💬US Embassy in Jerusalem urges all parties to refrain from escalating tensions

Jen Psaki was asked during a podcast taping if Fox News Channel's White House correspondent Peter Doocy was a "stupid son of a b***h" (three months ago Joe Biden said so at a White House event).

‘He works for a network that provides people with questions that, nothing personal to any individual including Peter Doocy, but might make anyone sound like a stupid son of a b***h,’ she replied.

❗Russia expels 18 employees of EU mission in Moscow in tit-for-tat move

18 more US states have joined a lawsuit suing Joe Biden for his decision to overturn Title 42 (which is expected to cause a mass increase in migrants in the country). Now there are 21 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming.

Florida is one of the latest states to join the suit: "Ending Title 42 would be a disaster and further the chaos at the southwest border that is making it easier for drug cartels and human smugglers to advance their illicit practices in our country," said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in a statement.

💬Blinken reportedly tells EU Russia's operation in Ukraine may last through end of 2022

💬Russia's statements about risks of increasing US military aid to Ukraine will not force Washington to change its position on issue - State Department

People who came under fire from the Ukrainian military in Yasinovataya, Donetsk region, say that civilian facilities are being shelled by Ukrainians daily

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📊Biden’s approval rating at lowest point of any US presidents, reports say

South Carolina inmate Richard Bernard Moore, 57, who became the first state prisoner to pick the way in which he would be executed (after a new law came into effect), has decided to die by firing squad rather than in the electric chair, according to court documents.

The man has spent more than two decades on death row after being convicted for the 1999 murder of convenience store clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg. He is expected to be the first person to be put to death in the state since 2011.

❗First flight with new US military aid for Ukraine to arrive within 24 hours, report says

💬US has not determined any need to change nuclear posture at present - State Dept

A man in Singapore attacked a woman, who is believed to be his wife, but immediately met with resistance from eyewitnesses: they chased him, throwing chairs and a garbage bin. Law enforcement agents later came to the scene, tasered the suspect and arrested him. The police also commended the members of the public who had tried to intervene on the victim's behalf.

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❗Twitter’s board of directors has issued a new “shareholder rights plan” to block Elon Musk’s proposed offer to buy the network: it can give certain shareholders the right to purchase more stock if Musk attempts to seize control. In a press release, the board of directors has called Musk's request on Twitter “an unsolicited, non-binding proposal”

☣️Biological weapons: Pathogens, their proliferation and prohibition

The development, production and stockpiling of biological weapons has been banned since the signing of the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972.

Nevertheless, information on research into, testing of and even military use of such arms is periodically uncovered – such as the recent string of revelations by the Russian MoD on US military biological activities in Ukraine and other countries.

Pathogenic microorganisms serve as the central component of biological weapons. Upon contact with a human being, bioweapons can cause epidemics which temporarily incapacitate their victims, at best, and at worst, cause death.

Find out what kinds of pathogens are used in such arms, their means of delivery, and the best-known cases of their use throughout history in our infographic.

The Russian Defence Ministry's latest statements:

▪On the morning of April 15, Russian Armed Forces prevented an attempt to hit Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station with a missile strike: two Tochka-U missiles were shot down by Russian air defence systems;

▪10 enemy targets were hit by high-precision air-launched missiles during the past day: three areas where Ukrainian troops were deployed, two groups of Ukrainian military equipment and weapons, several warehouses of rocket and artillery weapons and several points where neo-Nazi formations were deployed;

▪Russian air defence systems shot down a Ukrainian UAV Tu-143 Reys;

▪Missile forces and artillery hit 217 Ukrainian military facilities, including 15 command posts of Ukrainian troops

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❗Zelensky urges Biden to designate Russia as 'state sponsor of terrorism' - reports

⚡DPR forces spokesman: Kiev planning Tochka-U strike at railway station in Lozovaya, Kharkov region