🏡 Have you ever seen a subdivision full of abandoned mansions?

An eerie collection of mansions in Missouri that was intended as a $1.6 billion resort community turned into a ghost town when the 2008 housing crisis hit, leaving behind crumbling abodes abandoned among overgrown plants at the Indian Ridge Resort in Branson

📈 The Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product jumped 6.4% for the first three months of the year on an annualized basis. Outside of the reopening-fueled third-quarter surge last year, this period saw the highest level of GDP growth since the third quarter of 2003

🛩 While US spy plane flights near China increased dramatically under former US President Donald Trump, they have only increased further since Joe Biden entered the White House in January.

“Since the current US administration took office, the number of activities conducted by US warships and surveillance aircraft in the sea areas around China has increased by more than 20% and 40% respectively over the same period last year” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Senior Col. Wu Qian said

👨‍🌾 A group of Midwestern farmers has sued the federal government, claiming that the Biden administration's plan to contain the spread of COVID-19 includes $4 billion in loan write-offs for socially vulnerable farmers and ranchers who are Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan, Asian-American, or Pacific Islander.

White farmers aren't eligible, amounting to a violation of the plaintiffs' constitutional rights, the lawsuit contends

Check out some news you may have missed:

▪️ US Embassy in Russia announces sharp reduction of consular services

▪️ US extends probe into ‘directed-energy’ attacks to mainland

▪️ US sanctions led to Huawei losing smartphone market share to rivals, company executive claims

▪️ US asks citizens to leave India

▪️ Views of Biden's speech less than half of Trump’s 2017 TV audience

▪️Australia to buy four CH-47F Chinook cargo helicopters, after US green light

📺 President Joe Biden may have used his first address to a joint session of Congress to drive home the message that his administration has made great progress during the first 100 days he’s been in office, yet viewer ratings beg otherwise.

Nielsen ratings data was released on Thursday to show that Biden's audience, as he pitched his 1.8 trillion spending package to “transform and expand government’s role in the lives of everyday Americans” paled compared to his predecessor’s viewership.

The number of people who watched Joe Biden’s speech on Wednesday was nearly 44 percent less than the figure accrued by Republican President Donald Trump during his first address to a joint session of Congress in 2017.

At the time, the 46th POTUS commanded an audience of 47.7 million TV viewers on 11 networks.

Even Trump's last State of the Union Address, delivered in February 2020, managed to attract 37 million viewers

❗️#URGENT | Pentagon: Conflict with China not inevitable, but both countries must avoid 'needless escalation'

🇺🇸 🇨🇳 "The United States and China have every reason to communicate with each other" and "extreme competition" does not necessarily equate to conflict, which both sides have an interest in preventing, Hicks said, speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Aspen Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank, on Friday.

"President Biden has stated that while there is going to be extreme competition between the United States and China, we do not need to have conflict. In advancing American interests, we anticipate the US military will often serve as a supporting player to diplomatic, economic and other tools. Central to the military's value is demonstrating the will and capability to credibly deter PRC aggression. This will best position us to avoid a conflict. In the extremis, where our vital interests are threatened, we will ensure the US ability to fight and win," the deputy Pentagon chief added.

Hicks warned that China now has "the economic, military, and technological capability to challenge the international system and American interests within it" using a broad range of tools, "from routine statecraft through the use of sharp power or grey zone tactics, to the potential for sustained combat operations and an expanded and capable nuclear enterprise." She also pointed to the People's Republic's growing military, space, and cyber capabilities

💬 Former US secretaries of state Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice have criticised President Joe Biden’s plan to withdraw the US troops from Afghanistan in a House Foreign Affairs Committee members-only Zoom call on Wednesday, two attendees said.

"A little disagreement on Afghanistan, but they both agreed we're going to need to sustain a counter-terrorism mission somehow outside of that country," one committee member told Axios.

"Condi Rice is like, 'you know, we’re probably gonna have to go back'," the member said.

Both former secretaries raised concerns about the potential negative consequences from a quick removal of US troops, another member of the committee told the outlet.

Clinton and Rice were also concerned about protecting the US diplomats on the ground following the withdrawal

👮‍♂️ Houston police found 90 people trapped in a home after responding to a report of kidnapping. The 2,319-square-foot, five-bedroom, two-bathroom home had 5 women and no children, all the others were men. A police officer noted that "It definitely looks more like smuggling than human trafficking."

After the Biden administration announced that it would take a new approach to negotiations with North Korea to dismantle the country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that U.S. policy “will not focus on reaching a major deal and will not rely on strategic patience."

#URGENT | Ukraine can work to meet standards to become NATO member, State Dept says

📥 Trump wins! The Florida legislature passed an election bill introducing new restrictions on mail-in voting, including voter ID requirements for those who request to vote by mail or register to vote, and the need for voters to request mail-in ballots for each election cycle, rather than the two-cycle rule still in effect.

Will the elections be fairer now?

😷 The Transportation Security Administration reported that President Biden has extended the federal mask mandate until September 13

💸 The largest mass tort lawsuit ever brought to federal court was filed against 3M Co (MMM.N), which was accused of covering up design defects in its earplugs. The company was ultimately found liable for hearing damage suffered by three U.S. military veterans, who were each awarded $2.1 million in punitive damages and a total of $830,500 in compensatory damages for their medical expenses.

The most expensive earplugs you've ever seen

🚫 “The Department of Defense is proceeding with canceling all border barrier construction projects paid for with funds originally intended for other military missions and functions such as schools for military children, overseas military construction projects in partner nations and the National Guard and Reserve equipment account,” Deputy Pentagon spokesperson Jamal Brown said.

When the creation doesn't outlive the creator

💉 President Joe Biden indicated he may order all U.S. military forces to receive the coronavirus vaccine at a time of troubling voluntary acceptance rates among some troops, though it remains unclear whether he has the political mandate to do so and the White House itself seems uncertain about whether he could proceed in that direction

It's time to figure out if he's competent!

🚧 President Joe Biden's lax immigration policy in his first 100 days in office has caused a disaster on the southern border and there appears to be no solid plan to deter the influx of migrants illegally crossing into the United States, former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sector chief Victor Manjarrez believes

🌧 Watch the beaver lose his way and find himself in the center of downtown

🎆 South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is suing the Biden administration for not allowing the state to hold an Independence Day fireworks show over Mount Rushmore.

The National Park Service first denied a request from South Dakota in March, stating that a fireworks show posed risks to both the park and the health and safety of its employees and visitors

The Recording Academy, which presents the very prestigious Grammy Award, announced an end to the anonymous voting committees following rigging allegations.

Nominations for the Grammy Awards in January 2022 will be selected by its more than 11,000 voting members and not by committees of 15-30 industry experts, the Academy said on Friday.

It also said that the selection of nominees and winners was being "placed back in the hands of the entire voting membership body," adding that most of its members would go through a "requalification process" to ensure that the voting body "is actively engaged in music creation".