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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⚖️ 🌱 US Supreme Court limits government powers to regulate greenhouse gases

By a majority of 6-3, the high court found that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the power to set broad caps on emissions from coal-fired power plants, which produce nearly 20 percent of the electricity consumed in the United States.

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📹 War correspondent Alexander Sladkov reported that Ukrainian soldiers are abandoning weapons and equipment on the battlefield en masse.

According to the reporter, the militants mostly give up their western-made Javelin weapons.

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📹 Some “traces” of the alliance indicate that Kiev wanted to establish a NATO military base at Severodonetsk airport.

Footage shows an almost two-kilometer runway for a Boeing plane or bigger, but these plans never became reality. In one of the rooms, items belonging to Ukrainian nationalists, a book about Aryans, and a repertoire for the orchestra with NATO markings were also found.

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❗️ The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the UK ambassador to protest statements against Vladimir Putin

⚖️ Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn-in to the Supreme Court, becoming the first Black woman in the nation’s highest court.

❗️The Biden administration blocked a US trust fund with $1 billion in assets linked to Russian businessman Suleiman Abusaidovich Kerimov, the Treasury Department said.

❗️ The Russian MoD's latest statement on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ Ukrainian nationalists blew up a granary near Dnepr in order to blame Russia for destroying it's infrastructure

▪️ Azov Batallion nationalists and mercenaries placed sniper points and armored vehicles in Kramatorsk school

▪️ More than 23,000 people were evacuated from Ukraine and Donbass to Russia in a day

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🔫 New York lawmakers to vote on new gun rules following ruling

New York lawmakers plan to vote Thursday on legislation seeking to limit the proliferation of firearms in public after the Supreme Court gutted the state’s century-old handgun licensing law. The state is overhauling its rules for carrying guns after the court decided that ordinary citizens had a right to arm themselves in public for self-defense, something the state limited in the past mostly to people working in law enforcement or security.

New rules being rushed through an emergency session of the Legislature would allow many more gun owners to apply for a license to carry a concealed weapon, but would seek to set new restrictions on where firearms can be carried. Other provisions require background checks for all purchases of ammunition for guns that require a permit, and bar people with a history of dangerous behavior from getting handgun permits.

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🖥 Personal info on California gun owners wrongly made public

The California Department of Justice on Wednesday acknowledged the agency wrongly made public the personal information of perhaps hundreds of thousands of gun owners in up to six state-operated databases, a broader exposure than the agency initially disclosed a day earlier.

Names, dates of birth, gender, race, driver’s license numbers, addresses and criminal histories were exposed for people who were granted or denied permits to carry concealed weapons between 2011 and 2021, the department said. 

“It is infuriating that people who have been complying with the law have been put at risk by this breach,” said Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea, president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association. Officials are investigating the extent to which personal information was exposed in those databases.

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