A group of 50 civilians, including 11 children, were evacuated today from Azovstal where they had been held hostage by Ukrainian nationalists with limited access to food, water and other basic necessities, the Russian defense ministry says.

All those rescued have been handed over to UN and ICRC representatives for transportation to temporary accommodation sites.

❗️The humanitarian operation at Azovstal will continue on May 7.

❗️🇷🇺The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has suspended the membership of the Russian Tennis Federation, its head Shamil Tarpishchev told Sputnik on Friday.

🔴Cuba’s national health minister, José Ángel Portal, informed The Associated Press that hospitals had received about 40 injured people due to a powerful explosion apparently caused by a natural gas leak Friday that killed at least eight people and injured 40 when it blew away the outer walls of a five-star hotel in the heart of Cuba’s capital.

No tourists were staying at the 96-room Hotel Saratoga because it was undergoing renovations, Havana Gov. Reinaldo García Zapata told the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

“It has not been a bomb or an attack. It is a tragic accident,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who visited the site, said in a tweet.

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❗️Citibank has opened an account for the Russian Consulate General in New York, the Acting Consul General told Sputnik

⚡️🇺🇸 Biden has announced additional security assistance for Ukraine that will include artillery munitions, radar, and other equipment

🇨🇳Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng has warned that an attempt by the United States to fix European security issues with NATO expansion could only lead to a greater disaster.

"NATO’s continued eastward expansion has upset security in Europe and created a big mess… Given this, to resolve the crisis by further expansion would be like correcting one mistake with another," Le told an online security dialogue of G20 think-tanks.

💃 The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala brought in a record $17.4 million this year, museum officials said Tuesday. The benefit, held annually and better known as “the Oscars of the fashion world,” also netted a record number of donations from individuals and institutions.

The money pays for operating the institute and putting on annual blockbuster exhibits like the current “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” which was launched at the gala Monday night and opens to the public on May 7. That exhibit is part of a broader two-part exhibit exploring the roots of American fashion.

The gala is traditionally held on the first Monday in May, but because of the pandemic, the 2021 version was held last September. The two galas together brought in $33.7 million, the institute said.

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⚡️‘Friends' star Mike Hagerty has died at 67, his family says

Hagerty is most known for his role as building superintendent Mr. Treeger on "Friends", but he also appeared on a lot of shows including Cheers, The George Carlin Show, and Curb Your Enthusiasm

😂 The latest example of Biden acting weird

"I've been in and out of Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq, I mean Iraq, over 50 times, 48 times," the president says in a video.

⚡️🇺🇸 A US federal judge dismissed former President Donald Trump's lawsuit against Twitter for suspending his account in the wake of the 2021 Capitol riot, a court filing revealed.

🎥Video: Hundreds of Workers Riot in Shanghai MacBook Factory Over Lockdowns. On February 28, 2022, the first case of the Omicron variant was identified in Shanghai, China. Authorities responded by locking down the city, the largest lockdown in the country since the Hubei lockdown in the early days of the pandemic.

Hundreds of workers rioted in a Shanghai factory in opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns in the city. The factory is owned by Quanta Computer, which gets 50% of its revenue from Apple, primarily making Macbooks for the Cupertino, California-based company. They also do work for Microsoft, Dell, and HP, according to Bloomberg.

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⚡️🇨🇺 The death toll from the Saratoga hotel blast has doubled to 18, the Cuban president just announced

🤫President Joe Biden told US intelligence and defense leaders to stop leaking information on US-Ukraine intelligence sharing because it is counterproductive, NBC News reported citing two administration officials.

Biden in a phone call with CIA Director William Burns, Defense chief Lloyd Austin, and National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, said the disclosures “distract" from US objectives, the report added.

⚡️🇺🇸Biden on Sunday will attend a virtual G7 meeting joined by Zelensky

😳🦠The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday said it is investigating an outbreak of hepatitis among children in the United States that has resulted in five deaths since October and in other countries.

According to the CDC, there have been 109 total cases reported in the United States so far, starting with an initial outbreak of nine points in young children by Alabama officials in the autumn. Roughly 90% of those impacted have been hospitalized, with 14% requiring a liver.

“Investigators both here and across the globe are hard at work to determine the cause,” CDC Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases Dr. Jay Butler said during a press briefing.

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⚡️⚡️ Former President Trump speaks in Pennsylvania

😳‼️Shocking documents reveal that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention purchased cellphone data on millions of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure they complied with pandemic-related restrictions.

Motherboard, a technology news website, reported Tuesday that CDC documents show the agency spent $420,000 last year to purchase cellphone location data harvested from tens of million Americans.

The data was purchased from SafeGraph, which Motherboard described as a "highly controversial data broker." The information was "derived from at least 20 million active cellphone users per day across the United States". It provided "extremely accurate insights related to age, gender, race, citizenship status, income, and more." The purchase gave the CDC access to the data for one year.

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🔻New details have been revealed in the murder of Lily Peters, the 10-year-old girl from Wisconsin who was found dead near her aunt's house. The 14-year-old suspect is being charged as an adult, according to prosecutors.

In a criminal complaint unsealed Friday, the 14-year-old suspect is being charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree intentional assault, and first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13 resulting in great bodily harm, Police Chippewa reports.

Police in Chippewa Falls was notified on the morning of April 25 that the victim's body was found near the area where the bicycle was. Investigators said that the injuries were consistent with blunt force trauma, according to the report.

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❓ 🤔 "Where am I heading?"

Joe Biden gets lost and confused after touring Ohio factory.

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