7/19/2022: The Vulture Crisis
PLUS: Chris Evans On The Prowl, Kylie the Climate Criminal, and Prince Harry Bashes US
Today is Tuesday, July 19, 2022.
It is the 200th day of the year.
165 days remain.
TRENDING
Madden was trending Monday after the video game released its ranking of top NFL players. Head to Sports to see more.
Tristan Thompson landed in Twitter’s Top 10 Trends yesterday after being spotted with an unidentified woman in Greece.
#PrinceHarryAtTheUN was trending after the royal gave a speech Monday at the United Nations. More in Royals.
Dr. Fauci was trending as multiple outlets reported he plans to retire by the end of Biden’s term.
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HIT LIST
Police found a laptop burned and melted in the oven of the gunman who killed two people and injured three others at an Indiana mall Sunday.
The 20-year-old shooter was stopped and killed by an armed visitor to the mall.
No word yet on motive. The shooter’s family has told media outlets the shooter never exhibited dangerous behavior.
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Amtrak is requesting $10 billion in additional funding.
It’s not to help trains arrive on time, or prevent them from rolling off tracks, or hire more staff. It’s to rebuild Union Station in Washington DC – but without any plans to expand train capacity or routes in or out of the city.
WORTH ASKING: Couldn’t they start with, I dunno, like two billion dollars and see where that gets them before asking for more?
WHAT CAN THE GOVERNMENT BUY WITH TWO BILLION DOLLARS? The Aussies have an answer!
State officials have multiple covid internment camps now sitting empty that cost about $2 billion to build. They were constructed to detain and imprison people who test positive for the virus over the last two years.
Now, they’re considering selling access to the cells to backpackers on vacation, or even using them as a safe housing to protect locals from natural disasters.
DON’T FORGET: They could go back into service the next time the world governments arbitrarily shut down their societies over a contagious cough and fever that more than 99.9% of people survive.
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Toys ‘R Us is making a comeback in time for this Christmas season.
The diminished toy retailer is partnering with Macy’s and will have a presence in all of their US stores in the coming weeks. The stores-within-a-store will vary between 1,000 square feet and 10,000 square feet at some of the bigger locations, such as in Atlanta, New York, and Houston.
Toys ‘R Us shut down after filing bankruptcy in 2018.
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Just how out of shape are you?
Half of Americans struggle to touch their toes without exerting themselves.
IT GETS WORSE: The average person gets just 3,800 steps a day, well below the recommended 10,000.
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Vultures are a dying species, and scientists are worried their extinction could spell doom for humanity.
The Telegraph notes that the number of vultures on the Indian subcontinent nosedived 99% in the 1990s. In Africa, seven of the eleven species found there face extinction.
HERE’S THE PROBLEM: Vultures make quick work of animal carcasses, and as a flock can devour a whole antelope in about twenty minutes. Their quick consumption makes it a lot more difficult for diseases and bacteria to spread to other animals. Without the vultures in the ecosystem, some experts fear that pathogens isolated to nature will more easily spread to human populations.
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BY THE NUMBERS
📈 The Dow lost 215 points (0.69%) to close at 31,072 on Monday. The S&P 500 lost 32 points (0.84%) to close at 3,830 and the Nasdaq lost 92 points (0.81%) to close at 11,360.
🛢Both West Texas Intermediate and Brent Crude are back up above $100 a barrel, after a day of significant increases to oil futures.
⛽ The national average price of a gallon of gas was $4.52 a gallon. President JOE BIDEN proudly tweeted, “Gas prices have been dropping for 34 days straight, about 50 cents a gallon… I know those extra dollars and cents mean something. It’s breathing room. And we’re not done working to get prices even lower.”
WORTH NOTING: Biden wouldn’t have to be working so hard to bring prices down if his inflation-driving energy policies weren’t driving gas prices up in the first place. Gas was $3.28 at the start of the year and $2.25 when he took office.
₿ Bitcoin picked up $780 on Monday, trading at $21,570.
🛩 There were 4,250 flights delayed flying within, into, or out of the United States and 798 such cancellations on Monday.
