The Ukraine Threat: Contrary to what Russia says, The US and its NATO allies say they see no evidence that Russia has pulled back some of its troops from positions threatening to invade Ukraine.

  “We have seen the opposite,” State Department press secretary Ned Price told reporters. “In recent days more Russian forces — not fewer — are at the border, and they are moving into fighting positions.”The US says they’ve seen new Russian combat bridges and field hospitals.

  Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that a train loaded with Russian tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery left Crimea for their bases after finishing military exercises. The Russians released video of tanks and armored vehicles on trains and roads, but there’s no telling when or where those pictures were taken.

  “Unfortunately there’s a difference between what Russia says and what it does,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with ABC News. “And what we’re seeing is no meaningful pullback.”

  Estimates of Russian troops massed on three side of Ukraine have grown to 150,000. 

Haters: Testimony in the federal hates crimes trial of three white men already convicted of killing the black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in their Georgia neighborhood revealed a spate of messages between the men in which they expressed their disdain for black people and frequently used the “N” word.

  FBI intelligence analyst Amy Vaughan testified about the defendants’ phone messages and social media.

  She revealed that one of the three men didn’t want his daughter dating a black man and called him the n-word in a text message. She testified that Travis McMichael, who shot and killed Arbery in February 2020, spoke about killing black people and wrote that he loved his job because “zero n—-rs work with me.”

  All three men have already been sentenced to life in prison for their murder convictions.

Viral News: With three quarters of adults vaccinated, the US is moving past the crisis stage in the coronavirus pandemic, says White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients.  “As a result of all this progress and the tools we all have, we’re moving toward a time when covid isn’t a crisis but is something we can protect against and treat,” Zients said during a press conference. “The president and our covid team are actively planning for this future.”

  This morning, new cases are down  68 percent over the past two weeks and deaths are down 13 percent. A total of 928,519 Americans have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.

January 6^th: Overriding Donald Trump’s claim of executive privilege, President Biden has told the National Archives to hand over White House visitor records to the House committee investigating the January 6^th insurrection.

  White House lawyer Dana Remus said in a letter that, “constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield, from Congress or the public, information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.” 

  The records will reveal who was in the White House, but not necessarily what the conversations were. 

Five Ring Roundup: Canada beat the US 3-2 to win gold in women’s hockey.

  Despite the close score, Canada overpowered the US, taking back the title the Americans won four years ago.

  “We’ve been playing so well that when we do play our way — and not focus on other teams or focus on who we’re playing — we are unstoppable,” said Natalie Spooner, a forward on her third Canadian Olympic team.

  On the slopes, US skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin clipped a gate, disqualifying herself from the combination event of downhill and slalom. This Olympics has been a complete bust for the skier who has two previous Olympic golds. “I just felt loose and relaxed, like I knew my plan,” she said yesterday, “focused, good skiing, and I was doing it. And it still didn’t work.”

  Russian skater Kamila Valieva is expected today to finish first in the women’s individual figure skating competition. If she does, her gold medal will be denied until her doping case is fully investigated and resolved. 

The Spin Rack: A swimmer died after being bitten by a shark at a beach in Sydney, Australia, making it the first fatal shark attack in the city in nearly 60 years. —  At least 94 people were killed in the Brazilian mountain city of Petropolis after torrential rains triggered landslides that washed out streets, swept away cars and buried homes. — In Saudi Arabia, the first time such jobs have been offered to them, 28,000 women have applied for 30 jobs driving trains. 

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