💍💥Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York confirmed Thursday that she's engaged to her longtime partner, Riley Roberts, Insider news reports.

"We got engaged last month in my family's hometown in Puerto Rico," she tweeted. "No future details yet, we're taking some space to savor this time before diving into planning."

Ocasio-Cortez, 32, met Roberts, a marketing professional when the two were undergraduate students at Boston University. They've dated for several years.
Rumors started circulating earlier in the day when Ocasio-Cortez was photographed by The Hill sporting an engagement ring.

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🇺🇸💬 Senate Republicans sent a letter to the Appropriations Committee in which they pledged to defund the DHS' "Ministry of Truth", The Washington Times reports

The gov't should not be engaged in regulating speech or being an arbiter of truth, the letter said, according to the report.

🇺🇸🇷🇺 The FBI found no evidence of a covert communications channel between Trump and Russia's Alfa Bank, according to a Fox News report

🍟💸 McDonald’s strikes a deal to sell all of its Russian restaurants. The Chicago burger giant said Alexander Govor, an existing licensee who operates 25 restaurants in Siberia, has agreed to buy McDonald’s 850 Russian restaurants and use them under a new name. McDonald’s did not disclose the terms of the sale.

The fast-food restaurant chain, which had nearly 850 restaurants in the country, most of them directly owned by the company, said it expected the deal, subject to regulatory approval, to close in the coming weeks.

McDonald's has operated in Russia for more than 30 years. The opening of its first restaurant in Moscow in 1990 symbolized a thaw in Cold War tensions. In March of 2022, MacDonald's shut down its operations in Russia over Western sanctions.

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✈️🇰🇷US President Joe Biden is scheduled to arrive in Seoul on Friday for talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, although administration officials admit they are concerned North Korea will attempt to overshadow the visit with the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile or even an underground nuclear test.

Biden is expected to discuss the security situation in Northeast Asia during his three-day visit, as well as ways to potentially engage with North Korea, the growing challenges posed by an increasingly expansionist China, and a new regional economic agreement.

The US leader is due to travel to Tokyo on Sunday for bilateral discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and a summit of the leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, which brings together Japan, the US, Australia, and India.

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🧐🗳Some inconsistencies were found in thousands of ballots for primaries held in the US state of Oregon. The ballots contained unclear barcodes that vote-counting machines couldn't read and would delay results by weeks in a critical U.S. House race in Oregon’s primary election.

Voters from both political parties milled about in a narrow room with windows that allowed views of workers opening ballots, transferring votes, reviewing flagged ballots, and using the vote-counting machines.

The failure could affect up to 60,000 ballots, or two-thirds of the roughly 90,000 returned in Oregon’s third-largest county. Hundreds of votes were still coming in under a new law that allows ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

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⚡️🇺🇸Pentagon press secretary John Kirby is moving into a White House role, according to CNN

😍😍 According to multiple reports, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky have welcomed a baby boy.

The couple, who first revealed her pregnancy with a belly-baring Harlem photoshoot in January, became parents May 13 in Los Angeles, according to TMZ on Thursday based on unnamed sources.

People magazine, citing an unnamed source, said A$AP and Rihanna, 34, are home in Los Angeles with the baby.

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👩‍🚀NASA's InSight Mars robotic lander will complete its work in late 2022 due to a lack of solar energy, mission chief Bruce Bannerdt says.

The lander now generates only 10% of the original capacity of solar power because of heavy dust on Mars, which has covered the robot's solar panels.

Photo credit: NASA

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📹 Russia's Ministry of Defence has published footage of the work being done by Ka-52 and Mi-28 helicopters during a special military operation in Ukraine

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⚡ Russian Orthodox charity gathers over $300,000 for refugees from Ukraine

📹 Russia's Ministry of Defence has published footage of "Grad" multiple launch rocket systems' combat work during the special operation in Ukraine

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⚡️⚡️ Four people injured in stabbing attack in Norway, police say

🎥 The second part of a prank played by Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus on former American president George W Bush, has emerged online.

In it, the former president talks about the West's war against Russia and what role the US has in it

#VovanLexusBush

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⚡️ As many as 1,908 Ukrainian Azov militants from Azovstal surrendered, Shoigu says

📹🎞 Residents of Mariupol learnt how to bake bread on a fire near their house

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📌 Most recent statements from Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu:

▪️ In the Western Military District 12 military units will be formed by the end of the year because of Finland's and Sweden's bid to join NATO;

▪️ US and NATO are increasing the scale of operational and combat training near the Russian border, up to 40.000 military personnel are taking part in training;

▪️ Russian armed forces are doing everything to prevent the death of civilians in Donbass and Ukraine, 1.3 million people have been evacuated to Russia since the beginning of the operation;

▪️ Ukrainian forces use civilians as a human shield, trying to delay the advance of the Russian troops;

▪️ Russian forces with the help of DPR and LPR forces continue to expand control over the territories of Donbass, the LPR liberation is almost complete

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📹🎞 The village of Verkhnetoretskoye was liberated from Ukrainian neo-Nazis but they continue to take revenge on civilians

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