French Unrest, Cocaine In The West Wing, Student Loans Take 2

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Good morning,

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

The rain couldn’t stop him. Joey Chestnut won the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest for the 16th time by eating 62 hot dogs in ten minutes— 14 more than the second-place finisher. On the women’s side, the defending champ Miki Sudo ate 39 and a half hot dogs in 10 minutes, six more than her closest competitor.

We’re full just thinking about it.

Have a good one!

Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney

🗞 BIGGEST WEEKEND HEADLINES

If you didn’t pay attention to the news over the last few days— and honestly, we get it— here’s a quick recap of some of the biggest stories of the weekend.

STUDENT LOAN STATUS UPDATE
Within hours of the Supreme Court striking down President Biden’s plan to forgive student debt — on the grounds that he doesn’t have the proper authority from Congress— the commander-in-chief announced a new plan Friday to forgive student loans. This one involves powers the White House believes it has from the 1965 Higher Education Act. The issue is a non-starter with the Republican-controlled House, so the President is going to try to go it alone again.

Not So Fast: Mosheh did a quick video breakdown on why you still shouldn’t expect major relief anytime soon.

At the same time, the White House also announced there will be a one-year on-ramp for loan repayments, “during which borrowers who miss payments won't be reported to credit bureaus, placed in default, or referred to debt collection agencies.” Loan payments are due again starting in October. MORE FROM AXIOS

COCAINE AT THE WHITE HOUSE
White powder was found inside the West Wing on Sunday, prompting a brief evacuation and elevated security alert. Turns out, the substance was actually cocaine, according to a preliminary test. The Secret Service is now trying to figure out how it got there. (Biden and his family were at Camp David at the time.) MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

RIOTS ACROSS FRANCE

Nearly a week of looting and rioting took place across 200+ French cities through the weekend. They were sparked by last week’s shooting of a teenager of North African descent during a police traffic stop.

• 17-year-old, Nahel Merzouk, was shot dead by police in the Paris suburb of Nanterre last Tuesday. The officer has been detained amid an investigation into the incident, but the killing touched off the worst case of violent protests in France in nearly two decades.

• Rioters torched more than 5,600 cars, with 1,000 private properties (commercial and residential) burned down or damaged, and 250 police stations attacked. In one case, rioters crashed a car into a local mayor’s home, lit it on fire and then launched rockets at his family as they fled.

• Tensions remain high as the French government deployed more than 45,000 law enforcement officers over the weekend. Things were calmer overnight Tuesday, after six nights of rioting. But the violence reinforces ongoing issues between the French government and immigrant communities. MORE FROM FRANCE24

CANADA WILDFIRES STILL OUT OF CONTROL
There are still more than 500 fires burning in Canada, and about half of them are considered “out of control.” Which means, get ready for more smoky skies this summer in the US.

Even though firefighters from 10 different countries, including the US, are aiding in the effort to put the fires out, they’ll most likely be burning for quite awhile. The reason: some are in extremely remote areas, and “are often too out of control to do anything about.” Another issue, some experts say Canada doesn’t spend enough money on mitigation and fire prevention, like controlled burns. This all comes as climate change means hotter and drier weather up north. It will require better forestry tactics. MORE FROM CNN

⏳ SPEED READ

🚨NATIONAL

📌 Judge issues order limiting Biden administration contact with social media firms. The ruling comes amid allegations that government officials went too far in their efforts to push Twitter and others to take down posts relate to vaccine hesitancy and election denial. (POLITICO)

📌 Philadelphia Mass Shooting: Suspect and victims are identified in Kingsessing mass shooting; 5 killed ranged in age from 15 to 59.(PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER)

📌 ‘It’s a disaster’: California farmer faces ordeal as pistachio farm sits underwater. A California businessman invested his savings in a pistachio farm. The return of Tulare Lake has left hundreds of his acres underwater. (LA TIMES)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

📌 Putin, Xi and Modi Meet on Camera, but With No Signs of Greater Unity. At a virtual summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the leaders of Russia, China and India each focused on their own driving issues. (NY TIMES)

📌 Israeli troops leave Palestinian town of Jenin after two-day military operation. Car-ramming terror attack in Tel-Aviv. (WASHINGTON POST)

📌 Taliban order Afghanistan's hair and beauty salons to shut. (BBC)

💵 BUSINESS & TECH

📌 Instagram’s Twitter competitor launching on July 6th (THE VERGE)

📌 TikTok Sells a Lot of Books. Now, Its Owner Wants to Publish Them, Too. As ByteDance launches a publishing company, many in the book world wonder if it will create an uneven playing field by boosting its own authors at the expense . (NY TIMES)

📌 Lighter beer, iced coffee, more chicken: How Gen Z is changing the marketplace (WALL STREET JOURNAL)

 🎥 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

📌 The 2023 movie box office will need a strong second half after an inconsistent first six months. Box office experts noted that 2023 has several big releases still to come in the second half, including “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” “The Exorcist: Believer” and “Dune: Part Two.” (CNBC)

📌 Fans keep throwing stuff at artists onstage. Will it ever stop? "Ultimately everyone in attendance at a concert is responsible for keeping one another safe," one expert said. (NBC NEWS)

📌 Princess Kate takes her seat in Royal Box at Wimbledon, right next to Roger Federer (AP)

🗓 ON THIS DAY: JULY 5

• 1946: Designer Louis Reard introduced a minimalist two-piece swimsuit in Paris, France. The new fashion was named 'bikini' after the Bikini Atoll, where the test of a nuclear bomb had taken place four days earlier.
  

• 1971: The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was certified, lowering the voting age to 18.
  

• 1975: Arthur Ashe defeated heavily favored Jimmy Connors to become the first Black man to win Wimbledon.

• 1989: ‘Seinfeld’ premiered as ‘The Seinfeld Chronicles’ on NBC.