SWIFT is an acronym which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. In essence, SWIFT is not a financial institution itself, but rather a global messaging system that connects international financial institutions.
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As Western allies have steadily ramped up economic sanctions on Russia, President Vladimir Putin's top space official has threatened that Russia could deorbit the International Space Station. Currently, two Russian astronauts are on the ISS, as are four Americans and one European. Should Russia decide to do so, the station could go into an uncontrolled deorbit and eventually crash.
Mental illness is on the rise in America, and this phenomenon is due to a multitude of causes. In fact, the World Health Organization says that mental health conditions "are increasing worldwide." Some experts blame the pandemic, and, certainly, issues such as depression and anxiety have grown due to lockdowns, loss of employment, and financial instability.
In states where gun control laws are fairly strict, such as New York, sixty percent of inmates shared that they "illegally procured" the gun used in the incident. Dr. Daniel Webster is a director of Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins, and he stated that "In the 13 states with the fewest restrictions on gun ownership, forty percent of inmates illegally obtained the gun they used. Only thirteen percent purchased the gun in question from a store or pawn shop."
As Russian forces drew closer to the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said earlier that Kyiv has been subjected to "horrific Russian rocket strikes." Fox News says that Russian troops have "descended on Kyiv," and officials are still saying that Kyiv could be taken over the weekend.
President Joe Biden and the U.S. government has promised to provide weapons to the country of Ukraine, as they fight back the Russian invasion force.
The Treasury Department says that the latest sanctions target Russian banks which hold approximately eighty percent of the nation's financial assets. The state-owned SherBank and VTB hold almost $750 billion in Russian assets.
Most governments don't recommend that their citizens begin mixing Molotov cocktails, but NPR reported on Friday morning that the Ukrainian government has recommended that the citizens remaining in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities under siege "fight with anything they can find to neutralize the occupiers."
Late Thursday, the Ukrainian government reported that their military forces had recaptured a strategic airport situated outside Kyiv. The Antonov Airport would have been a vital Russian asset providing Moscow with a way to fly in more troops as well as military equipment into a city near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
A Ukrainian official who works as an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shared that Russian troops have taken control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, but not without a spirited fight from Ukrainian military.