Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian female astronaut in space, hopes that working together beyond Earth will one day help overcome differences on the planet

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🇬🇧 Ukrainian tank crews arrived in the United Kingdom for training to operate Challenger 2 tanks, which London plans to send to Kiev this spring, the UK Defense Ministry said.

On January 15, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the country will send 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.

Earlier this week, UK deputy Defense Minister Alex Chalk said that the tanks would be supplied at the end of March and the Ukrainian military would start training to operate them on January 30.

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The wettest day in Auckland: New Zealand sees record rainfall and severe flooding

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Why We Fight: US Openly Salivates Over Ukraine's Vast Untapped Titanium Reserves

Ukraine's mineral, agricultural, energy and human resources are a little-reported on aspect of the ongoing NATO-Russia proxy war in the Eastern European country. Amid growing pressure to justify pouring more and more money and weapons into the conflict while ordinary people in the West face recession, energy and cost of living crises, congressional aides on Capitol Hill think they have the solution: reminding lawmakers about Ukraine's "really significant deposits of rare earth minerals."

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Heavy snowfall in northern Japan leaves 20,000 homes without electricity

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UK Reportedly Wants Kiev to Restrict Use of Challenger 2 Tanks to Prevent Russia From Capturing Them

“If a tank is destroyed or disabled the first option is always to try and self-recover. You tow it with another tank or use a specialist armored repair and recovery vehicle – which looks like a tank with a crane,” a defense source told British media, adding that the “worst case scenario” would be one where the tank is destroyed as the front line collapses and friendly forces are forced to fall back.

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A team of 25 medics performed a grueling 11-hour operation to separate conjoined twins in Texas

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has urged his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts to show "maximum" responsibility and avoid the actions, which may further escalate the situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

🗣️ "On January 28 and 29, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held phone talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki ... Lavrov called on Israeli and Palestinian counterparts to show maximum responsibility and refrain from any actions that could provoke further escalation of the situation," the ministry said in a statement.

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Erdogan Suggests Including Iran in Planned Talks With Russia and Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Iran could join the planned talks between Turkey, Russia and Syria at the highest level.

"We say: let Russia-Turkey-Syria unite in a trio. Let Iran also join, let's conduct our talks this way, and let there be peace in the region," Erdogan said on Sunday, at a youth meeting in the Turkish city of Bilecik.

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👉 Follow our LIVE UPDATES on the Ukrainian crisis

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US ‘Main Beneficiary’ of Ukraine Crisis, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Says

Washington is largely benefiting from the Ukraine conflict, particularly from European countries’ weapon supplies to Kiev, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik.

"It is obvious that the United States is not only the main conductor in the Ukraine crisis, but also its main beneficiary. Among other things, Washington considers Ukraine as a testing ground for its military-industrial products, where various weapons systems and methods of their use, including modern, very long-range ones, are being tested… for resistance to Russian weapons," Ryabkov said.

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Russian forces struck the Ukrainian military's ammunition with the help of the world's most powerful self-propelled mortar 2S4 Tyulpan ("Tulip") in the Donetsk direction

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👨‍🚀NASA astronaut Warren Hoburg told Sputnik how American astronauts learn Russian so that they might work in space with Russian colleagues. Warren also said that he considers his Russian colleague Andrey Fedyaev to be a friend and can't wait to fly to space with him

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❗️ An explosion rocks Pakistan's Peshawar, several people are injured — local media

❗️ According to local reports, about 50 people have been injured as a result of the blast inside a mosque located near Police Lines during the noon prayer.

One side of the mosque has reportedly collapsed.

❗️Moscow strongly condemns drone attack on military facility in Iran, it could have unpredictable consequences, Russian Foreign Ministry says

📌 The latest statements from Russia's foreign ministry:

▪️Escalation on the Korean Peninsula is quite likely, but Russia hopes that situation will not deteriorate to dangerous level;

▪️Russian foreign ministry on Paris' attempts to counter Russian media in Africa: the case is obviously unpromising;

▪️Russian foreign ministry on possibility of severing relations with Poland, Baltic states: Moscow does not support the idea of severing diplomatic relations;

▪️Foreign Ministry on retaliatory measures in connection with the detention of the editor-in-chief of Sputnik Lithuania: Russia will continue to take diplomatic and economic steps;

▪️Russian foreign ministry on the prospect of negotiations about Ukraine: Russia has not refused a dialogue with Europe on security, has not lost hope that there will be someone to with whom to negotiate

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Iran's Abbas Moghtadaei, Deputy Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told Sputnik that there was no Israeli trace in the drone attack on the Iranian Defense Ministry's facility in Isfahan:

🗣"If Israel had done it, it would have proudly announced to the whole world the evidence of its operation. So far, these are just empty statements."

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⚡️Kremlin on BoJo's claims about Putin's threat of missile strike: This is not true, or rather lie

Putin told Johnson that if Ukraine joins NATO, the potential deployment of NATO or US missiles at Russia’s borders would mean that any missile would reach Moscow in a matter of minutes, the Kremlin says