😻😼🙀According to a research group in Japan, when a cat chews on catnip (Nepeta cataria) or silver vine (Actinidia polygama), iridoids, are a group of secondary metabolites found in many plants, are produced, which repel arthropods.

The researchers found that whenever these plants are damaged, the amount of iridoid (insect repellent) produced increases. In fact, once damaged, the leaves emitted 20 times more iridoids into the air compared to when they were left untouched.

Cats will get cozy with the plants, rubbing and rolling themselves against the leaves in order to spread the insect repellent all over themselves, which helps them survive in the great outdoors.

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🐶🔫 In light of the recent mass shootings across the US, a California animal shelter has announced that it is banning people from adopting pets if they don’t support strict gun control measures. A statement detailing the bold new policy is currently making waves online.

🗯 “We do not support those who believe that the 2nd amendment gives them the right to buy assault weapons,” Kim Sill, owner of the Shelter Hope Pet Shop in Thousand Oaks, wrote on the organisation’s website. “If your beliefs are not in line with ours, we will not adopt a pet to you.”

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🤯 A former B.C. child star had plans to drive to Ottawa and kill Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after he killed his mother in April 2020.

▪️ Details were revealed in court Monday during the first day of the sentencing hearing for 24-year-old former actor Ryan Grantham.

▪️ In March, Grantham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of his mother.

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🧐 Only about 3 in 10 Americans believe transgender women and girls should be allowed to participate in female sports, according to a new poll from the Washington Post-University of Maryland, which comes a week after Louisiana became the 18th state to pass a transgender athlete ban last week.

▪️ The poll, which surveyed 1,503 people across the country on 4-17 May, found that 55% of Americans don’t believe transgender women and girls should be allowed to compete in high school sports.

▪️ Almost 60% of those surveyed were opposed to transgender women and girls’ participation in college and professional sports.

▪️ Americans were less likely to oppose transgender women and girls’ participation in youth sports, with about a third of those surveyed saying transgender women and girls should be allowed to compete, while 17% said they did not have an opinion.

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⚡️ MoD: Russian Kalibr missiles eliminate ammo depot near Lvov storing munition for NATO-supplied weapons

❗️ The Russian MoD’s latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces have destroyed a warehouse of ammunition for foreign weapons transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries in Lvov region using high-precision, long-range Kalibr missiles.

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces have destroyed aircraft of the Ukrainian air force at Voznesensk military airfield in Nikolaev region using high-precision air-based missiles.

▪️ Operational-tactical, army and unmanned aviation have hit 24 areas where AFU troops and military equipment were concentrated.

▪️ Russian air defence units have shot down one Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 in the DPR.

▪️ Missile troops and artillery have hit 313 areas of troop and military equipment concentration, 43 command posts and 62 firing positions of AFU artillery units.

▪️ Some 203 Ukrainian airplanes and 131 helicopters, 1,211 unmanned aerial vehicles, 339 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,558 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 524 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,958 field artillery and mortars, as well as 3,623 special military vehicles have been destroyed since the beginning of the operation.

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📹 Listen to the story of Mikhail Gennadyevich Shubin, who used to be a prisoner at the ‘Library’, a blacklisted SBU [Ukraine Secret Police] prison in Mariupol. Beatings, brutal torture with electric shocks and mock executions were only a small part of what he endured.

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❗️ EU begins legal proceedings against UK over N. Ireland Protocol Bill

💲 Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin are plunging in value again in a new digital currency plunge as traders sell off assets before the US Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates today. 
  
⬇️ Bitcoin fell this morning to a new 18-month low, as the recent tumble in crypto markets showed no sign of letting up.

🌎 The world's largest cryptocurrency fell as much as 8% to $20,199.69, its lowest since December 2020 before recovering slightly.

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📹 Eyewitness accounts of the Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk and the consequences of Ukrainian shells hitting the Mayski market and the city hospital.

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📹 The Ukrainian Army obliterates already devastated Popasnaya to ashes.

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📹 The Russian Armed Forces have delivered another convoy of humanitarian aid to civilians in Snegiryovka, a frontline town where Ukrainian planes are regularly shot down on approach.

Snegiryovka is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. The residents are under constant fire from Ukrainian nationalists, and their only hope is the Russian Federation's National Guard.

The Russian military delivers food and water to locals along roads that are shelled by enemy artillery.

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📹 The Deputy Head of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Head of the Afghan Diplomatic Mission has arrived at SPIEF, Sputnik correspondent reports.

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📹 The Deputy Head of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce in an interview at SPIEF said that Russian businessmen had come Afghanistan 10-20 days ago.

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❗️Nearly 4,200 journalists from 30 countries register to cover SPIEF, Kremlin aide says

📹 Walruses and narwhals swim at the Gazprom Neft stand at SPIEF.

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❗️ Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping - Kremlin

⚡️ China ready to back Russia on sovereignty, security issues, Xi Jinping says after talking to Putin

📹 A child was killed when the Ukrainian military shelled Rubezhnoye (LPR) with US-supplied M777 howitzers. The murdered boy's mother explained how it happened.

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📹 🤖 "Promobot" presented a humanoid robot "Dunyasha" at SPIEF - it makes coffee, tells fairy tales and dances.

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📹🍦 There's free ice cream at SPIEF; President Putin bought some at MAKS-2021 (the International Aviation and Space Show), where he treated Turkish President Erdogan to a scoop or two, our Sputnik correspondent reports.

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