🤔What's Going on With the US House This Friday?

🔹Rep. Kevin McCarthy picked up 15 new votes but still fell short of the gavel

🔹US House will head to a historic 14th ballot

🔹Lower chamber has adjourned until 10 p.m. EST

➡️The last tally had McCarthy with 214 ballots; however, he presently needs 217 in order to win the speaker vote as at least two House lawmakers are out of town

💬 "I remember even when I was a kid, Russia was demonized by the US government. So this has been going on for decades. And so that's kind of been the playbook now. And you see Twitter has also done this to other accounts. You know, the fact that people have this label now that says Russia affiliated media here, it gives people the perspective that they either should not listen to that type of media, or that if they listen to that type of media, they shouldn't believe what they say because they may be affiliated with Russia," says Sabrina Salvati, an activist, leftist, and podcaster.

🎧 Listen to more of Salvati's views in our podcast Fault Lines: New Leaks Reveal Twitter's Role in Promoting Russiagate

📹 Russian Grad MLRS hit Ukrainian targets as part of the special military operation in Ukraine

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🇯🇵🇺🇸 Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura on Friday held a meeting with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in Washington, where the sides agreed to boost cooperation in the field of semiconductors production on the Japanese territory.

The minister also said that the Japanese government had decided to invest 70 billion yen [$526 million] into semiconductor company Rapidus and is going to continue to provide assistance.

The ministerial meeting was attended by the chiefs of both companies, where the parties discussed issues of joint training of personnel for Rapidus at IBM facilities, promotion of sales channels and others.

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Venezuelan Embassy in US Ceases Operations After Guaido's 'Interim Government' Dissolved

The Venezuelan embassy in the United States, which had been under control of Juan Guaido since 2019, said it has ended its operations after the opposition leader's interim government was dissolved.

"We inform the Venezuelan community in the United States, and the public in general, that the Venezuelan Embassy in the United States and all its officials formally ceased functions on Thursday, January 5, 2023," the statement read on Friday.

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Prominent CPAC Leader Matt Schlapp Accused of 'Pummeling' Male Staffer's Genitals

A former male aide for the Hershal Walker campaign is accusing Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union and a prominent leader in conservative politics, of groping him.

“From Manuel’s Tavern to the Hilton Garden Inn there at the Atlanta airport, he literally had his hands on me. Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length.”

“To my shame, I did not say ‘no’ or ‘stop,’” the staffer continues in a video obtained by NBC. “God knows it was not a wanted advance.”

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Virginia Police: Six-Year-Old Student Shot Teacher After Altercation in First-Grade Classroom

Local authorities have detailed that the incident took place at the Richneck Elementary School, and that the teacher - a woman in her 30s - sustained life-threatening injuries. Officials have said her condition has improved somewhat.

The firearm used in the shooting incident has been recovered, and the child has been taken into police custody.

“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew told reporters. “We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

‼️Jetstar Flight Makes Emergency Landing Over Bomb Threat

A Jetstar flight made an emergency landing at Japan's Chubu Centrair International Airport early Saturday after a bomb threat was made.

Local media reported no injuries were recorded, and that police were inspecting the aircraft.

“If you move, you’ll be executed”: Mariupol State University staff talk about how the Ukrainian military's neo-Nazi Azov militants set up their headquarters in the building

💬 "I think what would need to happen is we would need to have actually people in Congress to be on board for this and create some type of legislation that explicitly says that these agencies, the FBI, the CIA and the IRS, they cannot be involved with instructing social media what they can and cannot have on their platform," says Sabrina Salvati, an activist, leftist, and podcaster.

🎧 Listen to more of Salvati's views in our podcast Fault Lines: New Leaks Reveal Twitter's Role in Promoting Russiagate

US Imposes Sanctions Targeting Iranian UAV, Ballistic Missile Industries

💬 "We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to deny Putin the weapons that he is using to wage his barbaric and unprovoked war on Ukraine," US Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen said in a press release. "The Kremlin’s reliance on suppliers of last resort like Iran shows their desperation in the face of brave Ukrainian resistance and the success of our global coalition in disrupting Russian military supply chains and denying them the inputs they need to replace weapons lost on the battlefield."

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Grab Your Shovels: Map Pointing Towards Nazi Treasure in the Netherlands Has Been Revealed

The National Archives of the Netherlands declassified a World War II-era file that contained a hand-drawn Nazi treasure map earlier this month, causing groups of amateur treasure hunters to descend on a small Dutch town in search of the long-lost valuables.

The archive believes the treasure came from an August 1944 allied bombing, which damaged the then-Rotterdamsche Bank in Arnhem, which is about 25 miles away from Ommeren where the cache is supposedly buried.

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Declassified Doc Reveals How UK, France Planned to Whitewash Responsibility for WWII

Months after the start of the Second World War, the United Kingdom and France planned to release a blue book collection of doctored diplomatic correspondence to try to paint the USSR as the party responsible for the breakdown of the Soviet-Anglo-French defense pact talks of the summer of 1939.

A document dated January 27, 1940, citing information provided by an undercover agent inside Her Majesty’s Government, published in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service’s digital archive, detailed plans by the British to release the blue book, and its expected contents.

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❗️US House fails to elect speaker on 14th ballot. Kevin McCarthy receives 216 votes, one short of victory. The House has adjourned until noon Monday.

🌼 Austrian artist André Heller has created an Anima garden exhibition 27 kilometers from Marrakech, Morocco which visitors can freely walk around. Anima presents more than 50 works of art, most of which are sculptures but the garden has no fences or labels on the objets d'art.

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A motion to adjourn until Monday has been rejected and a 15th vote is now under way.

⚡️US House elects McCarthy as speaker, ending 4-Day chamber deadlock at midnight Saturday

A Jetstar flight made an emergency landing at Chubu Centrair International Airport in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture on Saturday morning, the NHK broadcaster reports. Police said the plane made an emergency landing because of a bomb threat

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The latest Western military aid to Ukraine suggests that Washington, Paris and Berlin are supportive of Kiev’s offensive strategy and are not open to peace talks, a US news outlet reported, citing analysts.

US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Scholz released a joint statement announcing commitments of infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine. On Wednesday, French President Macron promised his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky, to supply Kiev with an unspecified number of AMX-10 RC armored combat vehicles

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🇺🇸 🇪🇹 Washington appoints new ambassador to Ethiopia

Ervin Jose Massinga, a top State Department official, has been proposed by President Joe Biden as the next US ambassador to Ethiopia. Massinga, who has already served in Sudan, Ivory Coast, Pakistan and China, will take up the position of US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ethiopia, which has been vacant for about a year, if the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approves his nomination.

The US established diplomatic relations with Ethiopia in 1903 and sent its first ambassador, Herman Hoffman Philip, in 1908. Its latest ambassador, Geeta Pasi, resigned from her position in January 2022 after less than a year in office. Tracey Ann Jacobson has been working as a an interim Chargé d'Affaires - a diplomatic position lacking some of an ambassador's authority

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New US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he was committed to stop "wasteful" Washington spending and the rising national debt.

🗣️ "There is nothing more important than making it possible for American families to live and enjoy the lives they deserve. That is why we commit to stop wasteful Washington spending, to lower the price of groceries, gas, cars, housing and stop the rising national debt," he said at the House session

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