Putin ally projected to easily secure seventh term in election that US and EU have said could not be free or fair

Alexander Lukashenko was firmly on track to win a seventh five-year term as Belarusian president in an election western governments have rejected as a sham.

An exit poll broadcast on state television projected that Lukashenko would take 87.6% of the vote. The close ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had earlier defended his jailing of dissidents and declared: “I don’t give a damn about the west.”

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© Photograph: Belarus President Press-Service/EPA

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© Photograph: Belarus President Press-Service/EPA

Luo Chih-yu, 42, the owner of the Taipei pet shop Pythonism which opened in 2017, is offering potential snake owners the chance to interact with snakes over a cup of coffee.

A vessel has been seized after suspected sabotage of fibre optic line, probably due to external influence, Latvia says

An undersea fibre optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday, probably as a result of external influence, Riga has said, prompting Nato to deploy patrol ships to the area and triggering a sabotage investigation by Swedish authorities.

Sweden’s security service has seized control of a vessel as part of the inquiry, the country’s prosecution authority said.

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© Photograph: Ida Marie Odgaard/AP

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© Photograph: Ida Marie Odgaard/AP

• Tijjani Reijnders and Samuel Chukwueze score late goals
• Barcelona beat Valencia 7-1 in La Liga demolition job

Two added time goals from Tijjani Reijnders and Samuel Chukwueze earned Milan an unlikely 3-2 win at home to struggling Parma in a dramatic game at San Siro on Sunday.

The win moves Milan to sixth in the standings, while Parma are just above the relegation zone in 17th. Parma took the lead in the 24th minute through Matteo Cancellieri before Milan equalised from the penalty spot, with Christian Pulisic converting seven minutes before the break.

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© Photograph: Matteo Bazzi/EPA

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© Photograph: Matteo Bazzi/EPA

Impeached leader Yoon Suk Yeoul could face years in prison after six-hour imposition which set off political upheaval

South Korea’s prosecutors indicted the impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, on Sunday on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on 3 December, the main opposition party said.

The charges are unprecedented for a South Korean president, and if convicted, Yoon could face years in prison for his shock martial law decree, which sought to ban political and parliamentary activity and control the media.

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© Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

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© Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

par Nandita Bose, Dawn Chmielewski, Milana Vinn et Kanishka Singh À BORD D'AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - Le président américain Donald Trump a déclaré samedi être en pourparlers avec plusieurs personnes concernant un rachat de TikTok, ajoutant qu'il prendrait probablement une décision sur l'avenir de l'application dans les 30 prochains jours. "J'ai parlé de TikTok à de nombreuses personnes et il y a un grand intérêt pour TikTok", a déclaré Donald Trump à des journalistes à bord d'Air Force One lors d'un vol vers la Floride. Plus tôt dans la journée, Reuters avait rapporté que, selon deux sources au fait des discussions, l'administration de Donald Trump travaillait sur un plan de sauvetage de TikTok qui impliquait de faire appel à la société de logiciels Oracle et à un groupe d'investisseurs extérieurs pour prendre effectivement le contrôle des opérations de l'application.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is working on a plan to save TikTok.

Official cites review of course curriculum at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, where new recruits get basic training

Donald Trump’s order halting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives has led the US air force to suspend course instruction on a documentary about the first Black airmen in the US military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, a US official said on Saturday.

The famed Black aviators included 450 pilots who fought overseas in segregated units during the second world war. Their success in combat helped pave the way for Harry Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces in 1948.

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© Photograph: Anonymous/AP

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© Photograph: Anonymous/AP

The latest protests come after private meeting between Robert Fico and Vladimir Putin in December

The Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, has rejected calls for his resignation after tens of thousands demonstrated against his government’s policy shift closer to Russia.

About 60,000 people protested in the capital, Bratislava, on Friday and approximately 100,000 turned out for rallies in cities across the country, the largest demonstrations since Fico returned to power in 2023.

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© Photograph: Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters

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© Photograph: Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters

President Donald Trump's administration fired the independent inspectors general of more than a dozen major government agencies late on Friday, US media reported.

Banks are hoping to sell the X debt at around 90 to 95 cents on the dollar.

par Jaspreet Singh (Reuters) - Meta Platforms, maison mère de Facebook et Instagram, prévoit de dépenser jusqu'à 65 milliards de dollars (61,83 milliards d'euros) cette année pour développer son infrastructure d'intelligence artificielle (IA), a déclaré son directeur général Mark Zuckerberg vendredi. Dans le cadre de cet investissement, qui vise à renforcer la position de l'entreprise face à ses rivaux OpenAI et Google dans la course à l'innovation, Meta va intensifier ses recrutements dans le domaine de l'IA et construire un centre de données de plus de 2 gigawatts. Le groupe américain, qui figure parmi les principaux clients de Nvidia et ses puces d'intelligence artificielle, a pour objectif de terminer l'année avec plus de 1,3 million de processeurs graphiques et prévoit de mettre en ligne environ 1 gigawatts de puissance de calcul en 2025.

BRUXELLES (Reuters) - La Commission européenne a demandé aux géants du numérique, dont la plateforme TikTok et le réseau X, de participer à un "stress test" le 31 janvier pour évaluer leurs procédures contre la désinformation dans la perspective des élections fédérales du 23 février en Allemagne, a annoncé vendredi un porte-parole. Microsoft, TikTok, LinkedIn, Google, Snap, Meta, propriétaire de Facebook, et X (anciennement Twitter) doivent se conformer à cette évaluation en vertu du Règlement européen sur les services numériques (DSA) de 2022 qui vise à encadrer les activités des plateformes, a précisé Thomas Regnier lors d'un point de presse. "Le 'stress test' suit les scénarios potentiels où le DSA entre en jeu et vérifie avec les plateformes comment elles réagiraient face à ces scénarios spécifiques", a-t-il expliqué.

Zuckerberg expects Meta's AI assistant — available across its services, including Facebook and Instagram — to serve more than 1 billion people in 2025.

Mastercard and Visa failed to stop their companies from laundering money from child sexual abuse and sex trafficking on OnlyFans, according to allegations in an undisclosed whistleblower complaint.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has grown concerned about distortions in Russia's wartime economy, just as Donald Trump pushes for an end to the Ukraine conflict, sources say.

SEATTLE, Jan 23 — A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump‘s administration from implementing an executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.” U.S. District Judge John Coughenour at the urging of four Democratic-led states issued a temporary restraining order preventing the administration...

The latest settlement is meant to address a drug addiction crisis that has led to over 700,000 opioid overdose deaths in the US over the past two decades.

The 12-volt battery may experience degradation and suddenly fail.

While the second season of "Squid Game" has new plot twists, one element of the Netflix mega-hit series where contestants down on their luck risk their lives to play children's games for the chance of winning cash prizes, has remained constant.

The temporary shelters in Ciudad Juarez will have the capacity to house thousands of people and should be ready in a matter of days, said municipal official Enrique Licon.

The company’s global subscriber base now exceeds 300 million, giving it a commanding lead in the streaming wars.

Trump voiced his latest tariff threats in remarks to reporters at the White House a day after taking office without immediately imposing tariffs as he had promised during his campaign.

Teamsters said on Sunday its members at US retailer Costco Wholesale voted in favor of a nationwide strike, as they entered a final round of talks to reach a new contract ahead of a Jan. 31 deadline.