Smollett, who apparently lost it after the sentence was announced, shouted, “I am not suicidal, I am innocent! If anything happens to me in there I did not do it.”

📝US colleges cut partnerships, financial ties with Russia

Colleges across the U.S. are pulling students from study abroad programs in Russia, ending research partnerships, and cutting financial ties as part of a global wave of sanctions.

Last academic year, U.S. colleges hosted nearly 5,000 students from Russia, less than 1% of all international students. Advocates for international education say losing those students would forgo a chance to "expose them to western ideals."

Some in Congress have pushed for visa restrictions against Russian students.

What do you think of this discrimination?

⚡️🇺🇦 The World health Organization (WHO) told Ukraine to destroy "high-threat pathogens" in its public health laboratories to prevent potential spills, Reuters reports

The WHO has not specified the pathogens and has not clarified whether Ukraine had fulfilled the recommendation.

🇷🇺🇨🇦 The allegations by the Canadian government that Russia is behind an attack on a hospital ward in the city of Mariupol is based on a fabrication permeated by Kiev, the Russian Embassy in Ottawa says

❗️The Russian Embassy condemned the story saying it was staged and noted that Canadian media has not made an attempt to independently verify the veracity of Kiev’s claims.

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Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Ilya Kiva, who fled the country, also said he was confident that the story regarding the attack on the Mariupol maternity hospital was a false-flag.

"Ukraine is filled with lies and deception. The history of the tragedy in the hospital of Mariupol - another staging and fake," Kiva said on Telegram.

Mariupol is the site of an intense battle where surrounded Ukrainian troops and neo-Nazi and other extremist battalions have dug in against advancing Russian and allied troops from the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. The latter have said are intending to end eight years of bloodshed in the area initiated by Ukrainian troops and assorted extremists.

🇺🇸🚘 A reporter is pressing White House press secretary Jen Psaki on whether Joe Biden owns an electric vehicle himself, as the US president has been actively pushing a green agenda

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❗️🇪🇺🇺🇦 Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that leaders of the EU nations had given a green light to the European integration of Ukraine during the summit in Versailles

📲 Google Cloud to stop accepting new customers in Russia

The announcement is the latest action from Google and other tech companies who have sought to "punish" Moscow. Google Cloud’s action follows similar suspensions from other top cloud providers, including Microsoft and Amazon. 

Amazon on Tuesday said it would no longer be accepting new Amazon Web Services customers in Russia. Microsoft last week said it would suspend all sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia. 

The Silicon Valley giant also said last week it had suspended all advertising in the country. 

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😱🛢The world would need between five to ten years to match the millions of barrels of oil that Russia produces each day, former Texas industry regulator Ryan Sitton told Sputnik

"How long before the rest of the world can make the ten million barrels of oil that Russia produces? The answer is it is so far off it can't be done," Sitton says.

Read the full interview here and subscribe to @sputniknewsus !

⚡️🇺🇸🇷🇺 Joe Biden to propose on Friday to end normal trade relations with Russia, increase tariffs on Russian imports - reports

⚡️🇺🇸 The US Senate has approved the $1.5 trillion budget package that includes $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine (bipartisan vote, 68-31)

The bill now heads to Biden’s desk for his signature

❗️🇷🇺🇺🇸The Russian embassy in the United States has demanded that Washington hold Meta to account over extremist activities, after the company allowed calls for violence against Russians.

❗️🇺🇸🇺🇦More than 40 GOP lawmakers are demanding that Joe Biden aid “the transfer of aircraft and air defense systems” to Ukraine, after Washington snubbed Warsaw's MiG-29 jets offer

Are they really for "peace"?

❗️🇨🇳 Based on the principles of mutual respect and mutual benefit, China will "develop cooperation relations with all parties and ensure more stability in the world," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang says

❗️The anti-Russian sanctions will have a negative impact on the recovery of the global economy after the COVID-19 pandemic and will inflict damage on all the countries,Chinese Premier Li says

❗️ US President Biden will announce new measures against Russia on Friday in response to the operation in Ukraine, the White House said.

"At 10:15 a.m. EST (15:15 GMT), the president will announce actions to further hold Russia accountable", Biden's schedule for Friday reads

⚡️ Ukrainian forces fire 40 Grad rockets at Gorlovka in Donbass, DPR says

⚡️⚡️ DPR forces take control of Volnovakha city - Russian MoD

⚡️Ukrainian military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk put out of operation - Russian MoD

⚡️ Hungarian PM Viktor Orban says EU will not impose sanctions on Russia affecting gas and oil sectors.

"The most important issue for us has been settled in a favourable way: there won't be sanctions that would apply to gas or oil, so Hungary's energy supply is secure in the upcoming period", the prime minister said

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❗️Key takeaways from the Russian Defence Ministry's latest briefing:

🔹 On the morning of 11 March, high-precision long-range weapons struck at Ukrainian military infrastructure, and put out of action military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankovsk;

🔹 The DPR forces have taken control of Volnovakha; the settlements of Olginka, Velika-Anadol, and Zeleny Gai were also taken under control; the advance was up to 6 kilometres.

🔹 Units of the Russian military have reached the Petrovskoye-Evgenovka-Oktyabrskaya line. The advance was 17 kilometres;

🔹 Three Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters, eight unmanned aerial vehicles, including five Bayraktar TB-2s, were shot down, 107 targets were hit by aircraft.

🔹 In total, 3,213 Ukrainian military infrastructure have been disabled since the operation began

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