On January 23, BBC Russian Service journalist Elizaveta Fokht asked State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin what the point of a “nationwide vote” on amendments to the Constitution would be if Vladimir Putin signed the law on amendments before the vote took place . Volodin answered the question for a minute and a half.

Novaya Gazeta published a "Manifesto of the Citizens of Russia" directed "against the constitutional coup and the usurpation of power." “Today we, the citizens of the Russian Federation, declare that a constitutional coup is taking place in the country before our very eyes. We are sure that the goal of this coup is to keep Vladimir Putin and his corrupt regime in power for life. For this, a special operation was invented to illegally rewrite the Constitution, ”the manifesto says.

The dating app Tinder will feature a panic button that users can press if they feel unsafe during a date. The Wall Street Journal writes about this. For the sake of new functionality, Match Group, which owns Tinder, will buy a stake in the developer of the Noonlight application. It tracks a person's location and notifies emergency services if their safety is threatened. The panic button will work based on Noonlight algorithms. When clicked, the user will be prompted to enter a code.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided that it is premature to declare the outbreak of pneumonia in China caused by a new type of coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern , WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "This is an emergency for China, but it is not yet a global emergency," Tedros said. He noted that WHO currently knows of 584 cases and 17 deaths. Of those, 575 cases and all deaths occurred in China.

In 2019, 192 Rolls-Royce and 142 Lamborghini cars were sold in Russia. According to the analytical agency Avtostat, this is twice as much as a year earlier . Overall, sales of new luxury cars in 2019 decreased by 10% to 1,312 units. The Mercedes-Benz Maybach S-Class was in first place in terms of popularity (480 cars were purchased), and Bentley was in second place (319 cars). Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini came in third and fourth, respectively.

Arkady Volozh, co-founder and CEO of Yandex, confirmed his intention to sell a small part of his shares in the company. This is reported by the Prime agency. “I have 95% of the assets in the shares of one company. If you were like that, would you diversify somehow? We don't have dividends in the company - not yet, at least. And I don’t have a regular salary,” Volozh said. He called Yandex a "good, posh company" and added that he last sold its shares five or six years ago.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine has moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward 20 seconds, which symbolize the threat of a global catastrophe. Now they show 23:58:20. so close to midnight (it symbolizes a global catastrophe) The clock has never been .

The Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Nizhny Novgorod Region found no signs of wrongdoing in the words of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, about reprisals for insulting honor. Irina Slavina, editor-in-chief of the Nizhny Novgorod publication KozaPress, published the response of the police on Facebook.

Federal loan bonds ( OFZ ) worth 58 billion rubles were bought out by one player on January 22, RBC writes, citing a review by Rosbank. The bank's analysts called the application approved by the Finance Ministry "gigantic" and the largest of the single ones. Rosbank considered the auction on January 22 "one of the most unusual of all time," RBK cites the financial institution's review. Sberbank also found it unusual that the bonds were purchased by one buyer.

No, this is not the end. Now the law must be ratified by the European Parliament, but this will most likely happen early next week. Then, on January 31, the UK will formally leave the EU — Brexit will take place. But until the end of 2020, it will remain in the European single market and customs union, meaning almost nothing will change. During this time, the parties will negotiate a new trade agreement.

The Internal Affairs Ministry branch for the city of Moscow has reported that 155 protests took place in the capital without a government permit in the course of 2019. The police agency also noted that more than 3,000 people were arrested during those protests. The total reported number of public events in Moscow rose by 50 percent relative to the previous year, and the number of political events rose by 60 percent.

Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain signed the Brexit law allowing the country to leave the European Union on January 31, 2020. This was announced to the British MPs by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Nigel Evans, writes Sky News. On January 24, at a ceremony in Brussels, the document will be signed by the leaders of the European Council and the European Commission, writes The Telegraph. It must also be ratified by the European Parliament.

The British police have removed the trident, which is the coat of arms of Ukraine, from their manual on extremism. This was announced by the representative of the unit of the British police to combat terrorism, Dean Haydon. “We have a close working relationship with our Ukrainian partners and we don't want to offend them,” Haydon said.

Amid the spread of a new coronavirus that has infected more than 600 people in China, Russian officials have taken measures to prevent the disease from gaining a foothold in their own country. In the Amur region, which borders China, a region-wide alert has been issued, said local welfare monitoring chief Olga Kruganova. On the federal level, Kruganova’s agency, Rospotrebnadzor, has instituted heightened sanitary and quarantining measures at all transfer points between China and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed holding a meeting of the heads of Russia, China, the United States, France and Great Britain in 2020, Interfax reports. The idea of ​​the summit was expressed by the Russian president at the international forum "We Preserve the Memory of the Holocaust, Fight Anti-Semitism," the agency said. Putin explained the choice of these five countries by the fact that they are permanent members of the UN Security Council.