⚡️🇺🇸 Joe Biden's sister, Valerie Biden Owens, has contracted COVID-19, her publishing company said Thursday

She reportedly did not have close contact with the president lately

👮👮‍♂️Chicago Police Department staffing numbers reached the lowest in recent history at the end of March, as more than 300 uniformed members had resigned or retired from the department and over a dozen others had stepped down.

CPD employed 11,669 sworn officers as of March 30, down from the 11,983 reported at the beginning of the year and the 12,739 members on the force on Jan. 1, 2021, according to statistics obtained by Fox News Digital pursuant to a public records request. The department saw a staffing uptick at the start of 2020, with 13,299, and a jump the year prior, with 13,486, data show.

But police officer departures were the highest in recent history in 2021 when 965 uniformed personnel resigned or retired from the CPD, and another 100 non-uniformed members also said goodbye to the department, according to the statistics.

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🇺🇸 "President Biden refuses to come to the southern border to see the chaos he has created," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says.

"So, we're taking the border to him."

❗️🇷🇺 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sky News that Moscow regretted the suspension of Russia's work in the UN Human Rights Council, Russia will continue to defend its interests and clarify its position.

"We are sorry about that," he said. "[We] will continue to defend our interests using all possible legal means."

⚡️🇨🇦🇺🇦 Canada will provide Ukraine with an additional $500 million in military aid

🇺🇸🤦‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️ More than 60 athletes from Russia and Belarus were disqualified from Boston marathon and 5K run, the organizing body's spokesperson told Sputnik on Thursday

Organizers said they will make "reasonable efforts" to refund the athletes from Russia or Belarus, within the constraints as imposed by federal and international sanctions. However, the spokesperson did not comment on how they are going to return this money.

Citizens of both countries who live abroad will be able to compete without their national flags.

Sport unites?

🇺🇸🇷🇺 Biden "applauded" the UNGA for voting to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, reiterating allegations of "war crimes" and human rights abuses.

Meanwhile, the United States has ignored crimes committed by the nationalists in Ukraine against their own citizens.

Double standards at their finest.

🇷🇺The highlights of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s interview with Sky News:

🔹Russia regrets its suspension from the UN Human Rights Council;

🔹One of the goals of the special operation is to prevent the threat of a third world war;

🔹Moscow has never struck civilian targets in Ukraine;

🔹Russia hopes that the special operation in Ukraine will achieve its goals in the coming days, in the foreseeable future;

🔹Russia has lost a significant number of its military personnel during the country's special operation in Ukraine, it is a huge tragedy;

🔹There is no chance that Vladimir Putin will face a war crimes trial due to the special military operation in Ukraine and recent reports of alleged civilians killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

❗️🇺🇸 Blinken said Thursday Washington may follow in the EU’s footsteps in expelling Russian diplomats

He said that sometimes it is essential to deal with diplomats from various countries who have “an adversarial relationship with the truth.”

Did he mean the US?

🇺🇸🇸🇾💥Four US service members are injured following an attack against a base in Eastern Syria

"At 1:09 am, April 7, Coalition forces at Green Village in Eastern Syria received 2 rounds of indirect fire that struck two support buildings," the coalition said in a press release. "At this time, four US service members are being evaluated for minor injuries and possible traumatic brain injuries."

The US troops are stationed in Syria illegally

🌫🌊☔️☀️For the second year in a row, concentrations of the potent planet-warming gas jumped by the largest amount since measurements began four decades ago.

Levels of methane in the atmosphere increased last year by the largest amount since measurements began four decades ago, government scientists said on Thursday, adding to concerns about the planet-warming gas, which spews from oil and natural gas operations.

Methane is less abundant in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but it is more potent in its near-term effects on global warming.

“Our data show that global emissions continue to move in the wrong direction at a rapid pace,” said Richard W. Spinrad, the NOAA administrator. “Reducing methane emissions is an important tool we can use right now to lessen the impacts of climate change in the near term, and rapidly reduce the rate of warming.”

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⚡️🇺🇸 American Dream Mall in New Jersey is reportedly on lockdown following a shooting incident at the parking lot

🔴Gov. Greg Abbott said on Wednesday that Texas would set up checkpoints to stop commercial vehicles coming from Mexico and would charter buses to bring migrants released by federal agents north to Washington, ushering in a new phase in an increasingly pitched political clash over immigration policy.

The tug of war over border policy has been politically advantageous for the governor in his re-election campaign, his political aides have said, and reflects real concern among Texas officials and voters that not enough has been done to address the surging number of migrant encounters at the border.

The twin imperatives — security and politics — were on display in a news conference as Mr. Abbott lashed out at the Biden administration and promised that the first migrants who agreed to be bused from Texas to Washington would be dropped at the doorstep of federal lawmakers.

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🇺🇸 Tulsi Gabbard supports reinstating Trump's Title 42 border policy, says it "worked."

😂 Rolling Stone claims that viral footage of Biden looking lost and lonely at an event with Obama was "doctored" by conservative media

❗️🇺🇸🇷🇺 Washington releases a new Russia-related sanctions list, which includes 31 entities & eight people

❗️🇺🇸💎 The US Treasury has sanctioned Alrosa, the world's largest diamonds mining company from Russia

❄️🌨☀️⚡️One in three Americans says they have personally been affected by an extreme weather event in the last two years, according to a Gallup poll released on Wednesday, reflecting a period that included a paralyzing ice storm in Texas, one of the largest wildfires in California’s history and a powerful storm that killed dozens of people in the New York region.

Hurricanes and winter weather, such as snow, ice storms, and blizzards, were the most common extreme weather events cited, followed by extreme heat and floods.

There have been dozens of severe weather events in the United States over the last two years that have each caused $1 billion or more in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There were 20 such climate disasters in 2021, and 22, a record, in 2020.

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