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CHARTS
Top 5 Songs on iTunes:
Lizzo, “About Damn Time”
Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”
Walker Hayes, “Y’all Life”
Tom MacDonald, “Names”
Beyonce, “Break My Soul”
Top 5 Songs on Spotify:
Lizzo, “About Damn Time”
Harry Styles, “As It Was”
Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”
Post Malone & Doja Cat, “I Like You (A Happier Song)”
Charlie Puth & BTS & Jung Kook, “Left and Right”
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DEATHS
MICKEY ROONEY JR. has died.
The eldest son of actor MICKEY ROONEY passed away Saturday at his home in Glendale, Arizona. No cause of death was shared.
He was 77.
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CLAES OLDENBURG has died.
The pop artist, famous for his large and unique sculptures, passed away Monday morning in Manhattan. He had been in poor health the past month, according to a post by his daughter.
He was 93.
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BREAKUPS
Model EMILY RATAJKOWSKI, 31, and her husband, producer SEBASTIAN BEAR-MCCLARD, 35, have called it quits after four years of marriage.
“It was Em’s decision. She is doing okay. She is strong and focused on her son,” an insider told PEOPLE magazine.
The couple are parents to son, Slyvester, 1.
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WEDDINGS
Actress ANYA TAYLOR-JOY, 26, and musician MALCOLM MCRAE, 27, have tied the knot.
Page Six revealed that the two recently wed in an intimate courthouse wedding.
The pair sparked engagement rumors last month when Taylor-Joy was spotted with a diamond on her ring finger.
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THE SWAMP
America’s evil vaccine elf ANTHONY FAUCI says he’ll retire before the end of President JOE BIDEN’s current term.
Fauci is 81.
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A CNN poll gives President JOE BIDEN his worst approval numbers from the pseudo-news network yet, with only 38% total approving and 62% disapproving. He’s lost 13 points of support even among Democrats since spring. He’s underwater on every issue polled, including inflation and foreign policy.
MEANWHILE: CNBC reports that Vice President KAMALA HARRIS is lining up top donors who have flooded her coffers in the past, including LAURENE POWELL JOBS and VANESSA GETTY.
An unnamed Wall Street executive who raised money for Biden in 2020 also tells CNBC both Harris and California Governor GAVIN NEWSOM have approached him in recent weeks.
Officially, none of the conversations even whispered about challenging Biden, of course.
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The Congressional Progressive Staff Association – which is a formal group of Hill staffers in some sort of unofficial union from hell – have written an open letter insisting Congress take action to pass climate change legislation. Their grief-stricken demand comes after Senator JOE MANCHIN said he wouldn’t support such a package, citing its negative effects on inflation and jobs.
The Progressive Staff Association said in the letter they are “ready to organize and mobilize” to save the Earth from fossil fuel emissions. They insisted the legislation passes, and threatened, “we’re prepared to take action accordingly should they fail to do so.”
IN OTHER WORDS: Unless the democratically-elected legislature follows the Constitutionally-appointed process to enact their preferred policies, they make vague threats against the entire institution.
WORTH NOTING: Sounds pretty insurrection-y.
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LOTTERY
No winner for Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing. Tonight’s drawing will be for a $530 million jackpot or a $304.7 million cash payout.
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SHOWBIZ NEWS
To celebrate their recent nuptials, JENNIFER LOPEZ and BEN AFFLECK plan to have a larger wedding celebration with family and friends.
A source told PEOPLE magazine that the couple are planning a massive bash sometime in the next few weeks at Ben’s home in Riceboro, Georgia.
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SYLVESTER STALLONE is calling out “Rocky” producer IRWIN WINKLER for “withholding a significant financial stake in the franchise” from him.
The actor shared a pic of Winkler as a knife-tongued serpent on Instagram, along with a caption saying he would like a little bit of what’s left of his right back so he has something to pass on to his own children from the films.
Stallone has voiced his growing frustrations in recent years over his lack of ownership of the popular “Rocky” franchise.
Winkler has not responded to the claim.
