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).

🐻 Red Planet art: A NASA satellite captured image of a peculiar rock formation on Mars that looks like a bear.

❗️ The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on Nuland's words about a possible easing of sanctions after the withdrawal of forces from Ukraine: there is nothing new in her words, diplomatic solutions are not visible now

❗️Putin: The crimes of neo-Nazis in Ukraine against civilians - ethnic cleansing and punitive actions, say that they have forgotten the lessons of history

🤔 US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria "F*ck the EU" Nuland at a Senate hearing, January 26, 2023:

💬 “Senator Cruz, I, as well as you, I believe, along with the [Biden] administration, are very pleased to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you say, a pile of scrap metal at the bottom of the sea.”

❓ Victoria Nuland’s words are a reason to once again think about who benefited from the explosion on the NordStream pipeline.

Intel Shares Drop Almost 10% After Release of 2022 Financial Report

The world's largest computer components manufacturer, Intel, had its shares drop by almost 10% in price in after-trading hours amid the publication of the company's financial report, trading data showed on Friday.

Intel shares rose in value by 1.31%, to $30.09 per security on Thursday, but after the close of trading session, the shares fell by 9.74% to $27.16.

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📹 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has denounced the western information war on Russian media while responding to Sputnik's question at the press conference in Eritrea.

He also revealed that during his trip to Africa, he encountered journalists promoting the interests of the "western information machine."

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🇭🇺 Hungary will not allow EU sanctions to target Russian nuclear power, Orban says

"We will not allow sanctions that further increase Hungarian inflation. The most important thing here is the price of energy. Therefore, we will not let the plan to extend sanctions to nuclear energy be implemented," Orban told to the local broadcaster.

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🇪🇬 Egyptian archaeologists uncover possibly the 'oldest' mummy ever found in the country

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered 4,300-year-old sealed tombs in the country’s Saqqara necropolis in Giza. The site contained what may be the oldest and "most complete" mummy yet to be discovered in the North African country to date.

Found at the bottom of a 15-meter-long shaft, the mummy is said to belong to a recently uncovered group of tombs from the fifth and sixth dynasty (from the early 25th century BC until the late 22th century BC) found near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, according to Zahi Hawass, director of the team.

The mummy is believed to be of a man named Hekashepes. It was was placed in a limestone sarcophagus that was sealed in mortar.

Archaeologists were also able to find a tomb belonging to Khnumdjedef, who was an inspector of the nobles, and a priest during the reign of Unas, the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty.

👉🏼 Check out Sputnik's photo gallery!

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Catch our Fault Lines show where we provide updates and analysis on all the most vital stories! Here's our line-up for Friday:

🔺 To kick things off, we’ll be discussing how weapons sales linked to Ukraine boost the US economy and how companies profit out of war
🔺 Next, Memphis is awaiting the release of a gruesome video of cops beating a black man to death as five police officers were charged
🔺 And, Marjorie Taylor Green may become Trump’s running mate while Biden plans to court wealthy donors to launch his campaign

Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 7am EST|4am PST|1pm CET via the website or app!

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

❗️The Dutch authorities refused to allow Russian diplomats to participate in a ceremony in memory of the victims of the Holocaust in Amsterdam, this decision is highly politicized, the Russian Embassy in The Hague said on Friday.

💬 "The Russian Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands deeply regrets the decision of the Dutch authorities to prevent the participation of representatives of the embassy in the annual ceremony in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, organized by the Dutch Auschwitz Committee on January 29 in Amsterdam. Whatever the reservations about the current political situation, this decision is highly politicized," the embassy wrote on social media.

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Bill Gates called the Ukrainian government corrupt and then praised its agricultural land, saying that it’s better than in the US: “the bread basket of Europe”.

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