Hello from CNN I'm Joe Beck with the five things you need to know for Friday

February 23rd. Polls show former President Donald Trump looks likely to win

tomorrow's Republican primary in South Carolina.

So get out there and vote and it's important to do it. Not that we have a race because we really

essentially don't have a race. But Nicki Haley says she plans to hang on in the

race and has jumped on a hot new political topic this week. I personally believe

in embryo is a baby but that's why parents need to be able to have the decision on how they're going to handle those

embryos.

It's been a week since Alabama's Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos have the same rights

as children under state law and that anyone who destroyed them could be held liable for wrongful

death. That spurred local and national criticism after three major fertility clinics in the

state halted IVF treatments for hopeful parents because of it.

President Joe Biden has announced new sanctions on Russia this morning.

It comes a day before the second anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which Biden called a vicious onslaught. The sanctions also stem from the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, but as CNN's Fred Plaiken tells us, there's

doubt over how effective the sanctions will actually be.

The Russians certainly have said in the past that they believe that sanctions aren't

going to further derail the Russian economy, aren't going to derail

Russia's war in Ukraine, also so far aren't derailing Russian arms production either.

Right now Vladimir Putin certainly feels that he is in quite a strong position.

Some of the sanctions targeted people connected to Navalny's imprisonment,

as well as Russia's financial sector and defense industrial base.

I know this was a nail-butter. and Defense Industrial Base.

...