🤔 Calls have rung out across the US demanding gun control laws in a bid to curb violent crimes such as the recent series of mass shootings. Data, nevertheless, show that in states with higher percentages of households with at least one gun, crimes are not higher than in states with strict gun laws. 

🗯 "Gun ownership is higher in states with fewer restrictions, and homicide rates in these states are lower. People can protect themselves," George Mason University Professor Emerita Joyce Lee Malcolm said, regarding what she's found through her research. Malcolm pointed to a study on burglars from 1986 that found 34% of burglars interviewed reported "to having been scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim."

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⚡️ Israel's Knesset votes to dissolve parliament, election scheduled for November 1

🗣 Rumors have escalated about former World No. 1 Serena Williams' retirement from tennis after she was sent packing out of Wimbledon's opening round by Harmony Tan of France in a three-set thriller on the hallowed turf of Centre Court.

🔥 Serena herself added fuel to the fire after she failed to give a definitive answer about her future.

🗯 "That's a question I can't answer," Williams said in her post-match press conference. "I don't know. Who knows where I will pop up?" "It's definitely better than last year. That's a start," she joked in reference to the leg injury in 2021 that limited her time on court.

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🇳🇿 🛑 New Zealand's government has declared that the Proud Boys and The Base, two American far-right groups, to be terrorist organizations.

▪️ The two groups join 18 others, including the Islamic State, that have been given an official terrorist designation, making it illegal in New Zealand to fund, recruit or participate in the groups, and obligating authorities to take action against them.

▪️ The US groups are not known to be active in New Zealand, although the South Pacific nation has become more attuned to threats from the far right after a white supremacist shot and killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two Christchurch mosques in 2019.

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⚡️ MoD: Russian military withdraws forces from Zmeiniy Island as gesture of good will

❗️ The Russian MoD announced the completion of all assigned tasks on Zmeiniy Island; the garrison on the island was transferred to another front

⚡️ The decision to withdraw the garrison from Zmeiniy Island will not allow Kiev to speculate about the impending food crisis: Russia's MoD

❗️ The Russian MoD latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ The Russian Aerospace Forces have eliminated five armament and munitions depots in Dnepropetrovsk region and in the DPR, as well as AFU troops and military equipment in 34 areas.

▪️ Within the counter-battery warfare, high-precision attacks launched by Russian Aerospace Forces have resulted in the neutralization of 2 Uragan and Grad MRLS plattoons, as well as 2 Giatsing-B artillery plattoons in the DPR.

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery have neutralized: 39 command posts, as well as troops and military equipment in 218 areas.

▪️ Russian Aerospace Forces warplanes have shot down two Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 warplanes in Dnepropetrovsk region and in Kherson region, 1 Buk-M1 self-propelled air defence system at its firing position near Odessa, and a S-300 air defence system radar in Dnepropetrovsk region.

▪️ Russian air defence units have shot down a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 warplane, as well as 9 Ukrainian UAVs in the DPR and Kharkov region.

▪️ Some 224 airplanes and 134 helicopters, 1,400 unmanned aerial vehicles, 353 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,859 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 698 combat vehicles equipped with multiple rocket-launching systems, 3,059 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 3,916 special military equipment units have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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⚡️ Over 6,000 Ukrainian troops have surrendered or have been captured by Russian forces, MoD says

Russia and Ukraine conduct a prisoner exchange with the formula “144 for 144”

The exchange of prisoners was carried out on the orders of the supreme commander of the Armed Forces of Russia, said Igor Konashenkov, a Moscow Defense Ministry representative.

"Almost all of those released are wounded or seriously wounded. They are already receiving the necessary medical care," Konashenkov said. According to the Russian general, the total number of Ukrainian service personnel who have been captured or surrendered exceeds 6000.

Commenting on the event, Denis Pushilin, head of the DPR, said, “Today, we are returning home 144 fighters of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Russian Federation who were captured by the enemy”.

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🇺🇸 The newly conducted test of a US hypersonic missile in the state of Hawaii has failed because of a malfunction during the launch, Pentagon spokesman Tim Gorman has said.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is recruiting militants of the Daesh* terror group, who are being held in Kurdish-controlled prisons and camps in Syria, to send them further to Ukraine, an informed source told Sputnik.

💬 "According to available information, the US CIA is actively recruiting Daesh militants, held in Kurdish-controlled prisons and camps in northeast Syria. The Americans are transferring terrorists to their facilities under the pretext of conducting additional investigation with the prospect of [militants'] transfers to Europe," the source said.

▪️ To date, the Kurds have already handed over to the United States several Daesh high-ranking leaders and about 90 fighters, mainly from among citizens of the EU countries, Iraq, Russia's Chechen Republic and China's Xinjiang, the source added. For now, the US plans to deploy the militants on the territory of its At-Tanf military base located in southern Syria.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organiztaion banned in Russia.

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⚡️ Stoltenberg: NATO to sign protocol for Sweden and Finland to join on July 5

❗️ Boris Johnson: UK to reach 2.5% of GDP on defense by end of decade

"I saw a lot of corruption, incompetence": A US mercenary who came to fight for Ukraine and was taken prisoner told reporters that US propaganda lies about the events in the country, revealing how Ukraine treats foreign mercenaries.

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⚡️ BoJo: Ukraine's accession to NATO in near future has never been remotely possible

❗️ WATCH LIVE | US President Biden holds press conference following NATO Summit in Madrid

⚡️ Biden: US to announce $800+ million in new funding package for Ukraine, including air defense

👀 Joe Biden gets Switzerland mixed up with Sweden during the press conference following the NATO Summit in Madrid.

Looks like the US president needs help in simply speaking.

🇺🇸Highlights from President Joe Biden's speech at a press conference after G7 and NATO summits in Europe:

🔻US drivers and drivers around the world will have to pay high prices for gasoline “as long as it takes;”

🔻Biden is not going to ask Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, bigger output is in the interest of all the Gulf countries;

🔻The oil price cap would allow Russia to make profit but not at "exorbitant" prices;

🔻A congressional approval is needed to send F-16s to Turkey, and the president thinks they “can get it;”

🔻The US will announce over $800 million in new assistance for Ukraine in the coming days, including air defense.

Buckingham Palace won't disclose HR policy changes after Meghan Markle's bullying probe - reports

The bullying allegations first appeared in March when the duchess was accused of driving two personal assistants out of the household and undermining a third's confidence.

The palace launched an investigation with the help of an independent legal team a few days before the duke and duchess of Sussex's contentious interview with Oprah Winfrey.

However, the results of the investigation into how the bullying complaints were handled will reportedly be kept confidential by Buckingham Palace.

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