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CHRIS EVANS says he is “laser-focused” on finding a long-term partner.
In an interview with Shondaland, the actor discussed his desire to find someone to “pour all of [himself] into.”
His comment falls in line with what he told Men’s Journal in 2019 about hoping to settle down and have kids.
Evans is currently promoting his new Netflix movie “The Gray Man.”
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KATE BUSH’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” is staying strong atop the music charts.
In the US it has remained in the Top 5, across several music ranking platforms. In the UK it sits steady at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
The renewed interest in the track comes from it being featured in an episode of the most recent season of “Stranger Things” on Netflix.
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KANYE WEST will not be performing at Rolling Loud Miami later this month, “due to circumstances outside the control” of festival organizers, according to a statement.
KID CUDI will take over the vacant spot.
Other performers for the event include FUTURE and KENDRICK LAMAR.
WORTH NOTING: Many thought TRAVIS SCOTT would take the spot but festival organizers said he couldn’t in light of the tragedy at his Astroworld Festival.
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Actress EMILIA CLARKE opened up to Variety about her two brain aneurysms, saying that she lost “quite a bit of the organ.”
She suffered aneurysms in 2011 and 2013 while filming “Game of Thrones, which she says actually helped her with the lengthy recovery process.
Now healthy, and facing no serious health repercussions, Clarke says she is in the rare minority of those who experience aneurysms.
In light of her experience, she has started a charity for those who have experienced brain injuries or strokes.
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CASTING CALL
A premiere date for HBO’s PRINCESS DIANA documentary “The Princess” has been revealed.
The network announced Monday that the doc will air on August 31 -- the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max.
The documentary follows Diana’s life from her fairy-tale courtship and wedding to the birth of her two sons and bitter divorce from PRINCE CHARLES.
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PETER DINKLAGE is set to join the cast of “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”
He will play Casca Highbottom, dean of the Academy.
The upcoming prequel to “The Hunger Games” is set years before Coriolanus Snow, played by TOM BLYTH, would become the tyrannical President of Panem. That same character was played by DONALD SUTHERLAND in the original movies.
RACHEL ZEGLER also stars in the film.
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CHRISTINA HENDRICKS will star in a series adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel, “The Buccaneers.”
She will take on the role of Mrs. St. George, the mother of buccaneers Nan and Jinny, who is newly wealthy and trying to find her place in the upper class.
The story is centered around “girls with money, men with power, new money and old secrets,” per the official description.
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The video game “Grounded” is the latest to be adapted into a TV series.
The Xbox game, inspired by “A Bug’s Life” and “Honey I Shrunk The Kids,” follows four friends who stumble upon shrinking technology that makes them two inches tall.
The project is being shopped to multiple platforms.
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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS
KYLIE JENNER is facing major backlash for bragging about using her private jet for short flights.
Twitter account @CelebJets posted that Kylie flew from Camarillo, California to Van Nuys, California last week. A 17 minute flight as opposed to a 45 minute drive.
It gets worse. Days later Kylie posted a black-and-white snap of her standing alongside her boyfriend TRAVIS SCOTT in front of their private jets. She captioned it, “you wanna take mine or yours?”
Several social media users shared their anger over the bold post, with one calling the reality star a “full time climate criminal.”
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WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS
PRINCE HARRY spoke at the United Nations on Monday, for Nelson Mandela International Day.
He touched on his passion for Africa, including the country’s connection to his late mother PRINCESS DIANA and the special memories he has made in the country with his wife MEGHAN MARKLE.
Harry also took the time to call out his adopted homeland for “the rolling back of Constitutional rights,” calling the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade part of a “global assault on democracy and freedom.” Something he says was the “cause of Nelson Mandela’s life.”
Lastly, he touched on the climate-change crisis that he says is affecting Africa, while asking world leaders to “help save humanity.”
ON THAT NOTE: I wonder how Harry and Meghan traveled from their Montecito mansion to NYC?
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SPORTS
EA Sports released the latest rankings for their upcoming Madden video game.
There is a special rating of “99” that is reserved for the best players in the NFL and on Monday, the video game announced that DAVANTE ADAMS was part of the “99 Club” as the highest-ranked receiver in the NFL.
