5 things to know for July 11: Biden’s health, Power outages, Gaza, ‘Rust’ movie shooting, NASA
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Costco is raising membership fees for the first time since 2017. The hikes, which go into effect on September 1, are part of a larger effort to crack down on membership moochers and boost revenue for the warehouse chain. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. President Joe Biden will face a major test today when he holds an unscripted news conference at the NATO summit in Washington, DC. It comes after his poor debate performance left an indelible impression on many voters who are seriously questioning the president’s mental fitness for another term. Some Democratic donors are also holding back big checks as the party continues to wrestle with the path forward. On Wednesday, actor George Clooney, who had been among Biden’s biggest supporters and donors in Hollywood, took the step of publicly calling for him to bow out of the race. “We are not going to win in November with this president,” Clooney wrote in a New York Times opinion piece, adding that some lawmakers he has spoken with privately shared this view. Clooney said the country deserves to hear from other politicians who could potentially replace Biden at the top of the ticket. More than 1.3 million homes and businesses across southeast Texas are still without power after Beryl slammed into the Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday. Countless families have lost food in their warming fridges while many stores are still closed, leaving local authorities scrambling to distribute food to underserved areas. Heat-related medical emergencies are also spiking in Houston as 90-degree temperatures blanket parts of the state, city fire chief Samuel Peña said. Senior care facilities and residents who rely on electric medical devices are particularly at risk as power outages stretch through at least the end of the week. The Israeli military has expanded its evacuation order to the whole of Gaza City after sending tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing from several of the city’s neighborhoods earlier this week. Israel’s latest directive threatens to intensify the plight of already displaced communities after more than 250,000 residents were urged to head to “safe zones” further south since Sunday, a UN office said. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is allowing a shipment of 500-pound bombs to be sent to Israel after it was paused more than two months ago. The initial decision to halt a shipment of both 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs was due to US concerns about Israel using the heavy munitions — specifically the larger 2,000-pound bombs — in their Rafah operation. One shipment of the 2,000-pound bombs remains on hold. Opening statements in the involuntary manslaughter trial of actor Alec Baldwin began Wednesday, nearly three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on the New Mexico set of the Western film “Rust.” Prosecutors accused Baldwin of violating the “cardinal rules of firearm safety” by pointing a gun at a person and pulling the trigger. The defense team, on the other hand, said the gun was deemed “cold,” meaning it had been checked and was safe. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty and has maintained he did not pull the trigger after the prop gun that discharged was later found to be loaded with a live bullet. If convicted, the actor could face up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
FBI says it has disrupted major Chinese hacking operation that threatened US critical infrastructure
The FBI has used a court order to seize control of a network of hundreds of thousands of hacked internet routers and other devices that Chinese government-linked hackers were using to threaten critical infrastructure in the US and overseas, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve is preparing to cut interest rates for the first time in the Biden era after the White House spent the last three years grappling with Americans’ dissatisfaction with the cost of living, raising new questions about the health of the economy and the impact on voters at the ballot box.
Israeli officials notified the US that the country was going to carry out an operation in Lebanon on Tuesday but did not give any details about what they were planning, according to three sources familiar with the matter, including in a call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant early Tuesday morning.