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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Ukraine update: Russia’s most powerful warship Moskva has been damaged and completely evacuated in the Black Sea due to fire. The Ukrainian forces claim their cruise missiles hit the ship while Moscow says the explosion is accidental.

• U.S. sends weapons package to Ukraine: Joe Biden announced that Washington will provide $800 million worth of helicopters, cannons and other military equipment to Ukraine forces to defend against the Russian offensive in the East, as requested by Kyiv. It is the first time since the beginning of the war that the U.S. agrees to send heavy weapons to Ukraine.

•South Africa floods death toll passes 300: According to local authorities, the death toll reached 300 after major floods caused by heavy rains wreaked havoc on the east coast of South Africa. Officials said it is “one of the worst weather storms in the history of our country.”

• New Zealand court to allow extradition to China: A New Zealand court ruled on the extradition to China of a suspect facing murder charges. Kyung Yup Kim, a South Korean who has a permanent residency in NZ, is accused of the murder of a woman in Shanghai in 2009.

• NYC subway shooter arrested: A 62-year-old man suspected of the New York subway shooting that injured 23, has been arrested “without incident” after a 30-hour manhunt.

• Musk makes offer to buy Twitter outright: Tesla founder Elon Musk, who already owns a 9% stake in Twitter, has made a bid to buy the social network outright for $41 billion, saying the company needs to go private to fix key problems.

• NASA spies largest comet ever:The largest comet ever seen has been discovered by U.S. space agency astronomers. Known as Bernardinelli-Bernstein, the comet is no threat to Earth and will be at its closest to the Sun in 2031.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

British daily The Times, reports that Britain has earmarked $157 million to send undocumented migrants on a one-way flight to Rwanda. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the plan to target illegal immigration in southeast England, where thousands of migrants have arrived in small boats over the past year.

#️⃣  BY THE NUMBERS

$6,222.36

That is the highest bid on the NFT of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet (“just setting up my twttr”), as its owner aims to resell it to give half to charity. That’s just 0.2% of the $2.9 million the buyer originally paid for — leading the owner to say he “may never sell it.”

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

How a Dutch clinic pioneered pediatric transgender healthcare

The Amsterdam-based Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria was founded in the 1970’s. The goal of this clinic was to work with young children and their parents to address gender identity issues, writes Frieda Klotz for Undark.

⚧️ Gender dysphoria is the experiencing of distress that occurs when a person’s gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. For some, the negative feelings go away with time, however for others, the distress continues into the years leading up to puberty. These young people can then come to the clinic and embark on a treatment protocol that lasts around six months where they are closely accompanied by professionals.

🏥🛑 This clinic also known as “the Dutch clinic”— was one of the rare places in the world where children could receive transgender medical care. After results were published showing the effectiveness of the protocol, this practice became widely influential. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding this practice. And the Dutch clinic is receiving backlash from right-wing politicians, religious conservatives or health care associations that would like to see this practice banned while some physicians criticize the clinic for being too slow in the path of gender transition.

⚠️ The Dutch clinic is cautious in providing aid and support between each intervention and some clinicians now say this is too conservative and could even harm some young patients who would be better off receiving immediate interventions. But the clinic believes that the scientific uncertainties call for providing as much care as needed in order to fully explore the scope of identity.

📣 VERBATIM

We got him.

— After a 30-hour search, NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced the arrest of New York subway shooter Frank R. James saying “My fellow New-Yorkers, we got him.”