⚽️ American "soccer" lost to worldwide "football" or how Dutch PM Mark Rutte joked with President Joe Biden after the Netherlands knocked the US out of the World Cup in Qatar.

A video posted on Twitter in which Biden says "It's called soccer" prompted a spate of wisecracks between the US president and Dutch PM. This is how Biden wished the US national team good luck ahead of their match in the World Cup round of 16 against the Dutch on Saturday at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.

But the Netherlands soon sunk the United States' World Cup dream by reaching the quarterfinals with a 3-1 victory - and Rutte quickly reacted to Biden's tweet:

😉 "Sorry Joe, football won," he wrote, adding a wink emoji

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Rome MED-2022 - 🇮🇹 Italy's top public diplomacy conference was held with 🇷🇺Russia in absentia, and with Moscow being blamed by the Europeans for the difficult situation in the energy sector and lessened food security in the greater Mediterranean. Moscow considers these negative trends an outcome of the flawed EU/US economic policies during the two years of COVID pandemic, with Ukrainian crisis only adding up to these problems. Unlike the Europeans, many delegates from the Arab World and North Africa weren't afraid of voicing their own independent opinion on the Ukrainian issue and on the topic of anti-Russian sanctions. Here is my recap of the Rome-MED conference. Subscribe to @BolotskySputnik

📹 The world is full of talented and unique people, and Sasa Dulovic from northern Montenegro is one of them. He creates art out of wood using a chainsaw.

Sasa enjoys his work and the creative process, and also succeeds in making money. Having no formal art education, he mostly draws inspiration from nature, from the mountains and forests around Kolasin, Montenegro

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🌍 In 1986, the United Nations General Assembly recognized December 2 as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. Three experts and activists from Africa told Sputnik why the issue of slavery is still of utmost importance in the modern world.

🗣 "Modern slavery is all around us, often hidden in plain sight. People can become enslaved making our clothes, serving our food, picking our crops, working in factories, or working in houses as cooks, cleaners or nannies. Victims of modern slavery might face violence or threats, be forced into inescapable debt, or have their passport taken away and face being threatened with deportation," says Method Dallu, a youth development activist from Tanzania

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📹 Residents of Severodonetsk speak about their opinion of Ukraine’s president

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Hulk Smashed: Mark Ruffalo Blasted Online After Calling for Twitter to Be Censored

Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo got ratioed by his own followers after demanding that Twitter be heavily regulated to prevent the spread of “misinformation” and attacking Elon Musk, the company’s new owner, as a beacon for racists and misogynists

“As a worldwide ‘public square’, this app should be heavily regulated for misinformation and spamming by hostile interests,” Ruffalo wrote in a tweet December 1.

“If Elon can’t do that with his ‘company’, it should be seen as a public utility under governmental supervision. This system unregulated will be more deadly,” the actor added

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📹 A Russian soldier recalls how he was treated during his captivity by the Ukrainian military

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Too Bright and Not a Star: How Huge Satellite Spoils Space Observations

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is concerned about the level of light pollution coming from AST SpaceMobile's new artificial satellite BlueWalker 3. Light pollution is the illumination of the night sky by artificial sources that interfere with astronomical observations.

The space researchers, in a collective appeal, stated that the 64m2 phased array orbiter has "unprecedented brightness" and noted their concern over AST SpaceMobile planning to launch several dozen more BlueWalker-type satellites in the future

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🗣 "[Ukrainian soldiers] forced captured Russian soldiers to walk and crawl with bullet holes in their knees" – a Russian serviceman describes the abuse in Ukrainian captivity

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📹 Russia's MoD has published footage showing Russian aviation crews performing combat actions during the special military operation

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Japan, US Mull Hypersonic Missile Defense Research Amid Chinese, North Korean Advances

China has become the second country in the world to deploy a hypersonic weapons system with its DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle. Now Japan and the United States are trying ways to unite for joint research on technologies related to the interception of hypersonic glide weapons.

Check out: Will this cooperation be successful?

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👉 Follow our LIVE UPDATES on the Ukrainian crisis

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💸 Germany plans to buy 35 F-35A Lightning II fighters for $10.5Bln, American media has reported citing a government document. The money for the acquisition of the single-engine stealth multirole combat aircraft and other items will come from a special fund of ($105.4Bln) which the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced earlier this year

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🐤 An outbreak of bird flu in Japan led to 310,000 chickens to be culled in the Aichi Prefecture in the Chubu district of Honshu. This is the first such outbreak in 11 years, according to local authorities. There have been several outbreaks of bird flu in recent weeks in Japan and about 3.3 million chickens have been culled in the country since the first outbreak on 28 October

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The Iranian government supports the bid of Belarus to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Iran's Ambassador to Minsk, Saeed Yari, said.

In an interview with a Belarussian TV channel, Saeed noted that Belarus wants to become a member of this "important player in the economy" in which countries such as China, India, Russia, Iran and Pakistan "can resist the West in all directions".

🗣 "We know that Belarus has begun the process of joining this organization, and we, of course, support this. We are friendly countries and should use these opportunities to confront Europe and America," Yari added

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📈 The economic crisis has beset the UK for several months now. Annual inflation in the country reached 11.1 percent in October.

On Monday, the Confederation of British Industry forecast that the UK economy will fall by 0.4 percent in 2023 as inflation remains high and businesses suspend investment.

🗣 "Britain is in stagflation - with rocketing inflation, negative growth, falling productivity and business investment. Firms see potential growth opportunities but ... headwinds are causing them to pause investing in 2023," CBI Director-General Tony Danker said

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