⚡️ Blinken says he will speak to Lavrov by phone in coming days

⚡️Fed could announce another 'unusually large' rate hike, Powell warns as US inflation is 'much too high'

⚡️ ⚡️US reportedly offers Moscow prisoner exchange: Russia's Viktor Bout for Americans Griner and Whelan

Blinken admits that Washington has made a "substantial offer" to Russia for the release of US detainees Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner. He declined, however, to reveal details

⚡️ Blinken says Biden was directly involved in proposal US presented to Russia on detained citizens

📹 Ukrainian soldiers speaking to high command asked for rest and help as they lack equipment and ‘morale is low’

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📣BIDEN: "When my predecessor got COVID, he had to get helicoptered to Walter Reed Medical Center. He was severely ill. Thankfully, he recovered. When I got COVID, I worked from upstairs in the White House.”

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🎯A recent survey conducted by OnePoll coincided with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and 66% said reproductive rights are currently a higher priority for them.

When asked which social issues they find the most important, health care (43%) topped the list, followed closely by gun violence (41%).

Rounding out the top five were racial injustice and domestic violence (tied for third, at 39%) and poverty and homelessness (38%). It’s worth noting that the top five issues respondents identified are all within 5% of each other, showing that many of these challenging issues are viewed with an almost equal level of importance.

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🔎The U.S. has offered a deal to Russia to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner and another jailed American, Paul Whelan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said Wednesday.

Blinken’s comments marked the first time the U.S. government has publicly revealed any concrete action it has taken to secure the release of Griner, who was arrested on drug-related charges at a Moscow airport in February and testified Wednesday at her trial.

“We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and, I hope, to move us toward a resolution,” Blinken said.

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🚨 Two people were arrested in Florida for human trafficking three girls, including a 14-year-old from a foster home, according to authorities.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said Marc Phillips Dinkel's, 33, of Vero Beach, and Taylor Brandt, 19, of Palm Bay, are facing multiple charges.

As a result of the very complex investigation, agents found evidence that both Brandt and Dinkels had recruited three juvenile females to perform sex acts with them for money!!" Brevard County Sheriff's Office noted in a Facebook post. "In several of the instances, Dinkels videotaped the sex acts that included both he and Brandt being sexually active with the juveniles."

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✈️ Frontier and Spirit first announced the proposed merger in February, a move that would’ve combined the two budget airlines to create the fifth largest in the US. But not everything went as planned — JetBlue countered Frontier’s initial $2.9 billion offer with an attractive all-cash $3.6 billion bid that Spirit later rejected. In May, JetBlue launched a hostile takeover of Spirit Airlines and kept attempting to sweeten the deal by increasing its offer.

The North American Alliance is supposed to make it easier for passengers to board connecting flights from either service, as well as introduce more routes to both cities, but the Department of Justice (DOJ) believes it could harm the airline industry. Last September, the DOJ filed an antitrust complaint against the NEA last September, arguing it decreases competition and harms passengers by consolidating the airline industry.

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🔋 Electric automaker Rivian is laying off around 6 percent of its 14,000 employees, or around 800 people, Amy Mast, a spokesperson for the company, confirmed in an email. The company made the decision in part to speed up development on future versions of its electric trucks and SUVs, she said.

The company is just starting to ramp up production of its pickups, SUVs, and delivery vans for Amazon. In its most recent report, the company said it had produced around 2,553 vehicles, delivered 1,227, and was still planning on having made 25,000 by the end of the year. But the company also lost an incredible amount of money last quarter: around $1.59 billion.

Rivian has been making changes recently in an attempt to cut costs, according to an email CEO RJ Scaringe sent to employees after reports started circulating that it was considering layoffs.

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🛰 Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos has told NASA that it intends to remain in the program until at least 2028. Roscosmos plans to stay involved with the ISS until it gets a new Russian space station up and running, with 2028 as the target date.

Russia hoped to transition focus to a new space station it was developing called the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS). NASA and Roscosmos are the two biggest partners on the International Space Station, and both entities are tasked with operating the vehicle and maintaining a continuous human presence on the ISS while in orbit. 

NASA still plans to operate the vehicle until 2030, and it appears that Roscosmos will be on board for most of that time.

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❗️ An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 has struck Antofagasta in Chile - EMSC

📹Footage shows Russian military servicemen clearing mines in the liberated territories of the Kharkov region

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🇺🇸Is Kamala Harris indicating that she has the top job in her sights?

As the Democrats forecast that Biden won't run for a second term, senior members of the party are beginning to raise their profile and US vice-president Kamala Harris is no exception: she has stepped up visits to key states and held talks with senior fundraisers, The Times reports.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸American actor Steven Seagal, who holds US and Russian passports, told Sputnik that he will never give up Russian citizenship despite the growing rift between Russia and the West.
"I will never give up Russian passport. And I face Russophobia every day," the 70-year-old said, without elaborating.

He also said he had "plenty of relations somewhere," in the Asian Russian regions: Buryatia, Yakutia, Irkutsk, and the Primorsky Krai. He also suggested that he "might have" some relations in Ukraine.

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📉Meta*'s income is falling for the first time since it went public (it was then called Facebook*)

The company's revenue for the second quarter was $28.82 billion, down from $29.07 billion a year earlier.

“We seem to have entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business,” Mark Zuckerberg said in an earnings call.

*Meta, Facebook, and Instagram are banned in Russia over extremist activities.

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🇺🇸The US unveils its third political party - report

A host of former Democrat and Republican politicians who have found themselves dissatisfied with America’s present two-party system, have proclaimed that the new national political party will appeal to millions of voters.

▪️The party, named Forward, is co-chaired by former Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang, and Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey

▪️The party's basic ideas are to “reinvigorate a fair, flourishing economy” and to “give Americans more choices in elections, more confidence in a government that works, and more say in our future”. The party claims that it has its own way to solve “big issues facing America”: "Not Left. Not Right. Forward”

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