Good morning. Welcome to Axios today.

It's February 16th. We've made it to Wednesday. I'm Nyla Boudus.

Here's what you need to know today. A major new settlement with a gun manufacturer.

Plus, how fast our seas are rising. But first, today's one big thing.

The Ukraine crisis plays out on TikTok.

President Biden spoke from the White House yesterday with an update on the Ukraine situation.

Let there be no doubt. If Russia commits this breach by invading Ukraine,

responsible nations around the world will not hesitate to respond.

Russia said it's withdrawing some troops from the Ukraine border. Though Biden said yesterday,

the U.S. could not yet confirm that. What we do know is that this escalating conflict has been

on display in real time. For the entire world, the videos on the social media network TikTok.

Axios media reporter Sarah Fisher has been tracking all of this. Hey, Sarah.

Hey, Nyla. Can you first explain how much of this conflict we've been seeing on TikTok?

We've been seeing a good amount. You know, there's dozens of not hundreds of videos from locals

on the ground in Russia, in Ukraine. Just documenting what they're seeing. And what's still

interesting about platforms like TikTok, but not just TikTok, of course, Instagram and others,

is that the algorithms will elevate content from regular everyday people. And so it used to be

that you'd go online, you'd see coverage of a big war on a big media website's front page.

Now you can just see it right there in your feed. Sarah, how is this different from say how the

Arab Spring kind of elevated Twitter and the use of Twitter for activists and for people documenting

it? How is this iteration different with TikTok? Such a good question, Nyla. The Arab Spring was 10

years ago. You know, smartphone adoption wasn't merely where it is now. You know, people didn't

...