🤔 Top Democrats have already started to rub elbows with the influential people who could propel a White House run in 2024.

▪️ Vice President Kamala Harris and Governors Gavin Newsom and Jared Polis are among a group of Democrats who are making moves their associates say appear to be steps to prepare for a White House run if Joe Biden opts not to seek a second term.

▪️ A Wall Street executive who fundraised for Biden’s 2020 campaign said he has heard from both Newsom and Harris in recent weeks.

▪️ Party donors have been scrambling to figure out whether Biden is going to run or if someone else could lead the party in 2024.

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💲 On Monday, US media reported that the Pentagon and Lockheed reached an agreement valued at about $30 billion for an estimated 375 F-35 fighter jets.

🗣 "Through a collaborative effort with the F-35 enterprise, including the Joint Program Office, suppliers and teammates, we have successfully reached an agreement on Lots 15 through 17," a company spokesperson said in a statement later on Monday. "In the midst of continued COVID-19 impacts and decreased F-35 quantities, the F-35 enterprise was able to achieve a cost per jet lower than record-breaking inflation trends."

▪️ Final prices, the number of F-35 jets that will be sold, including which countries will procure the aircraft, will be shared when the agreement is officially signed, the spokesperson added.

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📹🇷🇺🚛 Russian servicemen have delivered another consignment of humanitarian aid to liberated settlements in Kharkov Region amid the ongoing special military operation.

▪️ Trucks were accompanied by military police of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation as they delivered about 50 metric tons of humanitarian aid to civilians in the region.

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🇦🇱 🇲🇰 The EU has started accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia - Ursula von der Leyen.

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📹 🇷🇺 In the areas of Donbass which were liberated during the special military operation, there is increased interest in obtaining Russian citizenship: queues are lining up at the opened passport centers. In a number of regions, preparations are underway for referendums to be held to determine their future.

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🙅 The Pulitzer Prize Board has rejected former US President Donald Trump’s appeal to revoke awards given to The New York Times and The Washington Post for their reporting on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

🗣 "The 2018 Pulitzer Prizes in National Reporting stand," the Pulitzer Prize Board said in a Monday statement, explaining that it had received several inquiries, including from Trump, about The New York Times and The Washington Post reporting, but independent reviews have found nothing to discredit the prize entries.

🗯 "Both reviews were conducted by individuals with no connection to the institutions whose work was under examination, nor any connection to each other. The separate reviews converged in their conclusions: that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes," the Pulitzer Prize Board said.

▪️ In October of last year, Trump sent a letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board demanding that it rescind the prizes given to over a dozen articles from The New York Times and The Washington Post, arguing that the publications engaged in "false reporting."

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📌 Ukraine may receive longer-range missiles for the US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in the near future, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council head Oleksiy Danilov said on Tuesday.

🗣 "As for HIMARS, there is some understanding that we have already started to receive ammunition that can be launched much further than they could at the beginning. And let's hope that what we need, of that range, will soon appear on the territory of our country," Danilov said, as quoted by Ukrainian news website Strana.ua, answering whether it is possible to hope for deliveries of ammunition with a range of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) to Ukraine.

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❗️ The European Commission has proposed allocating 500 million euros for two years to replenish stocks of weapons in EU countries depleted due to the provision of supplies to Ukraine.

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⚡️ Tory MP Tobias Ellwood stripped of whip for abstaining in confidence vote

❗️ Russia’s MoD latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ The Russian Aerospace Forces have neutralized a temporary deployment point of the Right Sector militia using high-precision weapons, resulting in the elimination of up to 200 paramilitaries.

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces have hit positions of the AFU’s 81st Airmobile Brigade in the DPR using high-precision weapons.

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery have neutralized seven command posts, five ammunition depots, two fuel depots, as well as 197 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration.

▪️ Russian air defense units have shot down a Ukrainian air force Mi-24 helicopter and four Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.

▪️ Some 257 Ukrainian airplanes and 143 helicopters, 1,568 unmanned aerial vehicles, 356 anti-aircraft missile systems, 4,106 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 759 multiple launch rocket systems, 3,160 field artillery and mortars, as well as 4,392 special military vehicles have been destroyed during the operation.

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❗️ Tehran exchange has launched trading in rial/ruble, the head of the country's central bank announced on Tuesday.

📹 Msta-S Howitzers of the LPR People's Militia work on the positions of the Ukrainian military in the Soledar region in the DPR.

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⚡️ EU reportedly set to unfreeze some Russian bank funds for food, fertilizer trade

❗️ EU intends to facilitate food exports from Russian ports which had been suspended due to sanctions, reports suggest

♨️ The United Kingdom, as well as a large part of Western Europe, is enduring a historically sizzling heatwave. Large part of Britain is currently under red extreme heat warning, with the hellish temperatures posing threat even to the healthy people outside the usual risk groups.

▪️ The UK woke up to whopping 34C at 9 a.m. in London amid the blistering heatwave tormenting the country, with temperatures set to climb as high as 43C later in the day in the capital city and Cambridge.

▪️ The Met Office has already confirmed that the night was one of the hottest in the country's history.
According to the agency's most recent data, temperatures show no sign of cooling off, with London's Kew Gardens currently sweltering at 35.1 degrees Celsius. The lowest temperature of 34C has been registered in Northolt.

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🇺🇸🔎 The CIA's director has issued a warning after a racist symbol was found near a secret facility in Virginia, reports indicate.

The noose, which symbolizes hatred towards African-Americans in the US, was found near a small agency facility located in a building that houses businesses and other organizations.

After the incident, CIA Director William J. Burns issued a warning to the agency’s workforce, the New York Times reported citing people familiar with the matter.

💬 “[The] CIA has zero tolerance for actions or symbols of hatred and treats any such incidents with the utmost seriousness,” said Susan Miller, a spokeswoman for the agency. “Our values and our vital national security mission demand that we uphold nothing less than the highest standards of inclusiveness and safety.”

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⚡️ Russia ready to make every effort to get Ukrainian grain to world market - Kremlin

📹 First video clip from the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, which was shelled by Ukrainian troops the day before.

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⚡️ WATCH LIVE | Vladimir Putin arrives in Tehran for talks and summit with Iranian and Turkish presidents

🇹🇼 China is insisting that US cancel the visit of House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan anticipated in August, considering it an infringement on the one-China principle and warning Washington that it will be solely responsible for all ramifications, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday.

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📹 Two long-range Tu-160 aircraft have completed a flight over the Barents Sea.

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