🎆 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.”

🌴 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have almost doubled their land holding on a Hawaiian island. The couple purchased three more plots totalling 595.4 acres for a cool $53 million.

This land is my land... and this land is my land

Caitlyn Jenner, who recently announced a California gubernatorial run, on Saturday came out against allowing transgender athletes who were born male to compete on girls' sports teams: "This is a question of fairness, that's why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls sports in school," Jenner told TMZ. "It just isn't fair, and we have to protect girls sports in our schools."

#LIVE | SpaceX Crew Dragon 'resilience' undocks from ISS, starts motion towards Earth

https://youtu.be/zEUAlEXc18w

🤨 A Texas Democratic Party official Gary O’Connor faced with calls to resign after his Twitt to Sen. Tim Scott : “little more than an oreo with no real principles.” Gov. Greg Abbott demanded the resignation of O’Connor and said that the Texas Democratic Party should “censure him” for the racial slur against Mr. Scott, who is Black

🧑‍🚀 US space agency NASA announced the suspension of a contract for the creation of a lunar module with the American private company SpaceX worth about $2.9 billion due to protests from competitors at the Government Accountability Office

#URGENT | Shooting reported at Casino in Wisconsin, gunman arrested - reports

UPDATE | At least seven people have been injured in a shooting at the Oneida Casino in Green Bay, Wisconsin

North Korea warned that the United States would face a “very serious situation” because President Biden “made a big mistake” in his recent speech, calling the DPRK a security threat and disclosing his intention to pursue a hostile policy towards it

❗️ US may reportedly un-freeze $7 billion worth of Iranian assets

Catch up on our latest updates:

▪️ Eleven people have been hospitalised, two of them in critical condition, after a deck collapsed at a restaurant in Tennessee.

▪️ American actress Olympia Dukakis has passed away at the age of 89 in New York City.

▪️ Wisconsin police fatally shot a gunman who opened fire at the Oneida Casino overnight, killing two and injuring another.

▪️ Senator Mitt Romney was booed by an audience at the Utah GOP convention on Saturday.

▪️ Portland authorities declared a riot on Saturday night following protests in the downtown area.