The ranking comes before Adams has even played a snap for his new team, the Las Vegas Raiders.
Here are the rest of the Top 10 Receivers:
2. Cooper Kupp
3. Tyreek Hill
4. DeAndre Hopkins
5. Stefon Diggs
6. Justin Jefferson
7. Mike Evans
8. Terry McLaurin
9. Keenan Allen
10. Amari Cooper
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DAY OF THE YEAR
National Daiquiri Day
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ON THIS DATE
1553 - Lady Jane Grey, 15, is deposed from the British Throne and is replaced by her cousin Mary.
A complicated series of marriages and deaths resulted in her installment just 9 days earlier. Though the Royal Council backed putting her in power, the People of England felt otherwise, and believed power should go to Mary.
Mary showed up with an army and popular support -- Jane Grey was imprisoned and later found guilty of treason and executed.
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1692 - Five people are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
Around 200 were accused of witchcraft in total and of those, 19 were found guilty and executed.
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1848 - At the Seneca Falls Convention in New York, suffragettes meet to discuss women's rights in America.
The gathering included speeches and discussions on general grievances among the American female population.
On the second day, men were allowed in, notably Frederick Douglass, a well-known black abolitionist. They produced 12 resolutions calling for equal rights for women, including the right to vote.
Women were granted the right to vote in 1920 with passage of the 19th amendment.
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1879 - Wild West renegade Doc Holliday marks his first kill.
A man was upset with one of Holliday's saloon girls. The man walked into the street and started firing shots.
After the second shot, Doc stepped outside and dropped him with one shot.
Despite his reputation, Holliday only engaged in eight shootouts in his life, and has only two indisputable kills.
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1935 - Oklahoma City installs the world’s first parking meters.
They were designed to solve parking and traffic congestion in the downtown areas. People working in the metro area took all available street parking, leaving no room for shoppers or visitors.
The inventor said from the start the meters were also intended as a form of revenue.
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1969 - Apollo 11 goes into Moon orbit.
The ship had launched three days prior and would land Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the Moon the following day.
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1981 - French Prime Minister Francois Mitterrand shows President Reagan the Farewell Dossier.
These files outlined Soviet spy programs to steal American technological resources and innovation -- and how successful they had been at it.
The documents came from a Soviet deserter, assigned to spy in France, but who fell in love with the West.
To combat the espionage, Americans started leaking bad intel to suspected Soviet spies.
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2007 - “Mad Men” debuts on AMC.
The drama stars Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss and Vincent Kartheiser and centers around one of New York’s most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s.
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2018 - Airbus Beluga XL, painted to look like a whale, makes its first flight, landing in Toulouse-Blagnac, France.
The aircraft was built to carry large airplane parts by Stelia Aerospace in Meaulte, France.
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BIRTHDAYS
Owen Joyner - actor, “Knight Squad” & “The Veil” - 22
Steven Anthony Lawrence - actor, “Even Stevens” & “The Amanda Show” - 32
Jon Jones - MMA fighter - 35
Jinder Mahal - wrestler - 36
Jared Padalecki - actor, “Supernatural” & “Gilmore Girls” - 40
Tom Foust - country singer - 41
R.J. Williams - actor, “Full House” & “General Hospital” - 44
Benedict Cumberbatch - actor, “Sherlock Holmes” & “Doctor Strange” - 46
Nathalie Boltt - actress, “Riverdale” - 49
Leroy Butler - football player - 54
Nancy Carell - actress, “The Daily Show” & “The Office” - 56
Anthony Edwards - actor, “ER” & “Top Gun: Maverick” - 60
Howard Schultz - CEO of Starbucks - 69
Brian May - guitarist, Queen - 75
Born On This Date
Allen Collins - guitarist, Lynyrd Skynyrd - 1952 (d. 1990)
Lizzie Borden - gave her mother forty whacks - 1860 (d. 1927)
Samuel Colt - inventor & industrialist, Colt 6 shot revolver - 1814 (d. 1862)
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