Welcome to Thursday's Morning Show Podcast, because you deserve a better morning.

Coming up in Pop Stop, I'm going to explain how a TV show has completely revitalized an entire state.

And we've got an update on Travis Barker.

Welcome to the Morning Show podcast. My name is Anthony.

I'm Carla Marie, and today is Thursday, June 30th, 2022.

The Core 4.

The four headlines you need to know.

One of Putin's biggest fears looks like it might be coming true after all.

If you remember, back in February, Putin claimed Ukraine possibly joining NATO was one of the reasons for his invasion of the country.

And while Ukraine might join

NATO eventually, two of Russia's other neighbors are now poised to join the North Atlantic

Treaty Organization. Sweden and Finland cleared their biggest hurdle in joining the alliance.

To be accepted into NATO, a country needs a unanimous vote from every member. Originally, it seemed

that Turkey would be the

lone vote to keep the two Baltic countries out. But this week, Turkish President Ardwan agreed

to lift his block of Sweden and Finland. Finland now becomes the first NATO country to share a

border with Russia, something Putin has fought to avoid, basically as long as he's been in power.

If you need a refresher of what NATO is and why this is so important, NATO was started after

World War II by 12 founding countries in an attempt to avoid ever having another world war.

When the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, you might remember President Biden claiming

that had Ukraine been a member of NATO, America would have been directly involved in helping Ukraine take on its Russian invaders.

Essentially, an attack against any NATO country is an attack on all of them, which is an especially important fact,

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