Monday, August 12th, 2019
Epstein Death, Historic Triple Double & Meteor Shower
All the news you need in less than 10 min:
Today's episode is brought to you by Noom.
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 perusing the latest happenings...
Jeffrey Epstein Dies: An investigation is now looking into the death of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell Saturday morning. Authorities say he died in an apparent suicide. The multimillionaire was accused of sexually abusing and trafficking dozens of young girls and was facing 45 years behind bars. Epstein was recently taken off suicide watch, and guards may not have been checking on him as closely as required. Epstein’s accusers are disappointed they won’t be able to face him in court, though they can still sue his estate. Authorities are still looking into who else may have been involved with the sex crimes.
Read more: WSJ, CNN, NYT, USA Today, AP
Chase Forgives Debt: Chase Bank says it’s forgiving all outstanding credit card balances in Canada. Chase quit the Canadian credit card market last year, and the company apparently figures it’s easier and faster to wipe out any leftover debt.
Read more: CNBC, Bloomberg, CBC, FOX News
England Blackout: The U.K. just saw its biggest blackout in a decade, with nearly a million people without power in England and Wales on Friday. Thousands of people were stuck on trains, and many rail services were canceled or delayed during rush hour. The government is opening its own investigation, though authorities don’t think it was any sort of cyberattack. The power is now restored.
Read more: BBC, NBC News, The Guardian
U.S. Weather: A so-called “ring of fire” is headed toward the U.S. It’s a system that has hot temperatures at its core and a ring of storms around it. The worst of the heat and humidity will hit southern states early this week. Excessive heat warnings and advisories are already in place in parts of Oklahoma, the Mississippi valley and parts of Florida. Thunderstorms are expected to hit the Midwest, bringing damaging winds, hail and flooding.
Read more: Weather Channel, Accuweather
Simone Biles Record: Gymnast Simone Biles made history as the first woman to pull off a triple-double, a floor tumbling pass with a double backflip and three twists. She also won her sixth national all-around title, tying the record for the most all-around titles. On Friday, Biles also made history during a dismount off the balance beam, becoming the first gymnast to land a double-double.
Read more: NBC Sports, USA Today
Serena Williams Injury: A Canadian tennis player won the Rogers Cup for the first time in 50 years. Bianca Andreescu and Serena Williams didn’t actually finish the match though. Williams pulled out due to a back injury, so the tournament's final only lasted 16 minutes.
Read more: USA Today, Bleacher Report
Navy Controls: The U.S. Navy is getting rid of touch screen controls on some of its ships and putting back in the traditional, mechanical ones. It's partly because of an accident report that found the touch screen system played a role in a deadly collision in 2017. The change will happen starting next year.
Read more: USNI News, The Verge
Largest Black Hole: Astronomers found the largest black hole ever observed at the center of a galaxy 700 million lightyears away. It’s at least 40 billion times the mass of the sun. A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that not even light can get out. Telescopes and special tools can help find them, and bigger and more powerful telescopes have allowed for discoveries like this one.
Read more: Engadget, MIT Tech Review, NASA
Meteor Shower: The Perseids meteor shower will peak late tonight and early tomorrow morning. The nearly full moon will be pretty bright though, which may make it harder to see the meteor shower. To get the best view, find a dark place away from city lights. If the weather is bad in your area, you can watch it live on NASA’s Facebook page starting at 8:00pm EDT.
Read more: AccuWeather, NBC News
Millions of Trees: Students, lawmakers, officials and others took part in an effort to plant 220 million trees in just one day. It happened in India as part of an effort to fight climate change. About a million people helped out, planting trees along roads, railroad tracks and in forests. India has pledged to have trees cover at least one-third of its land area.
Read more: CBS News
Entertainment News: The Fast and the Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw was number one at the box office for the second weekend in a row. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark came in second. The Lion King came in at number three and beat Beauty and the Beast for highest grossing Disney live-action release of all time. Also, the Teen Choice Awards were last night. Taylor Swift received the first-ever Icon Award. YouTube star David Dobrik and Pretty Little Liars actress Lucy Hale co-hosted the event.
Read more (Box Office): Variety, Deadline
Read more (Teen Choice Awards): Deadline, People