🙄 Joe Biden has once again failed at math.

The US president claimed that more Americans had died from the coronavirus pandemic than the number of those killed in all major wars the US has been engaged in.

“More people have died [from the coronavirus] than all our major wars combined”, Biden said as he urged Americans to get vaccinated in order to curb the COVID-19 spread.

However, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, 650,000 American military personnel have perished only on the battlefield.

The US COVID-19 death toll, as of today, stands at 609,000, the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus count indicates.

⚡️The Biden administration will impose sanctions on Cuban government officials today, Politico reported, citing Democratic Cuban-American activists who were briefed on the matter in a phone call on Wednesday night.

🤔 Nearly half of the US military bases in Afghanistan were used to keep strategic tabs on the wider region, Russia's special presidential envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said on Thursday.

🗣 "Of the 19 [US bases] that we know of, somewhat about seven or eight had nothing to do with Afghanistan and had nothing to do with the situation there", Kabulov told the Echo of Moscow radio station.

The diplomat emphasised that the American contingents were conveniently placed in Afghanistan to be closer to the Middle East, Russia, Central Asia and China.

#BREAKING: Websites of major American companies reportedly go offline

The websites of many American companies have reported major outages on Thursday, according to the Downdetector portal.

The list of affected companies includes Microsoft, Google, Amazon, McDonald's, FedEx, UPS, Steam, Airbnb, HBO Max, and many others.

Many users reported DNS errors, meaning their requests could not reach the said websites, but the source of the problem remains unclear.

Why is shoplifting in California largely going unpunished?

Running a business today is an uphill struggle with all the rules, regulations, restrictions, rent, and on top of that – thieves!

In most countries, however, thieves would be arrested and jailed. But California prefers a system of "understanding" and "forgiveness".

After all, you can be robbed in California of goods up to $950 and the thieves won’t even be arrested! Thanks Proposition 47...

Republican Arizona State Senator Paul Boyer, a RINO if there ever was one, is doing everything in his power to hold up the damning Forensic Audit of Maricopa County which has been taking place over the last 90 days. The people of Arizona are demanding it. Boyer has been nothing but trouble, and nobody knows why. All we demand is Voter Integrity! He is being primaried by a strong and highly respected challenger, former Arizona State Representative Anthony Kern.

📍 Nancy Pelosi recently turned down Republican representatives as members of her committee to investigate the events at the US Capitol on January 6, thus taking the unprecedented step of abandoning the election of the minority party.

However, one Republican representative is likely to be accepted. Guess who is he? Of course it's anti-Trump Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger.

🧐 This turn of events is increasingly causing many to wonder whether the electoral commission will be impartial.

@TedCruzTX blasted Democrats during a Senate floor speech, calling it “a cynical and calculated lie” that anybody other than Democrats is seeking to defund the police.

🗣 “Psaki doubled down on the idea that it is Republicans and not Democrats who want to defund the police. When a White House press secretary gives a press briefing, you expect some spin, you expect some verbal bobbing and weaving if the topic is unflattering to the administration. But when Jen Psaki tried to blame Republicans for defunding the police, it wasn’t spin. It was horse manure, it was gaslighting,” said Cruz

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the scammers impersonated WalMart, offering COVID-19 cures and stealing personal information from consumers. The US government has reportedly shut down two websites.

Be careful!

🗣 President Biden told a restaurant owner that he would likely struggle to hire new employees for the next few months before expanded federal unemployment benefits run out — unless he paid them more.

During a CNN town hall night hosted by Don Lemon, John Lanni told Biden that many restaurants owners are struggling to find workers amid the pandemic.

In response, Biden bizarrely told Lanni that he should pay his employees more money or they’ll leave for other jobs!

🧐 Restaurants who already have no money should pay workers more?

👩‍🏫 A report released by the National Council for Teacher Quality (NCTQ) found that “too many” primary school teacher candidates fail to pass government licensing exams, especially in core subjects such as English, math, science and social studies.

😄 Too focused on critical race theory to bother with becoming qualified?

🇺🇸CIA Director William Burns in a wide-ranging interview with NPR said the trend lines in Afghanistan are "certainly troubling" amid Taliban military advances. He also discussed China and Russia:

🔻US intelligence will forward-deploy China specialists to more effectively compete with Beijing, Burns said.

🔻Burns also reflected on his personal challenges with other superpowers: "Most of my gray hair came from my service in Russia."

The state legislator heading the investigation that could lead to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s impeachment sent the governor a strongly worded letter demanding that Cuomo and his associates behave appropriately during the probe.

✉️ Democratic Assemblyman Charles Lavine penned the letter after Cuomo’s communications director and senior adviser, Rich Azzopardi, suggested there was a political agenda behind New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation of alleged sexual harassment and misconduct by the governor.

More appropriate than with those he harassed?

🌠 NASA has reported new findings using data from their lander's seismometer, revealing the first-ever details about the deep interior of Mars.

The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics starts in an hour

✅For the 1st time in the history of the Olympics, the ceremony will have no audience

✅The only attendants of the event are the athletes (6 members from each delegation) and VIP guests, with a total of 950 people allowed at the ceremony in line with coronavirus precautions

✅It is forbidden to speak loudly, shout, actively greet athletes and sing at the ceremony

✅The Tokyo organizing team removed Kentaro Kobayashi from the post of director of the opening ceremony on the eve of the event due to his past comments on the Holocaust

✅Another organizing team member, Japanese composer Keigo Oyamada, also left his post amid criticism over past bullying of children with disabilities

✅The Russian delegation will come 77th under the Russian Olympic Committee flag. The flag bearers are volleyball player Maksim Mikhaylov and fencer Sofia Velikaya

✅The ceremony will kick off at 8 p.m. local time (11:00 GMT). The parade of athletes will begin at 8:30 p.m.

2020 Summer Olympics has kicked off in Tokyo.

Check out some news you may have missed:

▪️ George Soros has reportedly donated $1 million to the Color Of Change political action committee, which campaigns for US police to be defunded.

▪️ A group of Democratic senators has claimed that new materials indicate the FBI's failure to fully investigate sexual misconduct allegations against US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ahead of his confirmation in 2018.

▪️ The Opening Ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has officially taken place in the Japanese capital, marking the beginning of the Summer Games after a year-long postponement.

▪️ A 10-year-old girl has died from the plague in La Plata County in southwestern Colorado, marking the first fatality from the disease since 2015.

▪️ House Republicans have demanded that President Biden provide the details of his campaign to combat social media misinformation regarding vaccination against COVID-19.

#BREAKING: Japan's Emperor Naruhito declares #TokyoOlympics open