👮‍♂️ 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".

🚀 A United States Space Force general has warned that that space has become a “warfighting domain”, just like air, land, and sea, with the newly-created branch of the military facing new challenges and evolving threats.

General John William "Jay" Raymond, who is the Chief of Space Operations for the US Space Force, appeared on Washington Post’s “The Path Forward” to claim that China, which was earlier designated a “pacing threat”, and Russia have developed “weapons that can either disrupt our satellites or destroy our satellites, from on the ground or in space, or in cyber”.

“It is something that has really materialised here over the last handful of years,” said the general, adding: “Our view is that although it is a warfighting domain, our goal is to not get into a conflict that begins or extends into space. Our goal is to deter that from happening… We do not want to get into a conflict that begins or extends into space.”

💬 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing a bill to ban Facebook and Twitter from censoring politicians on their platforms.

The bill proposes giving lawmaker users one week to amend offending posts, as opposed to blacklisting them immediately

🎆 Disneyland in California is opening its doors again after being closed for almost 500 days, with anti-COVID measures in place

‼️ #BREAKING | Tehran, Washington reportedly agree on lifting of sanctions against Iran's oil, banking sectors

💬 Iran and the United States have reached an agreement in principle on the lifting of most sanctions against individuals and institutions, including the country's oil and banking sectors, the Fars News Agency reports, citing comments made by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Iran's top nuclear negotiator

🐦 More than 800 birds were found at a home in the Santa Barbara County community of Montecito. They were trapped in the chimney, but firefighters managed to rescue the birds.

Hitchcock's nightmare come true?

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a measure to grant DC statehood, repeating the passage of a similar bill in June 2020.

Joe Manchin, the senator from West Virginia known for often bucking his own party’s legislation, slapped down the White House-supported legislation, saying that the issue of statehood for DC had been studied by previous Justice Departments, and that “they all came to the same conclusion: If Congress wants to make DC a state, it should propose a constitutional amendment…and let the people of America vote.”

With friends like these... ?

🖍 Federal agents were investigating two possible 'attacks' on US soil involving the use of 'directed-energy' weapons, including one near the White House last November, and a separate incident in 2019 in a Virginia suburb.

Invisible 'energy attacks', like the one that purportedly caused debilitating symptoms among US government personnel in Havana, Cuba, and elsewhere around the world are believed to be on the rise again, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Is 'Havana Syndrome' on the rise?

⚖️ Prisoners convicted of violent crimes will now be eligible to get out of prison early. Newsom had called for closing several prisons even before the pandemic devastated the state’s budget, once calling it a “core value” of his administration.

Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen, who once headed the state parole board, criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration for the move: “He’s doing it on his own authority, instead of the will of the people through their elected representatives or directly through their own votes.”