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News 1:

The Chinese developer of tensor processors Sophgo offers Russian equipment manufacturers to arrange supplies of their solutions. Experts doubt the effectiveness of cooperation, since solutions based on x86 and ARM are more popular among domestic vendors, but they admit that Sophgo’s solutions may be of interest, including to AI developers.

News 2:

Foreign hosting providers have not submitted a single application for inclusion in the Roskomnadzor register to operate in Russia. From February 1, 2024, companies not included in the register will be prohibited from providing hosting services in the country. Experts attribute the reluctance of foreign providers to comply with the requirements with fear of sanctions and strict requirements of the Russian authorities.

News 3:

Russian state-owned companies must switch to Russian operating systems, office suites and antiviruses by January 1, 2025, and to domestic database management systems by January 2026. The recommendations were prepared by the Ministry of Digital Development.

News 4:

The demand of Russian business for foreign visas has doubled at the end of 2023, business tourism operators reported. More than half of the requests came from China.

News 5:

About 47% of industrial enterprises are experiencing a shortage of qualified personnel, a survey showed in January 2024. The level of personnel shortage has reached a record level in the history of surveys since 1996.

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News 1:

The American coworking network WeWork has agreed to sell its business in Russia to the investment company O1 Properties. The deal has not yet been closed, but is at a high stage of readiness, said consultants working with the parties. It will include four sites in Moscow with 3,000 jobs and a total area of 18 thousand m².

News 2:

Sberbank is testing about 50 thousand tablets and laptops of its own brand in its branches. Deliveries of devices were carried out in 2023. Experts believe that Sberbank needs the devices for internal use. According to their estimates, the bank could already cover about 25% of its needs.

News 3:

In 2023, radio broadcasters managed to replace most of the foreign equipment that was subject to sanctions restrictions. Problems remain only with coaxial cables, which are not produced in Russia, and in China they cost one and a half times more.

News 4:

For the fifth month in a row, Russian banks have been increasing balances on dollar correspondent accounts with non-resident banks, according to Central Bank data. As of December 1, 2023, they grew to $17.4 billion. International payments are heavily “dollarized” and this will not change soon, experts explain.

News 5:

The number of transactions for the purchase of real estate by Russians in Bali in 2023 increased 1.5 times year-on-year, to 1,050 objects, according to data from the consulting company Ricci. In terms of money, their volume reached $230 million.

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News 1:

Microsoft reported an attack on corporate systems by the Russian hacker group Midnight Blizzard (also known as Nobelium). Hackers gained access to a “small percentage” of corporate email accounts, including senior management and employees responsible for cybersecurity and legal functions.

News 2:

A bill on confiscation of property for “fakes” about the army, public calls for extremist activities, calls against state security, and the imposition of sanctions will be submitted to the State Duma on January 22, 2024.

News 3:

Prices for secondary real estate in Russia increased by 8% in the fourth quarter of 2023; at the end of the year, the growth was 11.9%. Apartments have become more expensive in most cities with the exception of Moscow. In the capital, housing prices fell by an average of 3% over three months due to a decrease in the average area of ​​properties from 57 to 54 m².

News 4:

Qiwi will sell its business in Russia to Hong Kong Fusion Factor Fintech for 23.75 billion rubles. Also, after the sale of the Russian business, Qiwi Plc plans to repurchase up to 10% of its depositary receipts traded on Nasdaq and the Moscow Exchange.

News 5:

Google is laying off thousands of employees and has no plans to stop. In the first 20 days of the new year, Google laid off several thousand employees. This happened due to the large-scale introduction of artificial intelligence into the work of the corporation.

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News 1:

Turkey has begun to reduce the flow of dual-use goods to Russia amid US pressure, according to the Turkish Institute of Statistics. For example, this applies to electronics, chips, printed circuit boards, communication and navigation equipment, and more.

News 2:

Kazakhstan's Kaspi raised $1 billion after its IPO on the Nasdaq exchange. The shares are already traded on the London Stock Exchange and two others in Kazakhstan. Kaspi is a bank and marketplace, services are available in one application.

News 3:

The German Parliament adopted a bill on simplified acquisition of citizenship. It allows you not to renounce other citizenship and apply for German citizenship after five years instead of eight. In the “coming weeks,” the amendments should be signed by the Bundestag with reference to members of parliament. The latter expect the law to come into force in April-May 2024.

News 4:

The European Commission has confirmed Apple's proposal to allow developers in the EU access to contactless payment via NFC. Apple confirmed that it has “committed” to providing European users with the ability to use third-party services for NFC payments.

News 5:

The EU has begun discussing a new package of sanctions against Russia, Bloomberg writes, citing sources. Potential measures could include additions to sanctions lists and new trade restrictions.

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News 1:

AvtoVAZ proposed to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to double localization points for installing Russian auto electronics on cars produced in Russia on Chinese platforms. AvtoVAZ explained that the idea is still being discussed and it is too early to announce details.

News 2:

The German OBI filed a new claim against the Russian network of the same name for 25 million rubles. Both sides declined to comment; the application itself has not yet been accepted for consideration. There are no details in the case card. The company once again demands to stop using OBI trademarks in Russia.

News 3:

Turkish banks have begun to more often break correspondent relationships with Russian financial institutions and suspend payment processing without officially terminating contracts. The problems arose a long time ago; they simply worsened in December 2023, after threats of secondary sanctions from the United States.

