📹 🇨🇦 “This is OK for children? No, it’s not!” – shouts an activist rallying against all ages drag queen brunch at “The Vegan Hippie Chick” restaurant in Canada’s Welland, Ontario on Sunday.

The video was shared by an independent journalist Leigh Stewart who wrote that besides those who opposed the event there were also “a few that are here to protest the protesters”.

Canadian mainstream media generally sees drag queens addressing children as “a simple, timeless idea”:

"Children gather around a storyteller to hear a tale, maybe join a singalong. In this scenario, the storyteller just happens to be in drag — so the stories are delivered with a bit more glitz, glamour and maybe some sparkly platform boots." - writes CBC journo

The US and Canada have moved towards normalizing LGBTQ topics at schools. The book in the video has a foreword by Marti Cummings – a US drag queen who was recently invited by Joe Biden to the White House.

Russia has banned LGBTQ lifestyles promotion.

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The New York Times has published a crossword that to some people looks suspiciously like a swastika.

Twitter users note that it wasn't the first time the NYT used such a design, it having previously appeared in 2014 and 2017. The last time this happened, the New York Times Games Twitter account dismissed the criticism of the crossword saying: "It's NOT a swastika. Honest to God."

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Greece, Turkey Hold Secret Talks in Brussels to Normalize Relations, Reports Say

Greece's Anna-Maria Bura met with Turkey's Ibrahim Kalin on December 16 in the presence of German Chancellor's foreign policy adviser Jens Ploetner, Germany's former ambassador to Greece, Greek media reported on Monday.

Turkey and Greece have been at odds for decades, with the risk of an armed conflict arising several times since 2020. The disputed issues include competing territorial claims in the Eastern Mediterranean, in particular in the region of the Aegean Sea, the Greek-Turkish divide in Cyprus, and the delimitation of maritime borders. Turkey has repeatedly accused Greece of deploying weapons on Aegean islands in violation of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.

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❗️Russian MoD’s briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️The Russian Army eliminated more than 20 Ukrainian servicemen, an infantry fighting vehicle, and two cars in the Kupyansk direction.

▪️Russian troops eliminated up to 70 militants, two armored combat vehicles, and two pickup trucks in the Krasny Liman direction

▪️Russian forces eliminated more than 130 Ukrainian servicemen, two tanks, three armored combat vehicles, and three cars in the Donetsk direction.

▪️The Russian Army hit Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized Brigade and 108th Territorial Defense Brigade groups in the South Donetsk direction.

▪️Russian troops eliminated two Ukrainian sabotage groups in the DPR, with Ukrainian Army losses amounting to 80 servicemen killed and wounded, as well as two armored combat vehicles and three pickup trucks destroyed.

▪️Russian air defenses shot down eight Ukrainian UAVs in the LPR, DPR, and the Kherson region, six HIMARS and Uragan rockets were intercepted in the DPR, LPR, and in the Zaporozhye region.

▪️Russian troops shot down four US-made HARM anti-radar missiles in the Belgorod region.

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Vox populi, vox Dei? Twitter users vote to oust Elon Musk in his own poll

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❗️Greece's plans to transfer S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine are provocative, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday, adding that all military equipment sent to Kiev would be destroyed by the Russian Armed Forces.

The spokeswoman added that such move would be a flagrant violation of the provisions of the Russian-Greek intergovernmental agreements on military-technical cooperation of October 30, 1995 and on the supply of military products of December 3, 2013, which unambiguously prohibit Greece from re-exporting military equipment supplied by Moscow to a third party without Russia's consent.

On Sunday, Greek Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos said that the country's government is ready to send S-300 air defense systems from Crete to Ukraine if the US "installs the Patriot system in their place."

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❄️🐻‍❄️ Moscow Zoo has shared another load of cuteness!

This time the zoo has been focusing on those bundles of fun which are pandas who have been taking their morning run and are clearly oblivious to the snow!

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🇧🇾 The Belarusian military has completed a snap inspection of its combat readiness which started last week at the instruction of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the Defense Ministry said on Monday.

On December 13, the combat readiness assessment of the Belarusian armed forces was announced in Belarus as instructed by Lukashenko. Inspection measures covered various aspects, with troops advancing into designated areas, installing engineering equipment, organizing their defense and building crossings over the Neman and Berezina rivers, according to the defense ministry.

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🇪🇺 EU proposals to cap natural gas prices threaten to exacerbate an energy crisis which has already battered ordinary Europeans with outrageously high costs for heating and hot water, higher prices for fuel for vehicles, a jump in food prices, and galloping inflation.

But who really controls gas prices, and how are they set?

Check out this Sputnik explainer for answers.

Life of the world's shortest man: the story of Afshin Esmaeil Ghaderzadeh from Iran

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❗️EU countries reached political agreement on gas price cap within market correction mechanism framework – source

❗️UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ latest statements:

▪️UN is very interested in accelerating the exchange of prisoners of war in the Ukraine conflict;

▪️Guterres strongly hopes that peace in Ukraine will be reached in 2023;

▪️There is space for more serious discussion of UNSC reform, enlargement of the council still on the table;

▪️UN would like to increase exports under the grain deal framework;

▪️UN has completed inspections of Russian fertilizers in Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Estonia; the exports have been authorized.

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Les Bleus C'est Moi: French President's World Cup 'Hubris' Compared to Absolutist Monarchs

Macron drew criticism over his "over-the-top" comments in Qatar after France lost to Argentina in a penalty shoot-out following a thrilling 3-3 draw in extra time.

The commentator pointed out that his closing line of "Vive la République, vive la France" made it sound like a political campaign stump speech — in contrast to the president's previous reluctance to politicize the football tournament in the Persian Gulf monarchy of Qatar.

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❗️Latest statements by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov:

▪️Russia’s special operation was absolutely necessary to thwart plans to turn Ukraine into an "anti-Russia";

▪️There will be a long era of transition to multipolarity and it will not be simple;

▪️The main result of this year is that the situation has finally become clear — who can be trusted, and who cannot;

▪️The presidents of Russia and Belarus confirmed the course to strengthen the independence of the two countries in talks on Monday.

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