‼️IAEA experts report powerful explosions near Zaporozhye NPP

Russia Not Going to Use US Dollar in Trade With Africa, Ambassador Says

Experts and diplomats from Russia and South Africa met on January 25 at the Valdai Discussion Club in the Russian capital to discuss ways to strengthen ties in the new geopolitical context.

During the meeting, Oleg Ozerov, ambassador at large of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, said that alternative currencies to the dollar will be used to maintain the pace of trade relations between Russia and Africa.

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💭 "People have described the US-NATO's policy in Ukraine with the analogy of boiling a frog: if you throw a frog into boiling water, it jumps right out. But if you slowly heat up the water with the frog already in it, you can actually boil and cook a frog. So the NATO's strategy has been to gradually supply Ukraine with more and more weapons and without ever taking one step that is so critical and so threatening to Russia that it provokes a more serious response from the Russians." Nicolas Davies, Independent journalist, author, and researcher with Codepink said.

🎧Listen to more of Nicolas's views in our podcast "Political Misfits"

🔺 Masks are off as German FM admits "we are fighting a war against Russia"
🔺 Next, members of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals For Sanity join us to discuss their memorandum to President Biden
🔺And Caleb Maupin joins us to talk about Jeffery Sterling's address on Julian Assange to the Belmarsh Tribunal

And there's more on the other side! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

📻 Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

➡️IDF has confirmed the Iron Dome system successfully intercepted two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip

Sturgeon U-Turns on Sending Transgender Double Rapist to Women's Jail After Outcry

Scotland's first minister has reversed her call to send a double rapist — who began identifying as a woman after he was charged — to a women's jail.

Nicola Sturgeon told the devolved regional parliament in Holyrood on Thursday that Isla Bryson, who was known by his birth name Adam Graham before his first court appearance on two rape charges in 2020, would be transferred out of the Cornton Vale prison in Stirling following a "risk assessment," probably within three days.

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'Hideaway Day': UK Cabinet Huddles Amid Tax Scandal

The British cabinet has headed to the prime minister's country retreat amid a furore over the Tory chairman's tax affairs. One opposition MP dubbed the meeting headed by PM Rishi Sunak at Chequers in Buckinghamshire a "hideaway day."

Sunak ordered an investigation into whether Conservative Party Chairman Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor of the exchequer and education secretary, broke the ministerial code of conduct.

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Scientists Want to Use Ultrasonic Vortex to Break Blood Clots

An international team of researchers has introduced ultrasound technology to quickly break up blood thrombosis. Ultrasonic waves swirl as they move forward and, due to the vortex activity, effectively deal with the obstacle in their path.

Scientists note that existing methods are largely based on thrombus dissolution. This is a long process - for example, for cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, it takes about 29 hours and is ineffective in 20-40% of cases. The new technology handles this type of thrombosis in less than 30 minutes.

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⚡Fresh round of air raid sirens triggered across southern Israel moments after Israeli forces carried out counterstrikes against Palestinian sites in the Gaza Strip

Get the latest details here!

Scientists Develop Metallic Robots That Can Turn Liquid to Pass Through Obstacles

A team of Chinese researchers has developed a peculiar type of miniature robot that can change its state between liquid and solid.

The scientists, led by The Chinese University of Hong Kong engineer Chengfeng Pan, took gallium – a metal with a melting point of only 29.8 degrees Celsius – and embedded it with magnetic particles, thus producing what they described as a “magnetoactive solid-liquid phase transitional machine.”

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Thousands of Australians Protest Celebration of National Day, Media Reports

On the streets of Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, crowds of demonstrators marched with banners and T-shirts saying "[Australia] always was, always will be Aboriginal land," an Australian broadcaster reported.

In Brisbane, protesters urged people not to "celebrate genocide" on Australia Day, which many citizens demand to be postponed to a different date, the media outlet reported. However, a number of public opinion polls showed that the majority of the country's residents are still in favor of preserving the celebration, the broadcaster added.

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Russian Embassy in Washington: Recent US Sanctions Prove 'Inefficiency' of Retaliatory Measure

The Russian Embassy in Washington said on Thursday that the recent sanctions, imposed on Russia by the United States, showed the "inefficiency and absurdity" of this approach more clearly.

