❗️#BREAKING | Tsunami warning issued after powerful earthquake strikes Alaska

❗️Tsunami warning system says possible tsunami threat to Guam-CNMI

#BREAKING | USGS revises Alaska earthquake magnitude to 8.2 from 7.2

#BREAKING | US Embassy in Baghdad reportedly targeted by two Katyusha rockets

❗️Tsunami threat remains in Alaska and Aleutian Islands after earthquake

Check out some news you may have missed:

▪️ US gymnast Lee Sunisa has won the Olympic gold medal in the all-around final at the Tokyo Games.

▪️ Senator Ted Cruz has slammed "absurd" new CDC guidelines that direct those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to once again mask-up indoors.

▪️ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has welcomed talks between Chinese FM Wang Yi and the Taliban political leadership in Tianjin, describing the meeting as a "positive thing".

▪️ A group named "The Real Facebook Oversight Board" placed body bags in front of Facebook's headquarters in Washington, DC, on Wednesday – in protest against misinformation on coronavirus vaccines that is being spread on social media.

▪️ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been accused of judging legislation by the skin colour of its supporters.

😳 Whistleblowers from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have claimed they were instructed to hide the real scale of the COVID-19 outbreak among children held at a facility in Fort Bliss, Texas.

An appeal was submitted to four congressional committees and government watchdogs.

In the document, Arthur Pearlstein and Lauren Reinhold, who were said to be "career federal civil servants", alleged that usually, as they completed their tasks, HHS would give them a paper instructing them to "make everything sound positive about the Fort Bliss experience and to play down anything negative" when asked.

READ MORE: https://sptnkne.ws/GTRR

🤔 Simone Biles’ withdrawal from the Olympics: is it heroic to quit?

British journalist Piers Morgan has been pilloried far and wide after criticised US superstar Simone Biles' decision to pull out from the women's team final at the Tokyo Olympics.

“Are ‘mental health issues’ now the go-to excuse for any poor performance in elite sport? What a joke,” he tweeted on 27 July. In a column in the Daily Mail, Morgan wrote that he doesn’t think “it's remotely courageous, heroic or inspiring to quit.”

Many social media users accused Morgan of being insensitive to black athletes. Others accused him of bias, saying he has been "sympathetic" to white athletes while they've struggled with mental health.

Biles – widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time – announced on Tuesday that she'd be withdrawing from the team competition because of her mental health.

"Physically, I feel good, I'm in shape," Biles said after she skipped the final. "Emotionally, that kind of varies on the time and moment."

#URGENT | US First Lady Jill Biden will undergo medical procedure on Thursday, White House says

According to the First Lady's press secretary, FLOTUS accidentally stepped on an object during a trip to Hawaii last weekend.

Native nations of the United States have brought a 25-foot totem pole from the west coast to the US capital to present it as a gift to President Joe Biden and urge more action to safeguard sacred tribal sites. The totem pole, carved by hand by the Lummi Nation's House of Tears Carvers, has toured sacred places across the country on its journey from Washington state to the National Mall in Washington DC.

Is this the only way to get a president to pay attention to your problem nowadays?

#URGENT | First flight of Afghan evacuees reportedly lands in US

Check out some news you may have missed:

▪️ Tornado reports and warnings were issued in several US states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

▪️ Beijing has called the US the "biggest destroyer of peace" after a American warship once again crossed the Taiwan Strait.

▪️ Deputy AG for Texas, Aaron Reitz, has apologised for calling Simone Biles a "national embarrassment".

▪️ The CDC has suggested in an internal document that the Delta COVID-19 strain spreads like chickenpox – with fully vaccinated people being able to transmit the infection.

▪️ Up-and-coming artist Hunter Biden has slammed the critics of his "overpriced" artworks with a concise "F**k them".

Reporter confronts Joe Biden for complete flip on mask mandates on vaccinated Americans

😳 Two police officers in Atlanta have been relieved of their duty after a video of them mistreating a handcuffed woman went viral.

As one of the officers kicks the woman in the face, his partner looks on calmly at the unfolding violence.

The incident occurred a couple of days ago, and probably would have gone unnoticed if a bystander hadn’t filmed it.

📹 A group of GOP representatives took to the Senate chamber on Thursday to protest against the mask mandate in the House.

#BREAKING: Justice Department tells Treasury to turn over Trump tax returns to Congress

The US Department of Justice issued a ruling on Friday saying that the US Treasury must comply with requests by federal lawmakers to turn over the tax returns of former US President Donald Trump, long sought by Democrats due to beliefs and hopes that their contents could bar him from returning to office.

🤔 Something doesn’t add up when it comes to Antony Blinken’s "deep concerns" about mass surveillance…

The US Secretary of State raised concerns on Friday about the "increasing trend of surveillance, harassment and intimidation of foreign journalists in China".

However, Edward Snowden, who himself exposed US secret mass surveillance programmes, has argued: if Blinken is so worried about mass surveillance, why did he remain silent on the recent Pegasus spying scandal?

The National Security Agency whistleblower suggested that the US should influence its "close partners in Israel" who have been exposed in the project.

🗣 "Great to hear, but there's no record of [Blinken] speaking like this last week when close partners in Israel — who, unlike China, [Blinken] can definitely influence — were exposed by the Pegasus Project for their involvement in the actual death and detention of journalists," Snowden tweeted.

Another day, another sanction

The US Treasury Department on Friday announced new sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act, targeting Cuba's National Revolutionary Police, its director, Oscar Callejas Valcarce, and deputy director, Eddy Sierra Arias.