Russian Fighter Escorts German Spy Plane Over Baltic Sea: Defense Ministry

Russian Su-27 fighters were scrambled to escort a German Orion reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea, which was trying to approach the Russian border, the Russian Defense Ministry's National Defense Control Center (NDCC) said on Monday.

According to the NDCC, Russian airspace control detected an air target approaching the Russian border over the Baltic Sea. To identify it and prevent the breach, a Su-27 fighter from the air defense forces of the Baltic Fleet was scrambled.

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True Identity of Extinct Prehistoric Flower Uncovered by Scientists

The real nature of a specimen of a flower from millions of years ago whose fossilized remains managed to “survive” until this day has finally been determined by researchers from the Natural History Museum in Berlin and the University of Vienna.

The flower, trapped in a blob of amber, was originally found over 150 years ago in an area near the Baltic Sea that eventually became part of Russia’s Kaliningrad region, and was initially described in 1872 as Stewartia kowalewskii, a now-extinct flowering evergreen.

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US Treasury Chief Reportedly to Meet Chinese Vice Premier in Switzerland on January 18

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to hold her first face-to-face meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland on January 18 with a view to restoring and stabilizing relations between the two nations, media reported on Monday.

The talks will focus on the global economy, the American news portal reported, citing a Treasury official.

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Turkish Foreign Minister Calls on US to Maintain Balance in Relations With Turkey, Greece

The US has abandoned its course toward balanced relations between Greece and Turkey in recent years, which affects the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cavusoglu said during a press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bisera Turkovic.

"An ally like the US needs to pay attention to [preserve] these balances," the Turkish diplomat was quoted as saying by local news agency, while commenting on media reports about the US's planned sale of weapons, including F-35 aircraft, to Greece.

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At the height of the Cold War 60 years ago, Nikita Khrushchev told the world that the USSR had a hydrogen bomb in its arsenal. Prior to this, the United States considered itself a nuclear monopoly.

This event changed the balance of power in the world: the hydrogen tsar bomb made everyone aware of the threat of a nuclear race. Already on August 5, 1963, the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain signed the first international treaty banning nuclear tests.

In honor of the anniversary of the creation of the powerful weapon, Sputnik prepared footage of the bomb test.

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Ancient Hidden Doors Found in Great Wall of China

Researchers studying China’s largest and probably most famous landmark - the Great Wall - have discovered the remains of over 130 concealed doors dotting this monumental fortification.

These passages were apparently designed for scouts sent on missions beyond the wall, even though they could have also been used for other purposes.

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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said that organization is expanding its presence in Ukraine.

"@IAEAorg is expanding its presence in #Ukraine to help prevent a nuclear accident during the ongoing conflict. I’m proud to lead this mission to [Ukraine], where we’re deploying in all of the country’s NPPs to provide assistance in nuclear safety & security," Grossi tweeted on Monday.

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💬 "Wait, CNN is still a thing? It appears they're still around and they're trying to, I guess, put lipstick on a pig or in this case, looking at their ratings, putting lipstick on a corpse. There's this saying - "Personnel is policy", it's one of those political truisms. But in the case of CNN, that's definitely the case. You want to turn over a new leaf, but you want to keep hatchet men like Darcy and people like Acosta and hire Kinzinger? Yeah, no, you're the same old, same CNN as you were before. You're just trying to put on a fresh layer makeup and pretend you're somebody else. I guess it works for some other people these days, but I don't think this is going to work..." Nebojsa Malic, Serbian-American journalist, blogger and translator, senior writer at RT, said.

🎧Listen to more of Nebojsa's views in our podcast Fault Lines: Russia Announces Liberation of Strategic Town of Soledar

Iran Nuclear Deal: How US Failed Historic Breakthrough & Opened Door to Seven Years of Controversy

Exactly seven years ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that Iran had completed the necessary steps under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on January 16, 2016 Why was the progress reversed, pushing the region back to square one?

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💬 "Soledar is actually strategically significant, majorly. It is in fact, the linchpin of the entire Ukrainian defense line. There's reports that Russian units have actually managed to take the strategic heights beyond it that basically unravels the entire line to the north. Bakhmut or Artemovsk, however people call it, to the south is pretty much in envelopment. And what people don't realize is that it used to be the main supply hub for the frontline, and then it got turned into a frontline fortress after the first line was taken. And once Bakhmut is cleared, the road is basically clear to Slavyansk, which has both a strategic importance but also the symbolic importance, because this is where the armed resistance to the Ukrainian government started back in 2014." Nebojsa Malic, Serbian-American journalist, blogger and translator, senior writer at RT, said.