"The US keeps 'brandishing' with their illegitimate sanctions threats. Another 'portion' of restrictions against Russia was announced on January 26th. With each new wave of economic barriers, the inefficiency and absurdity of this approach becomes more obvious," the embassy said on Telegram.

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Raids, Drone Strikes & Rockets: The IDF's Jenin Operation and Its Aftermath

Ten Palestinians were killed on Thursday during raids on a refugee camp in the city of Jenin, including a 61-year-old woman. It was the deadliest attack on the West Bank in two decades, according to Palestinian officials. Nine were killed in the morning hours of Thursday and the tenth during a subsequent raid on Thursday night.

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Japan to Cull 53,000 Chickens in Gunma Prefecture Amid Bird Flu Crisis

Some 53,000 chickens will be culled in Japan's Gunma Prefecture due to the detection of a new outbreak of bird flu, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced on Friday.

"The presence of a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus was confirmed today at a farm in Gumma Prefecture. This is the 67th case this season. Fifty-three thousand chickens will be culled. An investigation was carried out due to the increase in the death of birds. Tests turned out positive for avian influenza. Genetic analysis on Friday confirmed the presence of a highly pathogenic strain," the ministry said in a statement.

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Lockheed Ready to Boost F-16 Production 'to Backfill' Any EU State Looking to Send Its Jets to Kiev

Lockheed Martin, the US largest defense contractor, has signaled readiness to boost its production of F-16 fighters as some of Ukraine's allies consider delivering the single-engine jets, which were first introduced in 1978, to Kiev.

Thus far, Washington has kept mum about providing Kiev with the F-16 fighters, or allowing other countries to re-export these US-made warplanes to Ukraine.

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Hard Line Party Head Paludan Pledges to Burn Qurans 'Every Friday' Until Sweden Is Admitted to NATO

Danish right-wing Hard Line party leader and habitual Quran-burner Rasmus Paludan has promised Ankara to burn copies of Islam's sacred book in front of the Turkish embassy "every Friday" until Sweden is granted permission to access NATO.

Earlier, Ankara interrupted NATO tripartite negotiations with Sweden and Finland; it decried them as as "meaningless," citing Paludan’s protest in Stockholm, during which a copy of the Quran was burned, leaving the nations’ NATO bids hanging in the air.

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🇷🇺🇪🇷 Key statements of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the press conference in Eritrea:

▪️ Russia-Eritrea relations aimed at ensuring equal, mutually beneficial ties in all areas; Russia is grateful for Eritrea's consistent support of Moscow’s initiatives at the UN;

▪️ Russia and Eritrea have common understanding of the situation in Ukraine, which is being exploited by the US in a bid to guarantee its dominance over the world;

▪️ Moscow and Asmara agreed to create a consultation mechanism for economic cooperation, where specific steps to secure bilateral cooperation from illegitimate Western sanctions will be considered;

▪️ The Western media has tried to distort the Russian delegation's visit to African continent;

▪️ Lavrov invited Eritrea's Minister of Foreign Affairs Osman Saleh to pay another visit to the Russian Federation;

▪️ Cooperation between Russia and the African Union sees additional prospects;

▪️ Russia is currently summarizing the views and proposals of African countries to form a detailed agenda for the Russia-Africa summit in July;

▪️ The West has been exploiting African natural resources for centuries and wants to keep doing it;

▪️ The “collective West” is trying to reverse the formation of a multipolar world, but "the clock of multipolar history is ticking in the right direction"; the hybrid wars of the West will not stop the development of new centers of political power.

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🕯 Friday marks the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by the Soviet Red Army; more than 200 soldiers gave their lives in the battle to free people from one of the most atrocious sites of mass extermination in human history.

▪️ About 1.1 million prisoners - most of them Jews, as well as Soviet and Polish prisoners of war, were killed there between 1940 and 1945 by the Nazi regime which occupied Poland at the time.

🫣 Joe Biden says some people think he's 'stupid' just before getting congressman's name wrong

President Biden called Rep. Don Beyer “Doug” four times during a visit to the congressman’s district. Ironically, just before the gaffe, he made a joke about being called ”stupid”.

It still looks better then when Biden asked “Where’s Jackie?”, looking for Congresswoman Jackie Walorski, who had died in a car accident.

🇷🇺 🇬🇧 Imports of Russian goods to the UK last year collapsed by 98% and were worth a mere 18 million pounds, according to data provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).