Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) released a letter to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in President Trump's impeachment trial, Wednesday, writing that he "left an indelible mark on our nation’s conscience and history."
Why it matters: Vindman announced his retirement from the military on Wednesday after 21 years of service amid fears of political backlash following his testimony in which he described Trump's push for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden as "inappropriate."
Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
President Trump's campaign rally and related protests in Tulsa in late June "more than likely" contributed to the area's recent surge in confirmed coronavirus cases, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said Wednesday.
Why it matters: Public health officials, including Dart himself, had urged the campaign to postpone the rally, fearing that a large indoor gathering with few people wearing masks could accelerate the spread of the virus.
The Trump administration is engaged in a full-court press to reopen schools this fall: The president threatened this morning to cut off federal funding if schools don't reopen, and claimed — without evidence — that Democrats want them closed through November for political reasons.
What they're saying: "Ultimately, it's not a matter of if schools should reopen — it is simply a matter of how," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said, assailing "elite" D.C.-area schools for their "disaster" of an attempt at distance learning this spring. "They must fully open and they must be fully operational."
Facebook announced Wednesday it removed nearly 100 social media accounts and pages with links to Trump associate Roger Stone and the Proud Boys, a far-right group, for posting misinformation.
Why it matters: Facebookbegan looking into the accounts as part of an investigation into the Proud Boys' attempt to return to Facebook following a 2018 ban. The accounts posed as Florida residents and shared misinformation about local politics, land and water resource bills as well as misinformation about Stone's trial, books and media appearances.
The U.K. may further restrict technology from Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, on its 5G networks, due to security concerns, the Washington Post reports.
The big picture: The move is seen as a diplomatic victory for the U.S., which has sought to prevent Huawei technologies from being employed in communication networks across the world. China, meanwhile, accuses the U.S. of using security rationales to squeeze Huawei from international markets because it is hostile to economic competition.
Many employers with a religious or moral objection to contraception don't have to cover birth control in their workers' health care plans, the Supreme Court said Tuesday.
The big picture: The court has been wrestling for years with religious objections to the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate. Today's 7-2 ruling put the court's stamp of approval on a relatively broad set of exemptions.
Former presidential candidate and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg announced Wednesday that he will release a new book titled "Trust: America's Best Chance" on Oct. 6.
The big picture: Buttigieg, who helped to raise $1 million in May for Joe Biden, is maintaining his political profile with the part-memoir/part-political history, which will offer "a new outlook for how we can confront the next decade's challenges by building accountability" less than a month before Election Day.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who served as a key witness in President Trump's impeachment trial, announced Wednesday that he has moved to retire from the military after 21 years of service amid fears that he will "forever be limited" due to political backlash over his testimony.
The big picture: The president fired Vindman in February as the leading Ukraine expert on the National Security Council for being "insubordinate," but top military leaders including Secretary of Defense Mark Esper claim Vindman had not been politically targeted.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at a press conference on Wednesday that schools will not fully reopen in fall, and will instead adopt a hybrid model that will limit in-person attendance to just one to three days a week.
Why it matters: New York City, once the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., is home to the nation's largest public school district — totaling 1,800 schools and 1.1 million students, according to the New York Times. The partial reopening plan could prevent hundreds of thousands of parents from fully returning to work.
Harvard and MIT on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to block federal guidance that would largely bar foreign college students from taking classes if their universities move classes entirely online in the fall.
The big picture: Colleges, which often rely heavily on tuition from international students, face a unique challenge to safely get students back to class during the coronavirus pandemic. Some elite institutions, like Harvard, have already made the decision to go virtual.
The head of House Democrats' climate change panel has a simple reason why their wide-ranging plan includes nuclear power despite misgivings in some corner of the left.
What they're saying: “That’s what the scientists advised as we listened across the spectrum, that’s where we landed — that nuclear power needs to be part of the portfolio going forward,” Rep. Kathy Castor said on the new episode of the Columbia Energy Exchange podcast.
The Cook Political Report on Wednesday updated its Electoral College forecast to give Joe Biden a decisive edge in the presidential contest, suggesting that November could bring more of "a Democratic tsunami than simply a blue wave."
Why it matters: Cook's forecast, which says 279 electoral votes are at least leaning toward the former vice president, ponders that Trump may be "close to the point of no return," with some analysts the group spoke to wondering if the president now faces "a permanent loss of trust and faith of the majority of voters."
Entrepreneurship or starting a business has often been heralded as a way to reduce the U.S. racial wealth gap. However, Black Americans' attempts at entrepreneurship are often foiled by an initial lack of capital and an inability to obtain financing, especially through government programs.
The big picure: This was most recently evidenced when Black-owned small businesses were largely shut out of financing from the SBA's Payroll Protection Program.
Chief Justice John Roberts was hospitalized overnight after a fall on June 21, a Supreme Court spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Post on Tuesday.
Why it matters: Speculation regarding justices' health — given their lifetime appointments — always runs rampant, and this incident may have not been made public if the Post hadn't "received a tip."
The three topics generating the most intense interest online are the coronavirus, racial injustice and foreign policy, according to data from NewsWhip provided exclusively to Axios — and all are issues that are working against President Trump right now.
Why it matters: Storylines in Trump's populist sweet spot that carried the news cycle for much of his presidency — immigration, trade, a strong economy — have fallen away during the pandemic.
New Jersey held its primary election on Tuesday, wherein most voters were expected to cast ballots by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The big picture: Though former Vice President Joe Biden and President Trump both secured enough delegates to win their respective nominations, there are down-ballot primaries to keep an eye on.
