🇯🇵 Japanese government spokesman Seiji Kihara, who attracted ire online for having had his hands in his pockets while Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was speaking to reporters in Washington, revealed that he was scolded by his mother for doing so.

Kihara said that his mother had seen comments about his behavior being a "disgrace" to his parents, and that she told him "I'm ashamed. Sew up your pockets."

The video of the “disgraceful” act was filmed near the White House on January 13, when Kihara accompanied Kishida on his five-country trip to Europe and North America.

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❗️Turkey will hold the presidential election on May 14, a month earlier than planned, said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

🇮🇷 Speaker of the Iranian parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has urged the European Union to "think carefully" before putting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on its terrorist list and called for preventing the severance of diplomatic relations, media reported on Sunday.

Ghalibaf warned the EU that the Iranian parliament would take "retaliatory, swift and decisive action" against the bloc's plan to list the IRGC as a terrorist group. In particular, Tehran will designate the armed forces of the EU member states as terrorist organizations if the move takes place, the Iranian lawmaker was cited as saying by the news outlet.

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🇹🇿🇧🇪 These African rats have been working with scientists at the APOPO project, a Belgian non-profit organization in Tanzania, helping to sniff out tuberculosis thanks to their impressive sense of smell. The animals are now working in 21 medical centers in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

🐀Rats detect pathogens faster than standard testing methods, and APOPO scientists hope the World Health Organization will soon approve their method of testing for tuberculosis.

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🇮🇱 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Interior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri on Sunday after Israel's Supreme Court ruled to prevent the official from serving in ministerial roles, local media reported. The Israeli interior and health minister will legally step down on January 24, the newspaper added.

On Wednesday, the supreme court decided to bar Netanyahu's ally and leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party from serving as a minister after he was convicted of tax fraud and received a one-year suspended sentence in 2022.

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UK Gov't Demands 'Rogue' Energy Firms Stop 'Jumping the Gun' by Forced Fitting of Prepayment Meters

The UK government was forced to intervene and demand greater transparency around the issue after mounting evidence of applications for warrants to forcibly install such meters from energy suppliers being approved in a matter of minutes.

The UK Business Secretary said that together with energy regulator Ofgem and the Secretary of State for Justice "to ensure that the process by which suppliers bring these cases to court is fair."

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Borrell Claims EU Has Rid Itself of Reliance on Russian Gas

Whether it's demanding a “military solution” to the NATO-Russia proxy conflict in Ukraine or calling the world outside Europe a “jungle,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell is no stranger to controversial claims.

Now, he's done it again, suggesting that European economies have successfully "abolished" their dependence on Russian energy. And the unprecedented jump in prices, supply shortages and rampant inflation? Turns out these are just a product of market fluctuations, and are unrelated to Ukraine, according to Borrell.

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🇿🇦🇷🇺🇨🇳 Three-sided naval exercises involving China, Russia and South Africa, which will take place on February 17-24 near the coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, have "all chances" to take place again in 2024 and become an annual event, says Mzuvukile Maqetuka, South African ambassador to Moscow in an interview with Sputnik

▪️According to him, South Africa perceives US criticism of Pretoria's cooperation with Russia "as part of the democratic process," with South Africa’s own goals being the country’s priority.

▪️Maqetuka also says that South Africa will invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the 2023 BRICS summit.

▪️In his turn, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has accepted the invitation to the 2023 Russia-Africa Summit, the ambassador says, calling for expansion of cooperation between the two countries

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Gaslighting, Defined: Did Germany Really Resort to Burning Coal Because Russia Starved It of Gas?

German economy minister Robert Habeck has blamed the country's spiraling energy crisis on Vladimir Putin, suggesting that the Russian president "turned off the gas tap," forcing Berlin to improvise. Is there any truth in Habeck's words? What's Moscow's real interest as far as gas supplies to Europe are concerned?

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🌎🗠 Global economy is likely to enter a period of slow growth in 2023-2024, caused by persistent inflation and moderate investment, President of the World Bank, David Malpass, said on Sunday.

