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

▪️ Russian air defense units have destroyed two Su-25 airplanes and one Mi-8 in a day

▪️Russian Armed Forces have destroyed a battalion of Ukrainian troops in the vicinity of the Lisichansk Oil Refinery

▪️The Russian military hit two Ukrainian Grad multiple rocket launcher platoons and two Ukrainian artillery platoons

▪️Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed a training base for foreign mercenaries in the Nikolaev region

▪️In the subdivisions of Ukraine near Lisichansk, combatants are deserting due to hunger

▪️Some 221 planes and 3,853 tanks have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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🎥Mi-35 attack helicopters in combat action during the special military operation in Ukraine (Russian MoD video)

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👽Mystery solved? The US Coast Guard said that the bizarre "UFO" flashing lights seen in San Diego and Tijuana yesterday were actually from flares fired from a ship off the coast, local media reported. Naval crews were conducting flare training with expired flares, the Coast Guard is reported to have said.

So, are those who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of little green men doomed to disappointment after all?

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❗️Russia's foreign minister has summoned Norwegian charge d'affares due to the refusal of Norwegian authorities to allow the transit of cargo through Svalbard

⚡NATO leaders officially invite Sweden, Finland to join alliance

📹⚔Offensive with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery and mortar strikes: Russian motorized infantry during the special military operation in Ukraine (Russian MoD footage)

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⚡The main points from the NATO Madrid summit's declaration:

▪"The Russian Federation is the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security": A new strategic concept for the alliance has been endorsed;

▪Additional forces to be deployed on NATO's eastern flank;

▪A package of support to Ukraine with non-lethal defense equipment has been approved, the alliance promises to improve Ukraine’s cyber defenses and support the modernization of its defense sector;

▪The alliance has promised "political and practical support" to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and the Republic of Moldova (not NATO members)

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⚡️⚡️ Syria recognizes the independence and sovereignty of the DPR and LPR

📹After Ukrainian troops retreated, a training center at Severodonetsk airport was found to contain a number of weapons sent from abroad. An entire warehouse of Czech ammunition and NATO containers are seen on the video.

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❗️White House says no requirement to contact Russia about NATO posture changes

💭Zelensky compares NATO’s accession policy to old subway turnstile

"NATO's open-door policy should not be like the old Kiev subway turnstiles. They are open, and when you come in, the turnstiles close until you pay. Has Ukraine not paid enough yet?" Zelensky said in his address to the participants of the NATO summit.

❗Father of Moroccan man sentenced to death in DPR appeals to Putin, asking him to contribute to his son's pardoning, letter reads

🇺🇸The FBI has launched an inquiry into sex abuse allegations made against the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans, the Associated Press reports.

The federal investigation will probe whether priests abducted minors across state lines to commit sex crimes, the report says. More than a dozen alleged victims of abuse were interviewed by investigators this year.

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😬Your daily dose of cringe is served: a Disneyland Paris employee wearing mouse ears was caught on video while interrupting a man's proposal of marriage. "I don't want to visit Disneyland anymore," the benighted lover said later.

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👑Boris the Emperor?👑

💭“I think that Turkey should be there, I think that Maghreb should be there and I think we should basically be recreating the Mare Nostrum of the Roman Empire”: Boris Johnson, one of whose great-grandfathers was Turkish journalist and minister Ali Kemal, said he supports the plan from France's Emmanuel Macron of a wider European partnership involving Turkey and the “Maghreb” of north-west Africa.

Earlier Macron raised the idea of a new “European political community” when he met Johnson at the G7 summit in Germany.

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🇺🇸🇰🇷Joe Biden got into an awkward scrape with the president of South Korea again. Last time he called Yoon Seok-youl by the name of his predecessor, Moon Jae-in. And now, at the NATO summit in Madrid, the US president just didn't shake his hand when Yoon was about to greet him with hand outstretched.

Something personal? Still not shaking hands is better then shaking hands with thin air.

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🔎A jury has officially been selected for the Parkland school shooter's sentencing trial

A jury of seven men and five women was selected Tuesday to decide if Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz would be sentenced to death or get life in prison for his 2018 massacre. The three-month process initially started with a jury pool of 1,800 individuals.

The panel will have a task never faced by a US jury, no American mass shooter who killed at least 17 people has ever made it to trial. Nine others died during or immediately after their shooting attacks, killed either by police or by their own hand.

The jurors will be exposed to graphic evidence, including crime scene and autopsy photos, and tour the three-story classroom building where Cruz methodically stalked the halls, shooting at anyone in front of him and into classrooms. It has not been cleaned since the shooting and remains bloodstained and bullet-pocked, with Valentine's Day gifts strewn about.

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⚖️Ketanji Brown Jackson is to be formally sworn in as Supreme Court justice Thursday

Ketanji Brown Jackson will be sworn in Thursday to formally become a Supreme Court justice, officially making her the nation’s first Black woman to serve in the role.

She will fill the seat being vacated by the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, whose previously announced departure after nearly 28 years on the bench will take effect Thursday at noon.

At 51, Jackson’s replacement of Breyer adds youth and diversity, and on certain issues a likely more liberal approach than Breyer, known for his judicial modesty and pragmatism. She joins a court at the conclusion of a tumultuous term that will be remembered for the 6-3 decision last week that overturned Roe v. Wade along ideological lines, ending the nearly 50-year federal right to abortion.

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💊Amazon, Rite Aid cap purchase of emergency contraceptives

Amazon is limiting how many emergency contraceptives consumers can buy, joining other retailers who put in place similar caps following the Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade.

Amazon's limit, which temporarily caps purchase of the contraceptives at three units per week, went into effect on Monday, a spokesperson for the e-commerce giant confirmed to The Associated Press. A similar policy went into effect Monday at the drugstore chain Rite Aid, which has limited the purchase of Plan B pills to three units per customer due to increased demand, a company spokesperson said. The limit applies to both in-store and online purchases.

Emergency contraception is different from abortion pills used to end a pregnancy. Plan B, which can be obtained without a prenoscription, contains a concentrated dose of the same drug found in many regular birth control pills.

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⚡️🌎'Earthquake swarm' in South Carolina

Two earthquakes struck South Carolina on Wednesday, with the most recent strong enough to get thousands of people to reach out to the US Geological Survey. Authorities have not reported any injuries to date.

The first earthquake, with an epicenter 5 km east of Elgin, South Carolina, struck this afternoon at 2:43 p.m. local time at a depth of 2.6 km. USGS said this quake was a magnitude 3.5 event.

The second earthquake struck moments ago at 7:03 p.m. and was the strongest yet. That quake ranked as a magnitude 3.6 event, was registered at a 3.0 km depth, and had an epicenter not far from the earlier quake, roughly 6 km east of Elgin. Dozens of earthquakes within this swarm have struck South Carolina over the last seven months. The earthquakes this week have all been around Elgin, a small incorporated town in Kershaw, roughly 20 miles northeast of Columbia, the state’s capital.

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