💲 NAACP says it's Biden's 'turn now' after Pharrell Williams surprised 5 HBCU students, recent grads by paying off their student loan debt Williams made the announcement during an NAACP panel held in Washington, DC, on the topic of the Black student debt crisis. This panel was part of William's Something in the Waters Festival, held in the nation's capital in celebration of Juneteenth.  Black students are not only more likely to need to take on debt for school, but Black college graduates are also nearly five times as likely to default on their loans than their white peers. NAACP President Derrick Johnson called on President Joe Biden to address student loan debt for all Americans. A final decision on a forgiveness plan is expected to be announced in July or August, which is when the pause on student-loan payment is set to expire after August 31.

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🚘 Tesla faces losing world's biggest electric car maker crown

Tesla faces losing its crown as the world's biggest electric car maker to Volkswagen by 2024. A study by Bloomberg Intelligence expects the German giant to double production to more than 2 million battery-powered vehicles in 2024, overtaking Tesla. 

Volkswagen's production and sales are focused on Europe, and expects the company to expand further in China rather than America. US sales accounted for less than 10% of VW's total last year, according to its annual report. Volkswagen is also considering of its sports car maker Porsche, which also has an electric model.  

In an interview on the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley YouTube channel released on Tuesday, Musk said competitors Rivian and Lucid faced bankruptcy if they didn't cut costs.

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The masses sing a rendition of “Bella Ciao” in celebration of Gustavo Petro's victory, outside the Movistar Arena in Bogotá.

Country first ever leftist candidate in Colombia's presidential Gustavo Petro leads the second round of the election with 50.5% of the vote in pre-processed data from about 98% of polling stations, the media reported. ➡️ MORE VIDEOS

‼️ Joy and celebrations inside Gustavo Petro's campaign bunker with indigenous music and dances. ➡️ MORE VIDEOS

📉 A record-breaking 50% of Americans say that the U.S. has poor moral values, while only 1% of Americans rate the country's values as excellent.

🗯 "Americans' views of the state of moral values in the U.S. are dismal, and their expectations for the future are grim," reads the summary of a Gallup poll that was released last week. "This has generally been the case over the course of the 20-year trend, but negative ratings of the current state of moral values are the worst they have ever been."

▪️ Asked the overall state of moral values in the U.S. today, half of the poll's respondents indicated that they believe the country has "poor" values, an all-time high since Gallup began asking the question two decades ago. Only one percent of those polled thought that the U.S. has "excellent" moral values, while 12% rated the country's moral values as "good."

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🤭 A decree from the Diocese of Worcester states that the Nativity School of Worcester will no longer be able to describe itself as a Roman Catholic school, and it has left at least one alumnus with questions.

▪️ Bishop Robert McManus said his issues lie with a Pride flag and Black Lives Matter flag that've been on display outside the school since early last year.

▪️ Back in March, the bishop put the Nativity School on notice over his belief that the flags are inconsistent with Roman Catholic teachings.

🗯 "The flying of these flags in front of a Catholic school sends a mixed, confusing and scandalous message to the public about the Church's stance on these important moral and social issues," Bishop McManus wrote in a decree published on Thursday.

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🤔 Counting the pennies? 

Amber Heard was spotted shopping at discount department store TJ Maxx in the Hamptons on Thursday.

▪️ The 36-year-old actress and her sister, Whitney Henriquez, indulged in an evening of bargain shopping at the Bridgehampton retail store in New York State.

▪️ It comes in the wake of a public admission by the Hollywood star that she can't afford the $8.3 million damages awarded to Depp on 1 June.

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😳 Transgender rights activists forced feminists to barricade themselves inside a Bristol pub on Sunday after denouncing them as “fascists”.

🥴 Campaigners from Standing For Women claim they were followed to the Slug and Lettuce by counter-protesters from the trans rights activists group. 

😣 Standing For Women has been labelled "transphobic" by a group called Bristol Against Hate, which organised a counter-protest today - both groups met at College Green. Activists from Standing For Women have taken to Twitter to describe the scene, with some claiming they are "being silenced".

🧐 Many will see the clash between these two groups as a clear example of how the left-liberal agenda is eating itself from the inside.

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🙂 Iron Mike returns to the friendly skies!

📹 A TMZ video spotted Mike Tyson, who punched Melvin Townsend III on a flight in April after he threw a water bottle at the former heavyweight champion, walking into LAX airport, reportedly for another commercial flight. 

💭 Tyson said he was “high and pissed off” when the incident took place.

👌 The overzealous fan lawyered up after the debacle, but the California DA eventually dropped the charges.

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❗️ The Russian MoD’s latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces have struck Artsiz airfield in Odessa region using an Oniks high-precision missile. The attack has resulted in the destruction of a control station for Bayraktar-TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and two such UAVs on the ground.

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation has neutralized 47 areas where manpower and equipment were concentrated.

▪️ Missile troops and artillery have neutralized 148 areas where AFU manpower and equipment were concentrated, 25 command posts, as well as 59 artillery units at their firing positions.

▪️ Russian air defense systems have shot down a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 in Dnepropetrovsk region.

▪️ Some 208 airplanes and 132 helicopters, 1,260 unmanned aerial vehicles, 345 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,696 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 576 combat vehicles equipped with multiple rocket-launching systems, 2,055 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 3,731 special military equipment units have been destroyed since the beginning of the special military operation.

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⚡️ Kremlin says Lithuania's decision on blockade of Russia’s Kaliningrad region unprecedented, calls it ‘violation of everything’

😱 Johnny Depp whipped fans into a frenzy on Sunday as he took to the stage with Jeff Beck at the Helsinki Blues Festival in Finland.

▪️ The typically bearded actor, who recently won his defamation case against Amber Heard, was clean-shaven during his first public appearance since his ex-wife admitted she can't afford the $8.3 million in damages awarded to him during a Dateline interview last week.

▪️ Hollywood star Johnny wore a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up to show his tattoos as he sung.

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❗Israel creating 'Middle East air defence alliance' under US leadership, defence minister says

😳 Jeffrey Epstein's convicted accomplice was on an IRA hit-list as a child — so her lawyers have claimed in a plea for leniency ahead of her sentencing.

▪️ In court submissions Ghislaine Maxwell's legal team told New York Judge Alison Nathan that she was targeted by the Irish republican terrorist group when her father, media tycoon Robert Maxwell, was the British Labour Party MP for Buckingham from 1964 to 1970.

💬 “Decades earlier, when Ms Maxwell was just a child and her father was a Member of Parliament, UK authorities found a hit list of potential targets in a safehouse used by the Irish Republican Army,” the lawyers said. “Ms Maxwell’s name was first on the list.”

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🤨Some men even took part in the protest to show solidarity

😏📞Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus have released a new video in which they phoned British author JK Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter saga.

Just as in a previous prank when they talked to George W Bush (after this trick was published on YouTube, their channel was blocked), the duo spoke on behalf of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

🥑Avocado Kedavra!

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1️⃣In the first part of the prank played on JK Rowling, the Russian comedy duo Vovan and Lexus - pretending to be speaking on behalf of Volodymyr Zelensky - discuss Ukraine's role in Europe and "Russia's cancel culture".

🗣Rowling also says that Russians "didn't understand" her books and the country should come under increased cultural and economic pressure, in pursuit of which the writer supports "much stronger sanctions against Russia".

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