Panel of International Experts Demand Biden End Persecution of Julian Assange

Efforts to demand the US government end its political persecution of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ramped up Friday as a group of legal experts, whistleblowers, and journalists warned that the Biden administration’s insistence on extraditing a foreign journalist under the Espionage Act could signal the death knell for what remains of free speech guarantees in the West.

“We’re all making an appeal for President Biden to desist from the appeal that he’s brought to the British courts so that Julian could be free,” former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told Sputnik News.

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Twitter Lost 80% of Its Workforce Under Elon Musk, Reports Say

The number of employees at Twitter has decreased by about 80% since US entrepreneur Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar acquisition, US media reports citing internal company records.

Before Musk finalized the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late October, 2022, the San Francisco-based company had about 7,500 employees, but that number has gone down to approximately 1,300 active employees, US media said on Friday.

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World Celebrates International Hugging Day

🙆‍♀️ Sputnik would like to take a break from our tense current geopolitical environment and bring in a bit of warmth and love and remind everyone about basic human values.

Have a look at politicians' and celebrities' way of hugging in our new gallery!

❗️Turkey has canceled the visit of Sweden's Defense Minister Pal Jonson, as it "has lost its importance" because of the planned anti-Turkish protest in Stockholm. Turkey was outraged that permission was granted to a right-wing politician to demonstrate later on Saturday in front of the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital.

The Danish-Swedish politician, Rasmus Paludan, whose anti-Islamist actions sparked riots throughout Sweden last year, has said that he plans to "burn the Quran,” Islam's holy book, during his protest on Saturday.

The Swedish minister's visit was meant to overcome Ankara's objections to Stockholms application to join NATO

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Rishi Sunak Slapped With Police Fine for Not Wearing Seatbelt in Moving Car

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has racked up his second police fine in nine months, after Lancashire Police issued him a Fixed Penalty Notice for not wearing a seatbelt in a moving vehicle.

"You will be aware that a video has been circulating on social media showing an individual failing to wear a seatbelt while a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire. After looking into this matter, we have today issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty," read a statement from the Lancashire Police.

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🐼 Generally people think of pandas as perfectly content to spend their whole time eating and sleeping.

Occasionally, however, you may be lucky enough to see one playing! Still, it never forgets to yawn and stretch!

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📈 European UGS are filled by 79.49%, containing a total of 86.5 billion cubic meters of gas, as of gas day on January 20, which ended at 05:00 GMT on January 21, after losing 0.59 percentage points in a day, the data showed.

At the same time, gas reserves in European UGS remain high, compared to last year, when the figure was below 50%, according to the operator.

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Denmark's Handover of Entire Stock of CAESAR Guns to Kiev 'Really Hurts' Defense, Gov't Advisor Says

The decision will undermine the Nordic Nation’s defenses, and rob it of a system specifically designed to suit Denmark’s defense needs, a leading Danish defense expert and government advisor has complained.

Copenhagen announced plans to transfer all 19 of its French-made CAESAR 8x8 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine on Thursday.

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Ankara Cancels Swedish Defense Minister's Visit Over Planned Quran Burning Outside Turkish Embassy

Sweden has been bracing itself for several demonstrations in Stockholm. The leader of Danish political party Stram Kurs (Hard Line), Rasmus Paludan, earlier received permission to burn a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on 21 January. The Danish-Swedish politician is a notorious Quran-burner and has carried out such actions before.

According to Paludan, this will be done to support freedom of expression which, he argues, is "missing here and there". Paludan branded the Turkish President an "Islamist dictator", a view shared by Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson.

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📹 "German tanks in Ukraine against Russia. Your grandfathers already tried this with the [Ukrainian Nazi collaborators] Melnyks and Banderas, and what was the result? Untold suffering, millions of deaths on both sides, and in the end, Russian tanks here in Berlin," said Petr Bystron, a German MP, condemning the potential delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

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

▪️Assault detachment volunteers with fire support from forces of the Southern Military District liberated the settlement of Dvurech'ye in the DPR;

▪️The Russian Army assumed more advantageous lines and positions in the Zaporozhye direction, eliminating more than 30 Ukrainian servicemen;

▪️Russian troops destroyed a Ukrainian artillery ammunition warehouse in the Kharkov region;

▪️Russian air defense systems shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter in the Kharkov region;

▪️Ukrainian troops suffered more than 35 people killed in the Kupyansk direction;

▪️Russian forces eliminated 20 Ukrainian servicemen, one infantry fighting vehicle, and a US-made AN/ТPQ-37 radar station in the Krasny Liman direction;

▪️Russian troops destroyed a Ukrainian artillery ammunition depot in the DPR and a US-made AN/ТPQ-37 radar station in the Malinovka area.

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'I am Tired of This S***show': Washington and Kiev Fume as Berlin Holds Off on Tanks for Ukraine

Ukrainian officials did not hide their disappointment with Germany’s perceived indecisiveness. Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk, the ex-ambassador to Germany who was recalled over an endless string of insults of German officials, demanded that Berlin "stop hiding behind" Washington and "put an end to this crazy Punch and Judy show around Leopards today at Ramstein and clear the way for a global tank coalition to empower Ukraine to kick out Russian troops."

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🇫🇷 Protesters are marching in Paris against recent government pension reforms raising the retirement age.

Meanwhile, on January 19 over a million people took to the streets of cities across France. What prompted people to pick up placards and flood the streets of their hometowns?

👉 Sputnik explains

Globalization Has Died and Davos 2023 Was Its Funeral Ceremony, Scholars Sum Up

"Davos has become the dressing room of the West and is more divorced than ever from the rest. It no longer represents the real concerns of most of the world’s population. Its obsession with climate change, social justice, gender and other forms of wokeness has made it a laughing stock and target of disdain for most of the world," Gal Luft, director of the Washington-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, told Sputnik.

"There is no return to the post-WWII system. In addition, we are seeing massive repudiation of some of the institutions and individuals who have been most associated with globalization: the media, Davos, entertainment industry etc. De-globalization can also be seen along cultural fault lines. Western ideas, ethics, and 'values' are rejected by billions who see them as dangerous and destabilizing," the US scholar continued.

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Elon Musk Hires 100 Guards for His Father's Home Amid Kidnapping Fears

Errol Musk told journalists that his son's team enhanced security measures — including a high-tech camera system, an electric fence, and around-the-clock monitoring by guards — at his home in South Africa in December 2022. The modifications cost around $14,600, the billionaire said.

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“Castration” is trending on Twitter following news about a married gay couple from Georgia in the US, who, according to media reports, have been charged with not only molesting their adopted sons, but also pimping them out to other local men. Some Twitter users have even been asking whether the couple should face the death penalty.

⚡️ RT France head announces closure of TV channel after France blocks broadcaster's accounts

On Friday, RT France editor-in-chief Ksenia Fedorova said that bank accounts of the broadcaster's desk had been frozen in France, adding that the bank refers to the authorities' order. Despite the fact that RT France does not appear on the sanctions list and has the right to work in France, such a decision effectively paralyzes the work of the media, according to Fedorova.

❗️Key points of press statement by RT France:

▪️The TV channel has been targeted since its launch and there have been calls for censoring the broadcaster with the use of false information;

▪️After five years of harassment, the authorities in power have achieved their goal – the closure of RT France;

▪️EU authorities used the Ukraine crisis, covered by the TV channel in a balanced way, to finally shut the broadcaster down;

▪️123 TV channel employees are at risk of being unpaid in January, losing their jobs, which casts doubt on the future of media independence in France;

▪️The TV channel's closure is only the first and "extremely dangerous" step, after which other Russian media will be targeted.

Full story here

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