🎧Listen to more of Nebojsa's views in our podcast Fault Lines: Russia Announces Liberation of Strategic Town of Soledar

Dead Canceled: Moscow Barred From Financing Famous Russian Cemetery in France

A famous necropolis in France that houses the remains of many prestigious Russian immigrants has ended up in a precarious state amid the fallout from the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine.

According to French media reports, local authorities have recently refused to accept the money that Moscow sent to finance the renewal and maintenance of burial plot concessions at the Sainte Genevieve des Bois Russian Cemetery.

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China's GDP Grew 3% in 2022, Below Official Forecast - National Bureau of Statistics

China's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, amid numerous local coronavirus outbreaks and an unstable international environment, grew by three percent in 2021, which was below the official forecast, according to data released on Tuesday by the country's National Bureau of Statistics.

"According to preliminary estimates, gross domestic product (GDP) was 121,020.7 billion yuan [$18 trillion] in 2022, an increase of 3.0 percent over last year at constant prices," according to the statement.

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US Secretary of State Blinken to Visit China February 5-6

Blinken’s agenda is expected to include Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, China’s nuclear arsenal, and US citizens held in China.

The media reported, citing Washington-based diplomats familiar with Blinken’s travel plans, that the US state secretary will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing on February 5-6.

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❗️ Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu inspected the Vostok Group headquarters during work in the zone of the special military operation:

▪️ During the inspection in the special operation zone, the minister thanked the servicemen performing their tasks and presented state awards to the servicemen for selflessness and heroism;

▪️ Shoigu paid special attention to creating conditions for the safe deployment of the military and organizing for the provision of troops;

▪️ The minister listened to the report of the commander of the "East" grouping on the situation in the special operation zone, the commanders of formations and formations on the fulfillment of tasks.

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Most Canadian Companies Expect Recession in 2023: Central Bank Report

"While most firms expect Canada to be in a recession within the next 12 months, the majority of those firms think it will be mild," the Central Bank's report said.

Some enterprises are cutting their budgets or suspending development, the report said. Most companies cite interest rate increases as the key reason for the expected recession, as well as inflation, which reduces households’ capacity to spend.

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UK Gov't Decides to Block Scotland's Gender Recognition Reform Bill

The UK's Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack said on Monday that he's decided to block Scotland's reform bill that would allow people to apply for a legal gender reassignment from the age of 16.

"I have decided to make an order under section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998, preventing the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill from proceeding to Royal Assent," Jack said in a statement, as quoted by the UK government.

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China’s Population Shrinks for First Time in Decades

🔢 The data indicates that deaths in the country outnumbered births, with the overall population decreasing by 850,000 people to 1.4118 billion in 2022, down from 1.4126 billion a year earlier.

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Austrian Foreign Minister Urges EU Not to 'Misfire' With Possible Visa Ban for Russians

The European Union should not "misfire" with a possible visa ban for Russians and should instead think about the consequences of such a move for future relations with Russia, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Monday.

He also said that against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis, Europe "must think about the next day, next week and next month at the same time" in relations with Moscow. He stressed the importance of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in these contacts, describing the organization as "one of the few remaining platforms where Russian diplomats remained."

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Production of AK-203 Kalashnikov Assault Rifles Starts in India

🇮🇳🇷🇺 On December 6, Moscow and New Delhi signed a contract for the production of over 600,000 AK-203 assault rifles in Uttar Pradesh's Korwa through a joint venture, the Indo-Russia Rifles Pvt. Ltd.

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Report: Supply of British Tanks to Kiev Will Leave London ‘Weaker’, UK Military Chief of Staff Says

UK Chief of the General Staff General Sir Patrick Sanders has warned that supplying Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine would leave Britain “temporarily weaker”, according to a British media outlet.

In a leaked statement seen by the outlet, Sanders insisted that the delivery of 14 UK tanks to Kiev would “leave a gap in our inventory”, adding that the British military would struggle to meet its NATO obligations.

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⚡️Advisor to Zelensky's office, Oleksiy Arestovich has resigned from his post.

Earlier, Arestovich was at the center of a scandal because of his statement that a Russian missile that hit a residential building in Dnepropetrovsk had been shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.