this ticking bomb in the form of refugees in the countries around Syria, even if it will undermine the society, the security, and the economy in countries such as Lebanon. They don’t want to share the responsibility for the refugees with these countries, despite the great opportunities in Europe and the USA” — said Michel Aun. The Lebanese President underlined that Beirut and Moscow work closely on the issue of returning of the Syrians back home. According to him — the Western countries are slowing down the return of the refugees under the pretext of their alleged waiting for the final political solution to the Syrian crisis, that will happen «not for a long while», which in turn will lead to disastrous consequences for Lebanon. 4 Iran The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, stated that the US won’t be able to extend the arms embargo on Iran, which expires in October. Tehran opposes the extension of the arms embargo against Iran in the UN Security Council — said Abbas Mousavi. «However, if this happens, Iran will respond to this step in an appropriate and decisive manner» — the ‘Fars’ news agency quoted Abbas Mousavi. Earlier the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced that the USA will do everything possible to extend the arms embargo against Iran, and prevent Tehran from buying weapons from Russia or China. 5 the USA The «Associated Press» reported that the experts from the US Department of Homeland Security believe that the Chinese authorities hid some of the data on the spread of the new coronavirus in order to stockpile on the medical supplies. Beijing also failed to provide the WHO with timely information on how contagious the coronavirus really is. The »Associated Press» didn’t provide the evidence for this version of events, nor did they explain how the agency’s analysts came to such conclusions. On Sunday, Donald Trump stated on-air of the ‘Fox News’ that the Chinese authorities didn’t take timely measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Washington intends to find out what caused it. Donald Trump added that the Chinese authorities made a mistake at the early stage of the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, and then they misled the international community in an attempt to hide their mistake.