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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Zelensky in U.S., Kremlin reacts: Following the historic trip to Washington by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia slammed the U.S. on Thursday for fighting a “proxy” war that Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov said would be fought “to the last Ukrainian.” More below on Zelensky’s first trip outside of Ukraine since the invasion began, which included a White House meeting with President Joe Biden and a speech before a joint session of Congress.

• Netanyahu announces new Israeli government: Benjamin Netanyahu says he has formed a new coalition, which if confirmed will make him Israel’s prime minister for a record sixth time, presiding over the most extreme right-wing government in the nation’s history. The announcement Thursday came after weeks of post-election negotiations between his Likud party and other nationalist and ultra orthodox partners.

• Peru appoints new prime minister: Following weeks of protests around Peru over former President Pedro Castillo's removal, that resulted in at least 25 deaths, President Dina Boluarte appointed Alberto Otarola, the country’s defense chief to the prime minister job as part of a cabinet reshuffle.

• India on edge after China’s COVID spike: The Indian government is taking a series of measures, including genome sequencing of positive cases, to detect and prevent new COVID-19 variants. Concerns are growing in India over renewed coronavirus waves in neighboring China, following Beijing’s recent relaxing of strict zero-COVID guidelines.

• FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried extradited to U.S.: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has landed in New York after consenting to be extradited from the Bahamas, where he was arrested on Dec. 12, following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange platform. Bankman-Fried faces charges of fraud, as two of his former FTX have pleaded guilty to similar charges.

• Asia’s most-wanted drug lord extradited to Australia: Tse Chi Lop, the alleged drug kingpin thought to be behind the Asia-Pacific-based crime syndicate Sam Gor, has been extradited to Melbourne, Australia to face drug trafficking charges. “Asia’s El Chapo,” as he is nicknamed, had been arrested at a Dutch airport last year by Interpol.

• Spain’s most caliente year: With average daily temperatures above 15 °C (59 °F), 2022 will be Spain’s hottest year since record-keeping started in 1963, with the year also on track to be one of the country’s driest ever. Experts have linked the extreme weather to climate change.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

The Washington Post devotes its front page to Volodymyr Zelensky’s historic speech from the United States Capitol. The Ukrainian President expressed his country’s gratitude to the U.S. for its support against the Russian invasion (the White House confirmed delivery of a Patriot defense system battery) while also calling for more help and stronger sanctions against Moscow.

#️⃣  BY THE NUMBERS

$63,200

During a parliamentary debate last week, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was caught on a hot mic, calling opposition leader David Seymour "such an arrogant prick" as he was criticizing her in a speech. Arden quickly apologized, and Seymour quickly accepted the apology. But then the pair of political opponents decided to take their rare political reasonableness to a whole other level: Both signed a copy of the official parliamentary record of the crude transcript, to be auctioned off for charity. The winning bid of NZ$100,100 ($63,200) came from Julian Shorten, who said : "This is a moment in New Zealand political history."

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

How Trump’s legal troubles look in places where presidents get prosecuted

What do South Korea, Taiwan, Israel, Italy, France, Portugal, and Iceland all have in common? They’re all wealthy democracies that have charged and prosecuted former heads of state or heads of government for criminal acts committed while in office. The United States is not a member of this club — at least, not yet.

🗞️🌍 So how are countries like these, and others, looking at the U.S. House of Representative Committee’s recommendation that Donald Trump be prosecuted for, among other things, inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021? Is the view in their mainstream news outlets informed by their own experiences with charging former leaders?

🇰🇷 “The first time in history that Congress recommends criminal punishment for a former president,” notes South Korea’s largest daily, Chosun. Conversely, any indication that the staunchly anti-China former U.S. President might end up in jail received rather scant coverage from Taiwan’s pro-independence Liberty Times.

🇦🇷 In Latin America though, which is no stranger to seeing former rulers jailed, Argentina’s Clarin offers an in-depth explanation of the charges the U.S. Justice Department will have to decide whether or not to pursue: “insurrection, obstruction of official process, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and conspiracy to lie, for which he could face jail time and removal from office.”

🇮🇹 In Italy, where former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud, Corriere della Sera writes at more length about what it called “Trump: nightmare week,” and lists out the twice-impeached, single-term former president’s perils: possible charges, a concrete mark on his historical legacy, whether his taxes records will be made public, and the impact of all of that on his support among Republican voters.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO

➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED

📣 VERBATIM

“Ukraine is alive and kicking.”

— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took his first trip out of Ukraine since the beginning of the war to go to Washington. On Wednesday, he delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress expressing gratitude for the American support, “Against all odds, and doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine didn’t fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.”

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