💬 "I think, it's a long-lasting slowdown… And that has to do with the persistence of inflation, the shortage of new investment that is taking place right now, so as you look one year ahead and two years ahead, it is hard to see that there will be a strong recovery… It looks like this period of slow growth for the world may last into 2023-24, and that's a concern," Malpass told British broadcaster.

The official also recommended governments to adjust their spending to make it more efficient and consider providing "time-bound and targeted," rather than open-ended, subsidies to help cope with the inflation and energy prices.

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How to Watch Long-Forgotten Mysterious 'Green Comet' Zoom Past Earth

Slowly but surely gaining in brightness, a green-hued, long-forgotten comet is heading towards planet Earth. The comet, known as C/2022 E3 (ZTF), is set to make its closest approach on February 2.

Here is what we know about the green interplanetary visitor, which last flashed past Earth 50,000 years ago, and tips on how to catch a glimpse of it

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🌊❄️ Caspian seashore freezes over due to abnormally low temperatures

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Americans Smuggling Eggs from Mexico Amid Surging Prices, Border Officials Say

Eggs have gotten so expensive in recent months that Americans are increasingly relying on a new way of getting them: smuggling them across the Mexican border.

Officials with Customs and Border Protection say they’ve seen an uptick in the number of egg-running attempts.

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👉 Follow our LIVE UPDATES on the Ukrainian crisis

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Argentine President Alberto Fernandez says he does not intend to cut dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, although Buenos Aires does not support Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine.

Russian Ambassador to Buenos Aires Dmitry Feoktistov said in December that Russia's bilateral relations with Argentina "withstood and passed the test of time," as evident from the fact that Putin called Fernandez to congratulate Argentina on winning the FIFA World Cup 2022.

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Sweden May Become 'Frontier State' Because of NATO Bid, Former Ambassador Warns

Sweden’s NATO bid at present depends on Turkey’s approval and has been stalled by Stockholm’s reluctance to accede to all Ankara’s demands and a spate of controversies that damaged relations between the two countries including President Recep Erdogan being hanged in effigy and the Quran being burned near the Turkish embassy.

Sweden's former ambassador to Russia Sven Hirdman has said his country’s contested NATO bid is hasty and he warned that Sweden will become a “frontier state” should war break out between the alliance and Russia.
Sweden filed a joint NATO bid with Finland in May 2022 - a step Hirdman labeled as premature - because it felt that the security situation had shifted after Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine.

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🔌 UK electricity operator National Grid launched a reward scheme on Monday where customers will be paid for reducing electricity consumption during the busiest hours.

🗣 "We are also activating a Live #DemandFlexibilityService event between 5-6pm tomorrow [17:00 - 18:00 GMT on Monday]. This does not mean electricity supplies are at risk and people should not be worried," National Grid tweeted on Sunday.

The Demand Flexibility Service has been developed to provide incentive payments for reducing energy consumption during peak hours. According to UK media, the National Grid wants people to turn off energy-consuming household appliances such as washing machines and game consoles at such hours. The company plans to pay up to 6 pounds ($7.45) for every kilowatt-hour saved

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❗️There is reliable evidence that Ukrainian army stockpiling weapons and ammo provided by West on territories of Ukrainian NPP, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service says

❗️Latest statements from Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov:

▪️US statements about possibly supplying Kiev with an Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) are an example of psychological warfare;

▪️Russia and the US have different ideas about how to normalize relations between states;

▪️Russia's opponents continue to exacerbate the Ukrainian crisis;

▪️The new US ambassador to Moscow is to arrive in the next few days;

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WATCH: Russia's MoD has published footage of Russian Su-25 ground-attack aircraft in action during the special military operation

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📹Here is the latest from Pretoria, where talks between Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and his South African counterpart Dr Naledi Pandor are about to begin. Stay tuned for more from South African administrative capital. Subscribe to @BolotskySputnik