Monday, July 11th, 2022
Bannon to Testify?, Uber Files Leak & BookTok Booming
All the news you need in about 10 min:
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Story Summaries
All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want to review the latest happenings...
World Reacts to Abe Assassination
People around the world have been sharing their shock and sadness over the assassination in Japan. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed while giving a campaign speech on Friday. President Biden called his death “a tragedy for Japan and all who knew him.” Police say the gunman spent months planning the attack with a homemade gun. Even though Japan is mourning and police are investigating, the country still held elections. Abe’s ruling party won big, getting a larger majority in the Japanese parliament. This could let the party carry Abe’s biggest ambitions forward.
Read More: AP, WaPo, Axios, Reuters, White House
Abortion Access Executive Order
President Biden issued an executive order that helps people know what reproductive rights they have and tells his administration to do more. This comes in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade. The order tells the HHS Department to protect access to FDA-approved abortion medications, emergency medical care for women who lose their pregnancies, and birth control. It orders the attorney general to get volunteer lawyers together to make sure patients, providers, and others get legal representation. Also, for those who look for information about abortion services online, the order tasks the FTC with protecting data privacy.
Read More: White House, CBS News, NY Times, WSJ, NPR
Bannon Agrees to Testify
In a turnaround, former President Trump decided to support one of his longtime advisors testifying in front of lawmakers investigating the Capitol riot. Trump sent a letter to former White House aide Steve Bannon, saying he will waive his executive privilege in this case. With that, Bannon’s lawyer says his client is ready to testify as long as it’s a live, public hearing. Even though government lawyers have disputed whether executive privilege applies in this case, that’s what Bannon has been giving as a reason not to testify until now. So far, lawmakers haven’t said whether they’ll take Bannon up on the offer this time.
Read More: WaPo, ABC News, Reuters, The Hill
Cipollone’s Jan 6th Interview
The January 6th committee laid out its plans for this week, saying a big focus is going to be on the sworn testimony from former President Trump’s White House lawyer Pat Cipollone. He met with the committee behind closed doors for eight hours on Friday. Some committee members have said Cipollone gave them a lot of “relevant information” about what was happening in the White House in the weeks running up to January 6th. Former President Trump said a president should be able to have candid conversations with his White House council without the chance they’ll testify to a “partisan and openly hostile committee.”
Read More: Politico, NY Times, NBC News, WSJ
Yosemite Fire Growing
A wildfire is now threatening Yosemite National Park’s largest and most iconic sequoia grove. Mariposa Grove is home to more than 500 mature sequoia trees, including the famous 3,000-year-old “Grizzly Giant”. Over the weekend, a wildfire in the area grew to more than three square miles. As of this morning, it’s 0% contained. Firefighters are having a tough time since it’s hotter and drier than usual there. People who live near the fire and dozens of campers were evacuated. At this point, it’s not clear how the fire started.
Read More: InciWeb, LA Times, CNN, AP, USA Today
Heat Records Broken
A historic heatwave continues. Already in the last couple of days, cities and towns in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas saw record highs for this time of year. Today, the heat is expected to expand further west. Temperatures are rising from Texas to California. It’s expected to be around 113 degrees in Las Vegas and 114 in Phoenix, Arizona. Temperatures are also especially high in tourist destinations in Utah like Zion National Park.
Read More: NWS, USA Today, Weather Channel, Accuweather
Uber Files Leak
More than 124,000 confidential documents were leaked to The Guardian. They’re said to show Uber broke laws, got around taxes, hid information from the police, and secretly lobbied government officials. Emails, iMessages, WhatsApp messages, and more show blunt communications between executives when Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick was still in charge as CEO. In them, one executive joked they had become pirates and said, “We’re illegal.” In response, an Uber spokesperson acknowledged “mistakes” in the past but said Uber is a different company today than it was then.
Read More: The Guardian, Uber, WaPo, BBC, AP, Fox Business
Musk Tries to Cancel Twitter Deal
It looks like there is going to be a court battle between Twitter and Elon Musk. Lawyers for Musk officially notified Twitter that he wants out of his $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform. The letter cites a lack of information about Twitter’s fake spam accounts. The lawyers say it shows Twitter refused to comply with contractual obligations. However, Twitter’s board is sticking to the original plan. The board chair tweeted, “The company is committed to closing the deal at the agreed-upon price and plans to use legal action to enforce the agreement.”
Read More: SEC, Twitter, CNBC, WSJ, Bloomberg, WSJ (2), NY Times
USPS Rates Go Up
The cost to mail a letter went up a bit. The United States Postal Service raised prices yesterday. Now, the price of a Forever stamp is 60 cents instead of 58 cents. As the name suggests, Forever stamps can be used to mail a letter forever, no matter what price you paid for it. First-class mail prices are up 6.5%, and there will likely be more price hikes. The postmaster general has said that Americans should get used to the postage rate increases as the USPS works to become self-sufficient.
Read More: USPS, Fox Business, Axios, WTOP, WTHR, The Hill
New ‘Thor’ Movie Tops Box Office
The God of Thunder is bringing in big bucks for Marvel. The fourth “Thor” movie, “Love and Thunder”, had a better opening weekend than any other “Thor” movie so far. It brought in $143 million in North America, easily topping the next most popular movies at the box office. Overall, the summer 2022 box office is doing well, 217% better than last summer. Theaters aren’t bringing in quite as much money as they were in 2019 before the pandemic, but there also aren’t as many wide new releases this year as there were back then.
Read More: THR, Deadline, AP, CNBC
Rybakina, Djokovic Win Wimbledon
Novak Djokovic is back on top of the tennis world. The Serbian player won his 21st Grand Slam at Wimbledon. The only men’s tennis player with more Wimbledon titles than Djokovic is Roger Federer. Only Rafael Nadal owns more major trophies. On the women’s side, Elena Rybakina won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. She was born in Russia, but she has represented Kazakhstan since 2018. Because of that, she was allowed to compete, even though Russian players were banned over the war in Ukraine.
Read More: ESPN, Fox News, NY Times, CNN
Money Monday: Bookstores/Sales Booming
Booksellers are doing well these days. The American Booksellers Association says more than 300 new independent stores have popped up across the U.S. in the last couple of years. Still, there is plenty of business to go around. The same trade organization surveyed booksellers earlier this year, and 70% of those who responded said they saw higher sales in 2021 than in 2019 or 2020. Many of the new stores that opened during the pandemic are run by BIPOC business owners, and a lot of books being sold are written by BIPOC authors, reflecting a big change in an industry that’s traditionally been overwhelmingly white.
Read More: NY Times, AP, Axios