❗️Six HIMARS shells and 60 drones were shot down by Russian air defense forces, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian MoD's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:  

▪️Ukrainian troops lost up to 225 militants in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's area of responsibility;

▪️The Russian Tsentr combat group has improved its tactical situation; Ukrainian losses amounted to 365 soldiers;

▪️Ukrainian forces lost up to 540 servicemen in the area of responsibility of the Russian Zapad Battlegroup;

▪️Ukrainian losses in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's area of responsibility amounted to 150 militants;

▪️The Russian military hit three Ukrainian UAV depots.

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🇬🇪⚽️Georgian protesters play football in front of the Parliament
 
This is the demonstrators' way of reminding everyone that the only presidential candidate, Mikheil Kavelashvili, is a former football player. He was a striker for the Georgian national team and played on the champion teams of Switzerland and Russia as well.

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⚡️Georgian dream candidate Mikheil Kavelashvili received the required 200 votes to be elected President of Georgia, the Central Election Commission announced

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🇰🇷 Cheers and balloons: crowd hails South Korean parliament's decision to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol

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❗️🇷🇺 Key statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the United Russia Party Congress:

▪️Putin thanked United Russia members for their great contribution to ensuring the security and sovereignty of the Russian Federation;

▪️The country's army, navy, defense industry and volunteers are working around the clock, bringing Russia's victory closer;

▪️Putin thanked everyone who contributes to protecting Russia's interests both at the front and in the rear;

▪️Russia will harshly suppress attempts to undermine the unity of the country, is ready to fight back "on the entire front";

▪️All the tasks facing Russia in the near and long term will be solved, Putin said. He noted that Russia is developing, the country's economy is growing against the backdrop of unprecedented sanctions, and blackmail and attempts to hinder Russia will never achieve anything;

▪️The confrontation with Russia's opponents now affects not only the fight at the front, but also all other areas, including culture;

▪️Russian authorities must check every step with the opinion of the people.

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💡Beast of a hydropower plant: All you need to know about China’s Three Gorges Dam

Construction of the Three Gorges Dam started on December 14, 1994, and culminated in 2012. Let’s take a look at what is considered the world’s largest hydropower plant (HPP).

Here are some key facts about it:

▪️It is located in central China’s Hubei province, spanning the Yangtze River and harnessing the flow of water from three nearby gorges: Qutangxia, Wuxia, and Xilingxia.

▪️The 65-ton gravity dam, with an installed capacity of 22,500 megawatts (MW) per hour, is about 594 feet (181 m) tall and 7,770 feet (2,335 m) long.

▪️The Three Gorges reservoir extends 370 miles (600 km) along the Yangtze River upstream from the dam. At full capacity, the reservoir covers over 417 square miles (1,080 square km).

▪️The risk of severe flooding has decreased from 10% to 1% per year since the dam began operating.

What makes it so powerful?

▪️The structure has become the heaviest on the planet: the dam weighs about 65.5 million tons.

▪️It is so massive that it is even capable of altering the Earth's spin, according to NASA.

▪️The HPP generates about 100 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year on average. For comparison, to produce such a huge amount of energy, a thermal power plant would need to burn 50 million tons of coal.

▪️Building the dam required 27.2 million cubic meters of concrete and more than 450,000 tons of steel. For comparison, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa used just one-eighth of the concrete and about seven and a half times less steel.

▪️The HPP currently provides energy to ten Chinese provinces and plays a crucial role in floodwater management.

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