Cristiano Ronaldo Banned From Making Debut for Saudi Arabia's Al-Nassr

Newly surfaced reports have indicated football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo will be unavailable to make his official debut for Saudi Arabia's Al-Nassr club on Thursday as he's expected to serve out a two-match ban.

The ban was handed down by the FA after Ronaldo smacked a cellphone out of the hand of an Everton fan at a match in April between Everton and Manchester United, his former club. The 14-year-old fan’s mother said his hand had been left “bruised,” and that he was “in complete shock” due to Ronaldo's outburst. The boy was also reportedly autistic.

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Never Gonna Give You Up: US Will Continue Backing Venezuela's Guaido Despite Opposition Jumping Ship

"Our approach to [Venezuelan President] Nicolas Maduro is not changing,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price stated in comments to reporters on Wednesday. The head of state recognized by the country’s military and civic institutions, Price insisted, “is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela.”

Instead, the US will “continue to recognise” what Price called “the only remaining democratically elected institution in Venezuela today… the 2015 National Assembly.”

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📹 Russian Army destroys Ukrainian strongholds and armored vehicles with new-generation precision-guided munitions (video courtesy of Russia’s MoD)

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🥴 Moments before voting is set to resume in the House chamber, Rep. Kevin McCarthy says he doesn't want another House speaker vote.

"I think it's probably best to let people work through it some more. I don't think a vote tonight does any difference but a vote in the future will."

The House will have to clear another motion in order to adjourn the session.

‼️US House clears motion and adjourns until Thursday at 12 p.m local time

Poland’s WWII Reparations Demands of Germany Constitute ‘Extortion’ at US’ Behest, Analyst Suggests

Poland was almost certainly egged on by its overseas allies in Washington and London to start a diplomatic storm in a teacup with its German neighbor by demanding new World War II reparations, Scott Bennett, a former US Army psychological warfare operations officer-turned whistleblower, has told Sputnik.

Citing the long-term US objective of “enslaving Europe” politically and economically, Bennett said it remains to be seen whether Berlin will “allow itself to be enslaved” or rediscover its national pride and “reject the slavery the US is attempting to burden them with, and become their own masters of their own destiny in the future.”

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A private American spy firm is using illegal technology to track over a billion people across the globe and using a British intelligence cutout extensively linked to NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine to funnel the data to the UK military, new documents show.

According to independent American investigative outlet The Grayzone, leaked files indicate that surveillance technology used by the company in question, Anomaly 6, has “enabled the planning of military offensives and artillery attacks, assassinations, asset recruitment, and other measures” via “aggressive harvesting of data.”

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Israeli Opposition Condemns ‘Unilateral Coup’ Amid Politicized Push to Weaken Judiciary

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has condemned an attempted overhaul of the court system by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition as a “unilateral coup.”

In comments published by Israeli media, Lapid noted the apparent push to erode the judiciary’s independence came just one day before justices were set to debate a controversial new law that would allow a politician to circumvent a ban on convicted criminals serving as ministers

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🗣️ "I’ll paraphrase the phrase of my old neighborhood: The rest of the countries, the world is not a patch in our jeans, if we do what we wanna do, we need to do,” President Biden clarified while he was speaking in Kentucky about the state's infrastructure

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An officer of the New York City Police Department has been suspended without pay after he was caught on camera landing blows on the head of an 14-year-old girl after being called in to break up a fight.

A video of the incident has been widely shared on social media

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🇸🇪 King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has once again slammed the law of absolute primogeniture that was introduced in 1980 and made retrospective.

🗣️ “It’s tricky to have laws that work retroactively. It doesn’t seem wise. You can accept the next generation, that’s okay. But it was my son who was born, and they changed quite a lot, and he lost it all. It’s quite strange. You can’t do that,” the 76-year-old monarch said in an interview to mark the start of his Golden Jubilee year

In 1979, Sweden introduced a constitutional amendment implying the throne would be inherited by the monarch’s eldest child regardless of gender, becoming the first country in Western Europe to legally adopt absolute primogeniture

India Surpasses China in Buying Russian Crude Amid G7 Price Cap

🛢 This marks the first time that India's imports of Russian crude have exceeded China's, with the latter decreasing by 27 percent to 770,000 barrels per day in December.

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😨 Amazon.com, Inc. is to lay off around 18,000 staff as part of the massive e-retailer’s move to tighten its belt in the face of a looming extended economic downturn.

Amazon Stores and the Amazon's People Experience and Technology Solutions (PXT Solutions) team are among the ones to suffer cuts, revealed a memo from CEO Andy Jassy. Shared with Amazon staff, the announcement made a reference to the US media reports on the cuts made at the end of 2022, stating:

“We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted. However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me.”

Australia Will Buy American HIMARS Missile Systems to Deploy by 2026-2027

The acquisition package, valued at over $1 billion Australian dollars ($682.3 million), will include Kongsberg-made Naval Strike Missiles to replace aging Harpoon anti-ship missiles on Australian warships starting 2024, the government said.

💬 "Defense will also acquire the land-based, long-range, surface-to-surface High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which includes launchers, missiles and training rockets. The HIMARS system will be in use by 2026-27, providing the Australian Army with a significant capability boost," the statement read.

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❗️ Key points of phone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan:

▪️Both parties discussed the Syria crisis, the situation in Ukraine, and bilateral relations;

▪️In his phone conversation with Putin, Erdogan stated the need for political steps by Damascus to achieve results on Syria;

▪️Erdogan discussed the gas hub project with Putin, and hopes to complete work on a road map soon;

▪️Both parties discussed further expansion of trade, economic ties, above all in the field of energy;

▪️Putin noted the West’s destructive role in pumping Kiev with weapons, providing information and target designation;

▪️Putin confirmed to Erdogan that Russia is open to dialogue if Kiev fulfills the known preconditions in line with new territorial realities;

▪️Both parties positively assess Russia-Turkey-Syria defense, intel talks, hope contacts improve the situation in Syria.

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During the New Year celebrations, some cities paid tribute to the king of football, Pelé, who died on 29 December from complications of cancer.

Pele was honored with choreography performed by 80 drones, which through the medium of colored lights recounted his life story from his birth in the mining city of Três Corações to his arrival at Santos FC in 1956. The drones were filled with lights and formed various shapes in the sky, including a silhouette of the late World Cup star

⚡️Germany will require Covid test for China arrivals, minister says