🇧🇾🇷🇺⚡️- Alexander Lukashenko announces that Russia has deployed Oreshnik missiles within Belarussian borders.

🇪🇺⚡️- The EU leadership summit today in Brussels holds major implications for Ukraine, enlargement, and migration.

🇪🇺⚡️ “Thursday is the last chance for EU leaders to green-light a proposal to leverage €210 billion in Russian assets across the bloc to run a loan to Ukraine.” - PoliticoEU.

🇪🇺🇧🇪⚡️- “Belgium’s support is crucial, as the bulk of frozen assets lie in the Brussels-based financial depository Euroclear, and its government fears being on the hook for substantial damages or retaliation from Moscow.”

Additionally, Belgian Prime Minister, Bart De Wever, lies in strong opposition to the proposal and has the support of Italy, Bulgaria, and Malta - PoliticoEU.

🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇸⚡️- Volodymyr Zelenskyy took questions at the EU summit. Zelenskyy spoke in Ukrainian the entire press conference except for this response:

“The United States, they are the decision-makers, who can really stop Putin, and I count on this. But I really count on pressure from the United States, and now the United States [is mediating more]… but I really wanted very much [to pressure Russia more]. Because I think Putin doesn’t want to stop this war but he can if the United States will pressure [Russia] more... and President Trump can… and God Bless that he will be successful in this.”

🇪🇺⚡️- “Enlargement is back on the agenda” for the Western Balkan nations after a leadership meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. Montenegro, furtherest along the path for EU membership is setting their sights on bloc membership by 2028 - PoliticoEU.

🇪🇺⚡️- EU negotiators have agreed to designate “safe countries of origin” to allow for quicker deportations of migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected.

Countries included: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Kosovo, Colombia, India, and Bangladesh - Deutsche Welle.

🇺🇸🇺🇳🇮🇱⚡- "Today, the Trump Administration is sanctioning two International Criminal Court judges directly engaged in politicized and illegitimate actions against Israel. The United States has been clear: we will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to protect against the ICC’s lawfare, abuse of power, and blatant disregard for the sovereignty of the U.S. and Israel," - Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

🇺🇸⚡️- "Kennedy Center to be renamed ‘Trump-Kennedy Center.’" - White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt on X.

🇺🇸⚡️- President Trump has signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana as a schedule 3 drug as opposed to a schedule 1 drug, relaxing federal restrictions on the substance.

🇯🇵⚡️- “In the end, we can only rely on ourselves. [...] I think we should possess nuclear weapons." - Unnamed security official in Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's office.

🇺🇸⚡️- There is an increasing amount of reports claiming the authorities may have linked the shooting at Brown University with the assassination of MIT Nuclear Physics Professor, Nuno Loureiro.

Keep in mind, there is no official confirmation and this is purely based on emerging reports from local and national media.

🇺🇸⚡️- BREAKING: Bob Ward of Boston 25 reports that an arrest warrant has been issued for the suspect responsible for the Brown University shooting.

No names have been given.

🇾🇪🇸🇦🇦🇪⚡- Saudi Arabia is weighing in on possible airstrikes against the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, The Guardian reports.

Yemeni journalist Ali al-Sakani says Riyadh has already warned Aden.

🇾🇪🇸🇦🇦🇪⚡- The Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council of Yemen's Defense Minister Rashad al-Alimi has travelled to Riyadh to meet with his Saudi counterpart Khalid bin Salman.