😷‼️COVID-19 cases are growing in the United States and could get even worse over the coming months. On Wednesday, federal health officials began urging areas hardest hit to consider re-releasing calls for indoor masking.

“Prior increases of infections, in different waves of infection, have demonstrated that this travels across the country,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said at a White House briefing with reporters.

Increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are putting more of the country under guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that call for masking and other infection precautions.

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🇺🇸⚡️👶Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to boost production of infant formula and to use US military cargo airplanes in order to expedite overseas shipments of the product

📈Boris Johnson faces pressure to act as the UK inflation rate increases to 9%. Today, millions of households face increasing pressure to cut back on spending as Britain faces the fastest rise in living costs in four decades due to soaring energy prices.

The Bank of England expects the annual rate to worsen, peaking at 10.25% during the year's final quarter, five times its 2% target. It would represent the biggest squeeze on incomes since records began in the 1950s.

Experts said, 'This is what Stagflation looks like.' At the same time, ministers were urged to recognize that the 'warning lights are flashing red,' with the UK economy teetering towards recession after the pandemic and situation in Ukraine.

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🔸The United States, several global development banks, and other groups unveiled a multibillion-dollar plan Wednesday meant to address a worldwide food security crisis exacerbated by the situation in Ukraine.

The US Department of the Treasury announced that several global development banks are “working swiftly to bring their financing, policy engagement, technical assistance” to prevent starvation prompted by the war, rising food costs, and climate damage to crops.

Tens of billions of dollars will be spent on supporting farmers, addressing the fertilizer supply crisis, and developing land for food production, among other issues. The Asian Development Bank will contribute funds to feeding Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, and the African Development Bank will use $1.5bn to assist 20 million African farmers, according to the Treasury.

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⚡️🇵🇾😱 VIDEO: A Paraguay mayor has been shot several times in an alleged assassination attempt

A surveillance camera showed three gunmen jumping out of a car and opening fire at José Carlos Acevedo, the mayor of Pedro Juan Caballero.

He is reportedly in critical condition now

❗️🇺🇸🇺🇦 The Senate has confirmed Brink as the US Ambassador to Ukraine

🇺🇸😂 Watch ex-president George W. Bush acknowledge his invasion of Iraq was totally unjustifiable in a shocking slip of the tongue

“The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine,” Bush said.

Did he really mean Ukraine?

‼️Illinois Governor JB Pritzker on Wednesday signed legislation banning the sale and possession of so-called “ghost guns,” making Illinois the first state in the Midwest to crack down on untraceable firearms made at home.

The legislation, introduced by State Representative Kam Buckner and State Senator Jacqueline Collins, makes it illegal for someone to sell, offer to sell, or transfer a firearm frame or receiver unnumbered and unfinished or an unfinished firearm – including those produced using a 3-D printer.

The term “ghost gun” refers to DIY-type handguns that lack serial numbers or other identifying markers, making it difficult for law enforcement to track their maker, seller, or original owner. One of the most popular ways to create ghost guns is by buying pre-made parts and assembling them into a weapon at home.

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⚡️ At least one civilian killed in Ukrainian strikes on village of Tyotkino in Russia's Kursk region, governor says

🎞📹 Ludmila Aleksandrovna Sysoeva from Mariupol recounts how Ukrainian fighters executed civilians who went to fetch some water

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⚡️ 1,730 militants including 80 wounded have surrendered at Azovstal since Monday, MoD says

📌 The latest update from Russia's Ministry of Defence on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ High-precision air-based missiles hit seven command posts, 11 missile and artillery weapons and ammunition depots, and 26 areas of concentrated Ukrainian manpower and military equipment;

▪️ Russian airspace forces destroyed one S-300 anti-aircraft missile system battalion and one Buk-M1missile system;

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation hit two command posts, as well as 58 areas of concentrated Ukrainian manpower and military equipment; more than 340 Ukrainian nationalists were eliminated, and up to 62 armoured and motor vehicles were destroyed;

▪️ Missile troops and artillery hit six command posts, 295 areas of concentrated AFU manpower and military equipment, 43 Ukrainian artillery and mortar units at firing positions and two radio-electronic warfare stations;

▪️ Russian air defence means have shot down 15 Ukrainian drones, including 1 Bayraktar-TB2; 12 Ukrainian Smerch multiple-launch rockets were also intercepted;

▪️ In total, 172 Ukrainian aircraft and 125 helicopters, 942 drones, 313 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,158 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 395 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,562 field artillery and mortars, as well as 3,026 units of special military vehicles were destroyed during the operation

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📹 Russia's Ministry of Defence has published new footage of defeated mercenaries from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol

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📹🎞 Ambulance services in Mariupol are now the real frontline of medicine in the devastated city. Mariupol paramedics and doctors manage to work without communication and with an acute shortage of fuel.

The medics have been working without salaries for three months now, surviving only on humanitarian aid

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