❗️Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have held a phone conversation, Chinese media report.

The Russian Embassy in Paris has asked the French authorities to improve the security of diplomatic missions in the country even before the attack on the Russian Consulate in Marseille, the embassy has told RIA Novosti.

⚡️ Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has announced an agreement to evacuate citizens of Russia's Kursk Region fron Sumy to Russia, via Belarus.

❗️ Allowing Kiev to launch long-range strikes against Russia would pose an extreme danger to global security and for Ukraine's neighbors, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto says. Kiev has not been authorized to strike deep into Russia thanks to a…

The French police have dispatched about 100 gendarmerie officers to the country's overseas territory of Martinique in order to curb unrest triggered by the soaring cost of living, Le Monde reports, citing a source close to the police.

The island has been engulfed in protests since September. At least 6 police officers have been injured by gunfire over that time.

The UAE-based Bybit crypto exchange now provides a possibility to open a Muslim cryptocurrency account, the exchange's head, Ben Zhou, says.

The account will provide Sharia-compliant services, including spot trading, the DCA trading bot, and the spot grid bot, according to the exchange's website.

❗️ OPEC expects OPEC+ production of liquids to increase by 25% to 62.9 million barrels per day by 2050 from 2023 levels and its share of the global market to rise to 52% from 49%, the organization says.

Global oil demand is expected to grow by 17.5% from 2023 levels to 120.1 million barrels per day by 2050, and its share in the energy mix to fall from 31% to 29%, OPEC adds.