first, let's get to your need to know headlines
this morning and let's start in Ukraine. Secretary of
state antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin were
in Kiev today that after meeting with Ukrainian, President
Vladimir Zelinski and other senior officials there with regard to
President Zelensky again, without wanting to characterize him too
much. I can just repeat what I said earlier
. He expressed to both of us uh deep and
repeated appreciation both for President biden's leadership but also for
the generosity of the american people. Now, this
marks the highest level officials to visit Ukraine since Russia's
invasion of the two did not come empty handed.
They're pledging that the US will deliver more military aid
will also return a diplomatic presence to the region as
well. President Emmanuel Macron will remain France's leader for
another term after securing the election last night, Macron
took home more than 58% of the vote according to
the country's Interior ministry. He is just the fourth
french president to be reelected since 1959 And the first
reelection France has seen in 20 years. Macron will
serve another five years at the nation's home. It's
worth noting that a record number of French citizens abstained
from voting in this election. Meanwhile, stateside here
in New Mexico is under a state of emergency this
morning as strong winds fueled 20 wildfires, destroying hundreds
of buildings in New Mexico over the weekend. Thousands
of people have evacuated their homes as well. Now
the biggest wildfire spreads across 84 square miles. New
Mexico, by the way, just one of the
several regions across the southwest that's facing these flames.
While it seems like there's always a wildfire happening out
west, this is much earlier than we typically see
these outbreaks of these size outside of the southwest.
And wildfire in Nebraska also killed one person. So
keep a close eye on this as this continues to
develop some news on the college front. Just when
college students thought they were going to be able to
finish out the year without masks. Think again,
several major colleges across the country have brought back mask
requirements, scaling back large events and even returning to
remote learning as covid cases, rise colleges in Washington
, D. C. New york, pennsylvania,
massachusetts, Connecticut and texas all bringing back some kind
of covid protocol. Howard University has moved to remote
As cases spike in the nation's capital. This makes
2022 the third straight academic year to be affected by
the pandemic. The latest surge comes as students get
ready for graduation celebrations in the next few weeks.
Alright, meanwhile, Twitter may soon have a new
owner in its name. Elon Musk Twitter's board reportedly
close to selling the social media platform to the world's
richest man with negotiations going until early this morning.
That's according to two people familiar with the situation.
The two sides are set to meet later this week
to continue discussing those terms. Now Tesla's founder and
Ceo offered to acquire the social media platform earlier this
month for$46.5 billion. Some of that coming from
loans and some of that coming directly from his own
pocket. Now, currently, the two sides are
discussing a timeline to close any sort of deal and
any fees must, would have to pay for an
agreement to be signed and then fall apart. Potentially
it's been a whirlwind with that story. Never thought
it was going to happen. Alright now, crew
members on the Space X's first all private mission to
the international space station are finally on their way home
. After a week of delays. Now, the
four person crew capsule detached from the I. S
. S. Late sunday night and we'll spend today
flying through orbit before re entering the atmosphere. The
A. X one mission was brokered by space startup
axiom which offers trips to the I. S.
S. To anyone who can afford and trained for
it. The capsule is expected to splash down at
about one p.m. Eastern time this afternoon off of the
coast of florida. Alright, today could be the
day you become a millionaire. Well that's because Powerball's
jackpot hit a whopping$421 million on saturday. That
after nobody drew a winning ticket for the 29th consecutive
day and the next drawing for the Powerball jackpot will
be later today. Powerball says the odds of winning
are one in over 290 million, but those purchasing
a ticket have a 4% chance of coming away with
at least a smaller prize saturday's drawing marked Powerball's 30th
anniversary that after the first ticket was sold on april
the 19th, 1992. The last time someone won
the jackpot though, valentine's Day, that was when
a single lottery ticket netted one lucky Connecticut resident$185.3
million. But you know, that's just couch cushion
money for Elon musk. Right? Yes. So
if we don't come to work tomorrow now, yes
, now we know because we bought all the Powerball
tickets as a result and for more stories, you
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