Today is Friday, July 19, 2024.
It is the 201st day of the year.
165 days remain.
WHAT’S ON TAP
FORD scales back EV production plans and BUD LIGHT struggles. Details in HIT LIST
SWIFT’s stalker gets arrested in Germany and SHABOOZEY’s song is a hit. More in SHOWBIZ.
A tennis prodigy gets the docuseries treatment at ESPN and a “24” movie is in the works. Details in CASTING CALL.
KIM details a skin condition that has been passed down to her son in KARDASH.
THE KING holds another major audience. Details in ROYALS.
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HIT LIST
Here’s the latest information on last weekend’s attempted assassination of DONALD TRUMP and murder of COREY COMPERATORE:
– After briefing legislators on more specifics, here’s the latest timeline of events leading up to the shooting, and there are still many gaps to fill:
5:10pm: Shooter identified as a person of interest
5:30pm: Shooter spotted with a rangefinder
5:52pm: Shooter spotted on the roof
6:02pm: Trump takes stage
6:12pm: Shots fired
There will never be an adequate answer for why Trump took the stage while a person of interest with a rangefinder and backpack, on the roof of a nearby building, was not questioned and investigated.
– A former classmate of the shooter’s details his history of anti-Trump and racist comments. WATCH >
– Investigators have unearthed encrypted accounts on messaging apps belonging to the shooter after cracking his phone but continue to try to gain access to them. His search history included images of Trump and JOE BIDEN as well as dates of Trump events and the upcoming Democratic National Convention. A second phone found at the shooter’s home contained just 27 contacts.
– The shooter reportedly asked his employer for a day off on July 13 and said he would be back on Sunday.
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Billionaire KEN GRIFFIN shelled out $44.6 MILLION on Wednesday to buy a near complete Stegosaurus skeleton – after the auction house said it hoped to get up to (a mere!) $6 MILLION.
The 11-foot-tall, 20-foot-long fossilized skeleton was found in 2022.
The sale well eclipses the last record set for a dinosaur fossil, when a T-rex skeleton went for $31.8 MILLION in 2020.
No word yet what Griffin’s plans are for the find. [via NBC News]
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FORD is scaling back plans for an electric vehicle factory in Canada, investing $2.3 BILLION to retrofit it to build gas-guzzling Super Duty trucks.
The plant in Ontario will start rolling out about 100,000 trucks a year beginning in 2026.
The automaker will spend another $700 MILLION to increase truck production capacity at American and other Canadian plants. [via CNBC]
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The Biden Administration received yet another blow on Thursday after an appeals court blocked all of its latest student loan forgiveness program.
The policy had previously been blocked in part by a lower court, but the 8th Circuit killed the remaining components, including the SAVE Plan. This program had created more favorable payback terms for those with qualifying incomes and allowed for outright forgiveness after 10 years of balances under $12,000.
The plan would have cost an estimated $500 BILLION if fully implemented. [via Reuters]
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Despite protests of the brew seeming to have dwindled, BUD LIGHT still has not yet regained its spot as the top-selling beer in the U.S. It currently sits at No. 3, representing only 6.5% of sales.
No. 1 is Modelo Especial, which accounts for 9.7% of beer sales, followed by Michelob Ultra with 7.3% of sales.
FALLOUT: Things took a wrong turn for the Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned lager after it collaborated with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in 2023.
WORTH NOTING: Anheuser-Busch is also the parent company to Michelob. [via WSJ]
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DEATHS
Business news anchor LOU DOBBS has died.
He passed away on Thursday. No cause of death was shared.
Dobbs had a lengthy career in broadcast journalism, spending more than two decades at CNN. In 2009 he left the network to help media mogul Robert Murdoch launch Fox Business Network.
He was 78.
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BOB NEWHART has died.
He passed away Thursday. No further details were shared.
Newhart is best known for hosting “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Newhart,” and several feature films.
He was 94.
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BY THE NUMBERS
📈 The DOW slid 533 points (1.29%) to close at 40,665 on Thursday. The S&P lost 43 points (0.78%) to close at 5,544 and the NASDAQ lost 125 points (0.7%) to close at 17,871.
🛢WEST TEXAS INTERMEDIATE closed at $82; BRENT CRUDE at $84.
⛽ The national average price of a GALLON OF GAS was $3.50 on Thursday.
₿ BITCOIN ticked down on Thursday, trading around $63,700.
🛩 There were more than 6,288 FLIGHTS delayed within, into, or out of the United States on Thursday and more than 390 such cancellations.
💰Tonight’s MEGA MILLIONS drawing will be for a $251 million jackpot or a $118.7 million cash payout. Saturday night’s POWERBALL drawing will be for a $91 million jackpot or a $43.7 million cash payout.
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SHOWBIZ NEWS
New Music Friday
Chris Cain, “Good Intentions Gone Bad”
Dio, “The Complete Donington Collection”
Glass Animals, “I Love You So F***ing Much”
Jimin, “MUSE”
Kow Wetzel, “9 Lives”
Role Model, “Kansas Anymore”
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BRITNEY SPEARS wants OZZY OSBOURNE and his opinions to kindly “f**k off.”
Spears took to Instagram to respond to Ozzy’s comment about being “fed up” with her dancing videos, calling his family “the most boring family known to mankind.”
She also used the post to praise actress KATE BECKINSALE for being a “bada**” for posting whatever she wants rather than the “age appropriate content” people expect.
No one from the Osbourne family responded to Spears’ post. [via Page Six]
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A 34-year-old American man was arrested in Germany for stalking and making threats against TAYLOR SWIFT, who is currently in Gelsenkirchen for her “Eras Tour.”
According to authorities, the guy was detained while entering the Veltins-Arena for Swift’s show on Wednesday night. He will remain in jail until Saturday -- after Swift has left the city.