News 4:

The Central Bank reported that 557 banks and companies have connected to the domestic analogue of SWIFT, of which 159 are non-residents from 20 countries. Thus, in early January, the head of the Central Bank of Iran announced that Moscow and Tehran had connected their systems for transmitting financial messages and now the banks of the two countries “no longer need Switzerland” to communicate with each other.

News 5:

There are no “unfriendly” currencies left in the National Welfare Fund, the Ministry of Finance reported. As of January 1, 2024, funds in the National Welfare Fund were placed in yuan, rubles and gold.

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News 1:

The Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Transport are discussing the possibility of resuming the experiment on free travel of electric vehicles on toll roads, which was carried out from March to December 2023 as part of the concept for the development of the production and use of electric vehicles in Russia.

News 2:

In 2023, three foreign bank representative offices were closed in Russia, according to data from the Central Bank. These are branches of the German Aareal, the Cyprus AstroBank and the bank of the Italian financial group Intesa Sanpaolo. Another representative office, on the contrary, has opened - the Kyrgyz Aiyl Bank.

News 3:

The growth in prices for new buildings in the largest regional markets of Russia in January 2024 slowed down to 1% compared to December 2023. Analysts attribute the decline in dynamics to increased supply due to the uncertainty of the future of preferential mortgage programs, as well as limited holiday demand.

News 4:

At the end of 2023, Russia increased the volume of exports of goods to Brazil by 27%, to 10 billion rubles, and became one of the top five largest exporters in the country according to the Brazilian Statistical Service.

News 5:

There is an acute shortage of personnel in the Russian tourism industry, and salaries in the industry are among the lowest, said the head of Cosmos Hotel Group Alexander Biba. However, he said that the departure of foreign players had a positive impact on the market.

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News 1:

The FAS has received complaints about banks that impose restrictions on the issuance of preferential mortgages and commissions for developers. The FAS clarified that they will consider it in their “established order” - but did not say who exactly is complaining about the new practice. Sberbank, VTB and Alfa Bank announced in January 2024 that they would issue mortgages only for housing purchased from their partners.

News 2:

Higher educational institutions announced an increase in the cost of paid education for the new academic year by 10-12%, the Association of Non-State Universities of Russia reported.

News 3:

In 2023, Russians most often downloaded VPN services in the Google Play and App Store stores, and the top most popular applications by downloads were headed by Wildberries. The category of VPN services in Russia grew by 3%, to 160 million downloads. The top 20 downloaded apps included Planet VPN and VPN Master.

News 4:

Russia has terminated the agreement with Ukraine on international road transport from December 17, 2023, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The agreement dealt with regular and irregular transportation of passengers by buses, including tourists, as well as transportation of goods by motor vehicles.

News 5:

The flow of tourists from Russia to Cuba broke the pre-pandemic record: in 2023, almost 185 thousand Russians visited the country, which is 7,000 more than in 2019.

Новость для изучающих английский язык уровня B1-B2. Reddit начнет выдавать деньги пользователям за популярные посты.

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Интересные слова для запоминания / Interesting words to memorize:

discussion - обсуждение

coin - монета

gesture - жест

announce - объявить

popular - популярный

appreciate - ценить

Contributor Program - Программа для участников

upvote - голосовать за

earn - зарабатывать

NEWS:

Reddit is a website where people share information and have discussions. Users can give “coins” to other users who write posts they like. In the past, these coins did not have any real value - they were just a nice gesture.

Now Reddit has announced that it will start giving real money to users for popular posts. When a user buys “gold” to give to a post they appreciate, part of that money will go to the user who made the post.

Reddit is also starting a new program called the Contributor Program. Through this program, users can earn money based on how many “upvotes” their posts get. Upvotes are when other users click a button to show they liked the post. Users can also earn money by giving and receiving gold.

Новость для изучающих английский язык уровня B1-B2. Акции Samsung выросли.

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Интересные слова для запоминания / Interesting words to memorize:

shares - акции

profit - выгода

third quarter - третий квартал

tough time - трудное время

wide market - широкий рынок

expect - ожидать

NEWS:

Samsung Electronics announced that its profit for the third quarter was better than expected, and it dropped by only 78%.

This is good news because the memory chip market has been going through a tough time, and now there are early signs that it might get better. Samsung’s shares went up by 3.3%, which is better than the wider market’s 1.4% increase. Some types of chips are starting to go up in price.

Samsung estimated that its profit from July to September would be about 1.79 billion dollars, which is much less than last year. But this was better than what most experts expected.

Новость для изучающих английский язык уровня B1-B2. Пожар в аэропорту Лутона.

Интересные слова для запоминания / Interesting words to memorize:

flight - полет

burned down - сгорел

accident - несчастный случай

firefighters - пожарные

treatment - уход

safety - безопасность

sprinklers - разбрызгиватели

suggest - предлагать

install - установить

NEWS:

All flights at Luton Airport stopped because a big fire burned down a car park on Tuesday night. The fire damaged the car park badly. The fire service thought that it was an accident, which started in a car at around 9 PM.

Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but a few firefighters and an airport worker had to go for treatment because there was a lot of smoke. The airport is most concerned about safety and hopes to get back to work soon.

The car park holds about 1,900 cars, and many of them are damaged. There were no sprinklers in the car park, and officials are suggesting installing them soon.