🇷🇺 🇺🇸Russia has the right to decide for itself where to deploy troops inside the country, and it will continue military exercises, the Russian Embassy said in connection with US Deputy Secretary Wendy R. Sherman's calls to withdraw troops from the border with Ukraine.

⚡️🇺🇸🇦🇫The United States has allocated another $308 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, bringing the total of Washington's assistance to the country to $782 million since October 2021, the White House announces.

❗️U.S. reports 1.35 million COVID-19 cases in a day, the highest daily total for any country in the world

❗️White House allocates over $300mln in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan

Americans 'running out of money' to pay bills after loss of COVID-19-related 'financial cushion'

❗️🦠🦇 Republicans from the US House oversight committee have released never before seen emails allegedly showing chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci “may have concealed information about COVID-19 originating from the Wuhan lab and intentionally downplayed the lab leak theory.”

The lawmakers are calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to lift redactions in the emails released via the Freedom of Information Act, and request Fauci be made immediately available to sit for a transcribed interview.

❗️White House says it condemns North Korea ballistic missile launch

White House says launch is in violation of UN Security Council resolutions

The suspension of some West coast flight takeoffs coincided with news that North Korea launched ballistic missile

FAA's West Coast pause in flight departures was due to 'initial reports of events in the Indo-Pacific region' - U.S. official says without specifically linking it to North Korea missile launch

🇺🇸 Ahead of NATO-Russia talks on Wednesday, US envoy Julianne Smith says that all of the allies are committed to dialogue, but she does not see much room for compromise on the issue of alliance's expansion.

"At this juncture, all of the allies are committed to a dialogue with Russia tomorrow," Smith told CNN, adding that she does not see "a lot of compromise" on the issue of enlargement.

🇷🇺 As tensions around Ukraine flared late last year, Russia suggested that NATO provide security guarantees, which include the alliance not expanding eastward.

❗️ Not a single NATO member is ready to discuss bloc's open door policy with Russia, US envoy says

🇷🇺🎤 Kanye West, now known as Ye, is planning to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this year in Moscow, where he also plans to hold Sunday Service performances as his first-ever shows in Russia and expand his business ventures into the country, his associate tells Billboard.

Photo credit: Ye’s Twitter

🇺🇸📈The US will have to raise interest rates over time if inflation continues to be higher than forecast, Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell says

“Will stand with partners”: The US continues to monitor the situation at the Indian border with China.

The US has extended support to allies, including India, against what Washington describes as Beijing's "intimidating" behaviour.

"We've been pretty clear how we view Beijing's behaviour in the region and around the world. We believe it can be destabilising. And we're concerned by the People's Republic of China's attempt to intimidate its neighbours," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.

The remarks of the US press secretary came ahead of Wednesday's military-commander level talks at the Chushul Maldo border point in eastern Ladakh. The Chinese foreign ministry has dubbed the China-India border situation "generally stable at the moment."

Joe Biden: "Last week, President Harris and I stood in the United States Capitol..."

🤔 Fast-forwarding events?

The Red Cross has declared its first-ever national blood crisis in the US

In a Tuesday statement, the organization warned members of the public of the consequences of its worst blood shortage in more than a decade — including doctors being forced to make "difficult decisions" about which patients receive blood transfusions over others.

The American Red Cross said it had "less than a one-day supply of critical blood types" and has had to limit distributions to hospitals

🇺🇸🇨🇳🦠 Over a dozen US lawmakers introduced a bill to sanction the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology - and associated labs - if Beijing refuses to allow another probe into the origins of COVID, Senator Chuck Grassley's office said.

“Tired of being quiet”: US President Joe Biden urges the Senate to change filibuster rules to pass key voting reform legislation put forward by Democrats.

Biden has been under fire to get a voting reform bill through Congress that would require eliminating a procedure called the filibuster, which allows a minority party to kill legislation.

🗣"The United States Senate, designed to be the world’s greatest deliberative body, has been rendered a shell of its former self," Biden said during a speech in the state of Georgia on Tuesday.

🗣"As an institutionalist, I believe that the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, debate them, vote. Let the majority prevail. And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this."