🗣 March for Our Lives returns with a renewed gun control push

The second March For Our Lives rally will take place Saturday in front of the Washington Monument, a successor to the 2018 march organized by student protesters after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

Now with recent shootings from Uvalde, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, bringing gun control back into the national conversation, organizers of this weekend’s events say the time is right to renew their push for a national overhaul.

About 50,000 participants are predicted to turn out in the District of Columbia, with rain in the forecast. That’s far less than the original march, which filled downtown Washington with more than 200,000 people. This time, organizers are focusing on holding smaller marches at an estimated 300 locations.

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🛢 Biden slams Exxon as Americans pay record gas prices

President Joe Biden blasted Exxon on Friday, taking the energy giant company to task for raking in record profits as Americans pay record-high prices at the pump. "We're gonna make sure that everybody knows Exxon's profits," Biden said in response to a question after the conclusion of a speech in California about rising inflation. "Exxon made more money than God this year and, by the way, nothing has changed."

Biden also trotted out one of his favorite statistics, that oil companies currently hold more than 9,000 unused permits to drill on federal lands. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is nearing $5 per gallon, per AAA. They're likely to remain high for the foreseeable future. "It's unlikely that gas prices will fall anytime soon," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday.

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Russia's MoD has released footage of "Akatsiya" self-propelled 152mm howitzers performing strikes during the special operation

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⚡️ DPR forces destroyed a battery of M-777 Howitzers delivered near Avdeevka by the US

📌 The latest updates on the Ukraine op from the Russian Defence Ministry:

▪️ Russian air forces have destroyed the deployment position of foreign mercenaries in the Kharkov region;

▪️ Russia's air defences shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29s in the Nikolaev region and one Su-25 in the Kharkov region during the day;

▪️ Russian air defences intercepted three shells from the Ukrainian multiple rocket launcher "Uragan" in Kharkov region;

▪️ Russian forces destroyed five firing positions of multiple rocket launcher units of the Ukrainian troops as well as the Buk-M1 air defence system;

▪️ Russian aviation have hit 48 areas of concentrated manpower and Ukrainian military equipment, and killed more than 170 nationalists in the Krasnopol region

▪️ More than 300 nationalists, two Ukrainian "Grads", nine warehouses of weapons and fuel were destroyed by rockets and artillery during the day

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📹🎞 A resident of Severodonetsk tells about certain Ukrainian soldiers who constantly fire at a place where local people collect water. They also installed jerry cans on every floor of the house as they were planning to burn down the residential buildings

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Justin Bieber's face is half-paralysed: Singer has Ramsay Hunt syndrome

After postponing several shows on his doctor's recommendations, Bieber appeared in a video on social media to explain that his present condition is caused by Ramsay Hunt syndrome: “As you can see this eye is not blinking. I can’t smile on this side of my face; this nostril will not move. So there’s full paralysis on this side of my face.”

Ramsay Hunt syndrome is a viral infection which is also known as Herpes Zoster oticus, and can result in permanent facial paralysis. It occurs in those who have previously contracted chickenpox (Varicella-zoster virus). Despite recovery, the virus remains in the human body and can sometimes reactivate, triggering facial muscle weakness and shingles - a painful rash with blisters

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❗EU Commission to finalise advice 'next week' on Ukraine hopes to join bloc: Von der Leyen

🇺🇸⛳️🏌️‍♂️American golf star Tiger Woods becomes the third billionaire athlete in world history with less than 10% of his net worth coming from the golf course.

🔍 The athlete's net worth is estimated to be at least $1 billion, based on his life savings, advertising contracts, and an array of ventures, including a golf design business (TGR Design), a live events production company (TGR Live) and a restaurant (The Woods), according to Forbes.

🧐 Michael Jordan, a former American professional basketball player, was the first to join the billionaire athletes club in 2016. He was followed by another American basketball star, LeBron James, in early June.

❗DPR foreign minister says trial of S. Korean mercenary fighting in Ukraine being prepared

💭US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin emphasised Washington’s determination to uphold the status quo of Taiwan that has “served this region so well for so long”

“Under the 'One China' policy, the US acknowledges China's position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognised Beijing's claim to the democratic island of 23 million,” said Austin.

The US defence chief vowed to augment the island’s ability to defend itself against what he described as increasingly “provocative and destabilising” moves by Beijing: "We will continue to fulfill our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act. And that includes assisting Taiwan and maintaining a sufficient self-defence capability. And that means maintaining our own capacity to resist any use of force, or other forms of coercion that would jeopardise the security or the social or economic system of the people of Taiwan".

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📹🎞 Children from Donetsk recall how they hide at home and in the basement during shelling

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Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka have not been seen together for in more than 521 days, according to media. The reason could be found in her relations with her stepmother, the former First Lady, Melania Trump. An insider even says that "Ivanka and [husband] Jared [Kushner] no longer want to be associated with Donald".

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📹🎞 A woman from Mariupol is outraged and frustrated by the behaviour of her countrymen from Lvov

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Jeffrey Epstein was ‘murdered’ in jail, whistleblower Chelsea Manning claims

Chelsea Manning, an American whistleblower who sprang to fame after disclosing hundreds of thousands of sensitive military data to WikiLeaks, is in no doubt as to the fate of the late convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein: "Murder, that's how a prison murder happens. I know. That stuff happens. Some of theses stories are in my book… You wanna get rid of someone in prison? That's how you do it".

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🎥WATCH LIVE | March For Our Lives against gun violence takes place in Washington, DC

❗Canada buying weapons it promised to Ukraine from US – lawmaker

📹🎞Residents of the liberated Svetlodarsk in the DPR told a Sputnik correspondent about daily shelling by Ukrainian troops

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