🎤The US Recording Academy has announced five new Grammy categories to be in place starting from the 2023 awards:

🔹Best songwriter (can be awarded only to non-performing and non-producing songwriters, i.e. those who are credited solely as a writer or co-writer);
🔹Best performances in the alternative and US genres;
🔹Best video game soundtrack;
🔹Best poetry album.

❗Pope Francis, European Commission president discuss Ukraine, food crisis - Vatican

Sputnik footage shows the site of the explosion near the DPR head office in the centre of Donetsk

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LPR hospitals have received about five tons of medical supplies from the Akhmad Kadyrov Foundation (named after the former Chechen leader and father of Ramzan Kadyrov)

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"These are not their children and this is not their land": Mariupol resident describes the logic of Ukrainian fascists as to why they committed crimes in the city

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❗President Vucic says Germany’s Scholz demanded Serbia joined anti-Russia sanctions

❗A US State Department official has acknowledged that anti-Russia sanctions have a negative impact on the economy of the US and European countries

In a virtual conversation hosted by the Atlantic Council, Erik Woodhouse, deputy assistant secretary of state for counter threat finance and sanctions, said that "the US, allies and partners understood that there will be costs" in regards to the question of sanctions against Russia.

While the US has "less acute dependence" on Russia's energy resources, Europe is "doing the hard work... it's the right direction to go", Woodhouse noted. "We applaud them for that", the official said.

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Dozens of people have gathered in Los Angeles near where the Summit of the Americas is taking place to protest against Washington's decision not to invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to participate in the event, a Sputnik correspondent reports. The protesters also demand an end to the blockade of Cuba.

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❗Biden says 'must do more - and quickly' to lower US prices

Biden claims forces behind US Capitol riot 'remain at work today'

❗US Army base in Germany confirms first monkeypox case in American military

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Russian MoD delivers briefing on Ukraine op:

▪Kiev intends to place air defence systems at the burial site of plague victims in Odessa and accuse Russia of a bio provocation in the event of a strike on these complexes;

▪The Ukrainian military has deployed weapons and equipment in DPR schools and set up HQs at a furniture factory in Kramatorsk;

▪Russian forces have demined almost 25 hectares of land in Donbass over the past 24 hours;

▪Ukrainian militants fire at Russian forces from residential areas in order to blame the Russian side for any consequences of "indiscriminate strikes";

▪21,632 people have been evacuated to Russia from dangerous areas in Ukraine and Donbass without Kiev's assistance

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🇺🇸🛢 President Biden lashed out at big oil after economic data showed US inflation rising at its fastest pace in 40 years. "Exxon made more money than God this year," Biden said.

🇺🇸🇸🇦The Biden administration is planning a "full reset" in US relations with Saudi Arabia and is ready to move on from the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, CNN reported citing officials.

President Joe Biden is willing to set aside moral outrage because of the dramatic need to boost oil production, the report said.

✈️ US lifts COVID-19 test requirement for international travel

The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international travelers test negative for COVID-19 within a day before boarding a flight to the United States, ending one of the last remaining government mandates designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Airline and tourism groups have been pressing the administration for months to eliminate the testing requirement, saying it discourages people from booking international trips because they could be stranded overseas if they contract the virus on their trip.

While domestic US travel has returned nearly to pre-pandemic levels, international travel — which is very lucrative for the airlines — has continued to lag. In May, US international air travel remained 24% below 2019 levels, with declines among both US and foreign citizens, according to trade group Airlines for America.

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🔥 New Mexico residents sue for information on massive wildfire

Dozens of residents in a small New Mexico community impacted by massive wildfires that merged in April are suing the US Forest Service over what they called a failure to provide information about the government’s role in starting the blazes.

The Forest Service has acknowledged that two prescribed burns it set to clear out brush and small trees that can serve as wildfire fuel sparked two blazes that came together as the largest in New Mexico’s history - and the biggest burning in the US right now.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the US District Court in Albuquerque on behalf of 50 Mora County residents. President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit New Mexico on Saturday for a briefing about the wildfires and recovery efforts.

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💉 Marathon US hearings to decide fate of COVID shots for tots

On Wednesday, both Moderna and Pfizer will have to convince what’s essentially a science court - advisers to the Food and Drug Administration - that their shots work well in babies, toddlers and preschoolers.

Kids under 5 are the only group not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in the US. Nearly 500 deaths in US children have been reported. If the agency’s advisers endorse one or both shots for them - and the FDA agrees - there’s still another hurdle. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must recommend whether all tots need immunization or just those at high risk from the virus.

If the FDA authorizes one or both shots - a decision expected shortly after its advisory panel’s meeting - all eyes move to the CDC.  The CDC’s own vaccine advisers are scheduled to meet next Friday and Saturday, with a final decision made by the CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

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🔎 Tech antitrust is facing its biggest challenge yet in the Senate

After six months of slow progress, the Senate is closer than ever to instituting new tech antitrust rules — and the industry is fighting harder than ever to bring it down.

Sponsored by a bipartisan group including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICO) was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in January and is poised for a full Senate vote in the coming weeks. 

If enacted, AICO would restrict dominant platforms from recommending their own services over competitors, alongside granting new funding for antitrust regulators at the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. Critics say the new rules would result in drastic changes for Amazon Prime or Google search.

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‼️ Russian Ambassador to US sees no prerequisites for improvement of bilateral relations

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov sees no prerequisites for the improvement of relations between Moscow and Washington, going on to underscore that American counterparts have shown no readiness to resume dialogue on strategic stability.

"I see no prerequisites for the improvement of relations today," the ambassador told Sputnik, stressing that bilateral relations may further deteriorate. "I believe that the both Russia and the United States profit from good bilateral relations. No matter how strong America is, it will never win the fight against terrorism alone. It will not solve the strategic stability issues and the problem of climate change without us."

"As of today, our American colleagues are not ready to resume contacts on strategic stability. Their representatives have stated this several times. So we are waiting for them to become ready," the ambassador added.