🇨🇳 Xi tours Beijing ahead of New Year celebrations

The Chinese leader visited a number of community facilities, including a senior canteen, the Jin Ling Elderly Service Enterprise, and historic Longfusi snack street, engaging with both visitors and staff.

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⚔️ Trump says US might send second aircraft carrier to the Middle East — report

President Trump stated that if a diplomatic agreement on Iran’s nuclear program cannot be reached, he is prepared to take military action, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reports.

According to Barak, Trump is considering deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East alongside the USS Lincoln, plus additional attack ships and fighter jets.

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🤖🇨🇳 Robots train with monks at Shaolin Temple

Ancient martial art and cutting-edge technology met during daily training routine at the Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Kung Fu.

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📄 Palestinian envoy is among nominees to chair 81st UN General Assembly

The president of the upcoming UNGA session will be selected from the Asia Pacific Group, in line with the world body's regional rotation rules, spokesperson for the UNGA president La Neice Collins said.

The nominees:

▫️ Md. Touhid Hossain (Bangladesh)

▫️ Andreas S. Kakouris (Cyprus)

▫️ Riyad Mansour (State of Palestine)

Mansour is currently the only candidate to have submitted a formal vision statement, outlining priorities for the 1-year term.

The election will be held June 2.

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🔍 US energy chief will brief senators in closed-door Venezuela meeting

Energy Secretary Chris Wright will hold a closed-door briefing with the Senate Energy Committee on the administration's involvement in Venezuela.

The classified briefing was requested by Committee Chair Mike Lee. It comes just before Secretary Wright's planned visit to the South American nation.

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🔥 Colombian President Petro evades assassination attempt

President Gustavo Petro told his cabinet he spent the last two days evading assassination attempts, detailing a dramatic escape by sea after his planned landing site was compromised.

"I didn't land where I was supposed to land, because they were going to shoot at the helicopter, with my children inside."

His administration has previously reported assassination plots.

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🇻🇪🛢 US authorizes Venezuela oil tech supply

The US Treasury has issued a general license authorizing American companies to supply goods, technology, and services for Venezuelan oil and gas production.

The license permits transactions "ordinarily incident and necessary" for the exploration, development, or production of oil or gas in Venezuela, easing the sanctions regime previously imposed by the US.

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🎤 Russia is ready to provide vaccines against melanoma this year

Russian scientists from the Gamaleya Center (creators of Sputnik V) announce treatment for the first patients with a new mRNA vaccine for melanoma.

◼️ Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Center, states preclinical animal trials show >90% efficacy.

◼️ The Blokhin Cancer Research Centre has received approval for clinical use.

Unlike preventive mRNA COVID vaccines, this is a therapeutic cancer vaccine. It's designed to train a patient's immune system to recognize and destroy specific mutations (neoantigens) present on their melanoma cells, offering a personalized treatment approach.

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🚨 Colombian Petro says Police general plotted to drug him before Trump meeting

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused a high-ranking police commander of orchestrating a plot to sabotage his crucial White House meeting with President Donald Trump on February 3.

"They had the mission to destroy the meeting with Trump in one way or another. That puts me in a alarming situation," he said.

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📷 Netanyahu arrives in US, meets Witkoff and Kushner

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a private meeting at Blair House with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to discuss Iran negotiations.

He will have an official White House meeting with President Trump tomorrow.

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🔊 Iran wants to make a deal — Trump

The US president says that a "good deal" includes "no nuclear weapons" and "no missiles."

"I know one thing: they want to make a deal... Some people worry that they've been very dishonest with us over the years," he told Fox News.

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📹 Starmer says he will not resign

"I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country," the UK prime minister said.

📑 Senior aides reportedly give him 50-50 odds of surviving the week, with ministers poised to force him out after his chief of staff and election architect, Morgan McSweeney, resigned under pressure over the Epstein scandal.

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🪖❌ ‘We’d go hungry for five days’ – Ukrainian POW

Ukrainian forces are facing stark frontline supply issues, says a soldier captured by Russian forces, Denys Yakovlev.

According to him, Ukrainian drones would deliver a few bottles of water, maybe some sausage, a couple of loaves of bread, chocolate bars, sugar, coffee, tea – but all that lasted a day or two.

“But they didn't drop off food every day. Sometimes we'd go hungry for up to five days,” he says.
The POW adds that when a Ukrainian drone set off with supplies, the Russian servicemen would shoot it down with an FPV drone or switch on jamming, so it couldn’t get through.

Russian servicemen, to his surprise, provided him with medical assistance when he was captured, gave him food and water, and then escorted him to a safe area.

“What they told us in Ukraine and how it actually is are two very different things. They fed me, gave me cigarettes. If I asked for water, they let me drink. Everything was fine — no one insulted me, no one beat me, nothing like that. A fragment cut my arm and also my leg. They bandaged me up, treated the wounds — everything was fine,” the man said.

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🇮🇷☢️Iran drafting proposal to safeguard right to peaceful nuclear technology - Araghchi

Iran is prepared to offer US negotiators guarantees that it will not pursue nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, calling such assurances “achievable” if there is goodwill on both sides.

💬 According to Araghchi, any agreement must safeguard the Islamic Republic’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology, for electricity, the production of medicines, and agriculture.

Iran’s uranium enrichment program is strictly peaceful, he reiterated, clarifying that enrichment levels depend on civilian needs.

The minister argued that “there is no solution but a diplomatic solution,” and noted that last year’s bombing attack has fueled Iran’s mistrust of the US.

“We were in the middle of negotiations last June when they decided to attack us,” he reminded.

Iran is “prepared for a diplomatic solution,” assured Araghchi, but it is also prepared to defend itself “against any new aggression.”

Previously following the February 6 talks in Muscat with the US side, Araghchi stressed that Iran will not accept zero enrichment, focusing on ensuring that its nuclear activities remain peaceful.

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🟠 Trump says US might send second aircraft carrier to the Middle East

🟠 Colombian President Petro evades assassination attempt

🟠 Palestinian envoy is among nominees to chair 81st UN General Assembly

🟠 Russia is ready to provide vaccines against melanoma this year

🟠 Iran wants to make a deal — Trump

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🗣 Lavrov: Following the Alaska summit, it was quite realistic to quickly finalize a treaty on a Ukrainian settlement

Russia and the US found a balance of vital interests at the Anchorage summit, but now Europe is dismantling it all, the Russian Foreign Minister said in an interview with the online project Empathy Manuchi.

Key statements by Sergey Lavrov:

🔸 Those commenting on the Abu Dhabi talks "on every street corner" either want to derail them or absolve themselves of blame for a lack of flexibility.

🔸 Europe and Ukraine are proposing "a treaty of tolerance" instead of actually ensuring human rights in Ukraine.

🔸 Zelensky is counting on the fact that, in the event of a ceasefire, NATO will deploy missiles in Ukraine capable of reaching Russian cities.

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