The alleged stalker allegedly posted his threats online, targeting both Swift and her boyfriend, TRAVIS KELCE. [via The Sun]
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JUSTIN LONG once pooped the bed, while sleeping alongside his wife, KATE BOSWORTH.
The actor shared the horrifying tale on a recent episode of the “PIE with Kurt Sutter and Katey Sagal” podcast, saying he came down with a bout of food poisoning while on a service trip in Mexico City.
“I was hooked up to an IV, and [Kate] was having to follow me to the bathroom with the thing [...] and then one point that night, I woke up, and there's no other way to say this. I can’t dance around it. I had s--- the bed.”
Being the loving and supportive wife she is, Long said Kate “patiently” assured him everything was okay.
As for the rest of the trip, which was for Smile Train, a charity benefiting children with cleft lips and palates, Long says it was amazing. [via People]
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RIHANNA’s Fenty Beauty line is making sure Olympic and Paralympic athletes look their best.
On Thursday, RiRi announced that her brand is a “premium partner” of the 2024 Paris Games.
FOR THE RECORD: Fenty was founded in 2017 and is currently worth about $3 BILLION. [via Instagram]
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FOO FIGHTERS fans were upset after a thunderstorm cut their NYC concert short.
Only seconds into their song “Everlong,” frontman DAVID GROHL stopped to tell the crowd at Citi Field, “We just got called.”
Fuming fans took to social media to share their outrage, saying the concert should have been moved to the next night or the openers should have cut their sets shorter.
The band later released a statement, sharing their disappointment over not being able to play a full set, while also stating the importance of keeping their crew and fans safe. They have another show at Citi Field tonight. [via NY Post]
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SHABOOZEY’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” truly is the song of the summer!
According to TouchTunes, the song is the top tune for the second quarter of 2024, and is also the the most-played song among their entire catalog of songs.
For the first quarter of 2024, CHRIS STAPLETON’s “Tennessee Whiskey” was the most-played song. [via Billboard]
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A new biography about the late JOHN F. KENNEDY details what a palm reader in India told him about a “risk” he would face in his life.
Narendra Tanej, a friend of Kennedy’s who was with him in India at the time, told the authors of “JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography,” that, “the palmist said there was no serious threat to [JFK’s] health as such, but he needed to take care. You see, you have a long life, but there is risk. So you should be careful.”
Tanej explained that the palmist gave no other details about the danger, but added that having a “normal life” was not in his “destiny.”
That reading came 15 years before Kennedy and his wife CAROLYN BESSETTE-KENNEDY would die in a plane crash in 1999.
The biography is out now. [via Daily Mail]
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CASTING CALL
Tennis prodigy MICHAEL CHANG is the focus of ESPN’s upcoming “30 for 30” docuseries.
The former pro took the tennis world by storm in 1989 after winning the French Open just months before his 18th birthday -- making him the youngest male championship winner.
The documentary dives into Chang’s family life, childhood and rise to fame. It premieres on July 29. [via People]
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FOX series “24” is being made into a feature film.
The show ran for nine seasons, and starred KIEFER SUTHERLAND as government agent Jack Bauer, who worked for the fictitious “Counter Terrorist Unit.”
No word on plot details or whether Sutherland will play a role in the project. [via Deadline]
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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS
One of KIM KARDASHIAN’s sons has vitiligo, a rare skin disorder.
“It came from my mom, went to me…and I passed it on in a different form to my son,” she revealed on the “She MD” podcast this week. She later clarified that the condition is now under control.
It is unclear which of her two sons, 8-year-old Saint or 5-year-old Psalm, both of whom she shares with ex-husband, YE, has the condition.
FOR THE RECORD: According to Pfizer, only about 0.5 to 1% of the world’s population are affected by vitiligo. [via Page Six]
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WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS
KING CHARLES met with President of Ukraine VOLODOMYR ZELENSKY Thursday as the latter also meets with European leaders at Blenheim Palace.
Taking to social media, Zelensky said, “The United Kingdom remains one of Ukraine’s closest and most important allies. We appreciate all the support provided to the Ukrainian people.”
So far no official readout of the meeting between the leaders. The focus of Zelensky’s visit appears to have been to formalize security agreements with other European nations amid the ongoing war with Ukraine. [via @ZelenskyyUa]
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DAY OF THE YEAR
National Urban Beekeeping Day
Stick Out Your Tongue Day
National Football Day
International Retainer Day
International Karaoke Day
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 nine 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 would be 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 makes its first flight, landing in Toulouse-Blagnac, France.
The aircraft, painted to look like a whale, was built to carry large airplane parts by Stelia Aerospace in Meaulte, France.
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BIRTHDAYS
Riley Curry - daughter of Steph & Ayesha Curry - 12
Owen Joyner - actor, “Knight Squad” - 24
Steven Anthony Lawrence - actor, “Even Stevens” - 34
Trent Williams - football player - 36
Jon Jones - MMA fighter - 37
Ryan Dorsey - actor, “Justified” & “Ray Donovan” - 41
Jared Padalecki - actor, “Gilmore Girls” & “Supernatural” - 42
Benedict Cumberbatch - actor, “Sherlock” & “Doctor Strange” - 48
Anthony Edwards - actor, “ER” - 62
Howard Schultz - CEO of Starbucks - 71
Brian May - guitarist, Queen - 77
Born On This Date
Isabel Jewell - actress, “Gone With the Wind” - 1907 (d. 1972)
Lizzie Borden - acquitted of murdering her parents (gave her mother 40 whacks) - 1860 (d. 1927)
Samuel Colt - firearms manufacturer, Colt 6 shot revolver - 1814 (d. 1862)
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