The former head of the capital's Department of Culture, Alexander Kibovsky, was arrested in a case of receiving bribes, the total amount of which, according to preliminary data, is estimated at 100 million rubles. This was reported by Mediazona.

Fourteen high school students have been hospitalized in Tokyo after eating "super-hot chips" laced with curry powder. The snack's maker had warned that the chips were not suitable for minors, the Japanese news outlet NHK reported . One of the students brought chips to school and treated about 30 children to them. The chips were labeled "18+" and "dangerous." Soon the students began complaining of nausea and sharp pain around the mouth.

A facial recognition system will appear in the State Duma building, which will first be tested at two entrances, and then they promise to expand. Two deputies who received notifications from the apparatus of the lower house of the Russian parliament told Vedomosti about the innovation. The notice asked all deputies and their assistants to visit the State Duma pass office and take photographs.

The Russian National Guard has developed a draft resolution in which it proposed allowing deputy chairmen of the Central Bank, their advisers, department directors and their deputies to carry weapons. This was reported by RBC. At the same time, the Russian National Guard did not include the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, in the list of those to whom it proposes issuing weapons.

Californian startup Savor, which is funded by Bill Gates, said it had developed a way to produce oil from carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen, The Guardian reported . According to the publication, the company is experimenting with creating dairy-free alternatives to ice cream, cheese and milk using a thermochemical process. "We are currently in the pre-commercial stage and working to obtain regulatory approval to be able to sell our oil.

For the period from June 2023 to June 2024, the Russian government paid participants in the war in Ukraine and their relatives from 2.75 to 3 trillion rubles. Re: Russia writes about this. The project notes that this amount consists of monthly payments to military personnel and one-time payments when concluding a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense, which took a little more than half of the total amount, as well as payments for injuries and death.

Britain has become the first European country to allow commercial production of artificial meat. Lab-grown meat will now be used in pet food, the Financial Times reports . British company Meatly is set to begin selling farmed chicken to feed manufacturers this year. The startup has received the relevant permits from the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Department for the Environment. The legalization of the new type of meat became possible thanks to Brexit.

A Northern Right Whale has been spotted off the coast of Northern Ireland for the first time in 114 years. This species of whale is endangered, with fewer than 400 individuals left in the world, according to the British newspaper The Guardian. The whale was spotted by a holidaymaker named Adrian Maguire from County Tyrone. He saw it while fishing with his family. Maguire recorded the whale's appearance on video and showed the footage to staff at the Scottish Association for Marine Science.

The widespread use of the weight-loss drug Ozempic and its analogues has led to an unexpected "birth surge" that has raised concerns among experts, as the effects of these drugs on pregnant women have not been studied, the Financial Times reports . The publication notes that against the backdrop of Ozempic's growing popularity among people who want to lose weight, numerous stories about unexpected pregnancies have begun to spread online.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest and Hungary, who was accused of sexualized harassment by Georgy Suzuki, a church attendant at the Dormition Cathedral in Budapest, said that the cell attendant's mother extorted 384 thousand euros from him. The former second-in-command of the Russian Orthodox Church, considered the successor to Patriarch Kirill, said this in an interview with RBC.

Artist Liliya Ermolaeva accused her ex-husband Nurgun Alekseyev of domestic violence. This is reported by SakhaDay. As the publication notes, the girl first spoke about her husband beating her in November of this year. At that time, a criminal case was opened under the article on "threat of murder or causing serious harm to health." However, the girl soon became afraid of pressure from Alekseev's family and temporarily stopped commenting on what happened.

US authorities have received information from an anonymous source that Iran was planning an assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald Trump, CNN reports . According to the publication, this is why the Secret Service has stepped up security around the former president in recent weeks.

The headquarters of billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX and X companies will leave California. This was announced by Musk himself, who said that the reason was the law signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom concerning transgender teenagers. The law prohibits school staff from disclosing information about students' sexual orientation and gender identity to their parents without their permission.

The mayor of the city of Nevinnomyssk in Stavropol Krai, Mikhail Minenkov, responded to residents' complaints about the power outage. He called on them "not to whine" and to treat the situation with understanding, writes Pod'em. According to Minenkov, there were no power outages in the city, but there were only interruptions in its supply. "We were not left without electricity at all, there was just a power outage in one microdistrict - an hour, in another - an hour.

The planned amendments to the Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will lead to an increase in the price of one part of foreign online purchases by Russians and the impossibility of importing another part. This is reported by RBC, citing representatives of participants in the online trade market.