• Tip News
  • Posts
  • U.S. Dominates Medal Count At Paris Games

U.S. Dominates Medal Count At Paris Games

Your unbiased daily news brief

Author

James Kratch
August 12, 2024

Good Monday morning. Here is another thing your smartphone can do: Detect earthquakes before the ground even shakes. Have a great day!

In Today’s Brief

  • California: Prison worker killed

  • Maduro: Amnesty deal?

  • Biden: Breaks silence

  • Stellantis: Announces layoffs

  • College soccer: Legend retires

... and more

First time reading? Sign up here

Top Tips

1) Big wins

Team USA left the Summer Olympics with the most hardware.

  • At the top: China and the U.S. tied for the most gold medals in Paris with 40. But it was all U.S. after that. Team USA had 44 silver medals (China had 27) and finished with 126 medals total, 35 more than the 91 captured by the Chinese. Japan had the second-most gold medals with 20 while Great Britain edged host France, 65-64, for third place in the medal count.

  • Final highlights: The U.S. men's and women's basketball teams both won gold medals to close out the event, with the women's squad making it eight in a row with a one-point victory over France. The men's squad beat France by a more comfortable 11 points in their final.

  • Looking ahead: Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Games. A live stunt scene by actor Tom Cruise served as a baton-passing moment at the closing ceremonies. Milan will host the Winter Games before then, in 2026.

2) Locked up

An alleged serial rapist wanted in connection with crimes that occurred almost 35 years ago was finally apprehended.

  • The news: Stephen Paul Gale, 71, led police on an hour-long car chase before surrendering on Thursday night in Los Angeles. A manhunt for Gale has been underway since May, when he was charged with a pair of 34-year-old sexual assaults in Massachusetts. Gale faces two counts of kidnapping and one count of armed robbery in addition to four counts of aggravated rape.

  • What happened: Gale allegedly robbed a store in Framingham -- about 20 miles outside of Boston -- in December 1989 and sexually assaulted two female employees at gunpoint. DNA evidence collected at the scene eventually led police to a genetic genealogy match earlier this year.

  • Big picture: Local police faced criticism for years for failing to identify the "Boston Strip Mall Rapist," but efforts to revive the cold case began in 2019. Gale had been known to law enforcement for years and lived under various aliases across the country; he had last been seen in 2008 prior to his arrest.

3) More emails

Former President Donald Trump's campaign said it was hacked by an Iranian group.

  • What happened: The revelation came after Politico reported an anonymous email account began leaking internal campaign documents to reporters last month. It also followed a Microsoft assessment that Iran is meddling in the presidential election, including a report that a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign received a spear phishing email from a group connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

  • The content: Politico said the account provided internal communications from a top Trump campaign official, as well asa vetting research dossier for Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, now the Republicans' nominee for Vice President. Documents on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the VP runner-up, were also included.

  • Big picture: Politico has not published the documents; Trump said the hack only obtained publicly available information. But the incident raises questions about foreign election interference and the safeguards that exist for the Harris and Trump campaigns, as well as provides a callback to how Wikileaks shook up the 2016 race.

Quick Tips

U.S. News

  • A Federal Bureau of Prisons employee died after being exposed to an unknown substance in a California prison's mailroom. The substance may have been fentanyl; a second worker at USP Atwater was hospitalized but is OK (More)

  • Baltimore's City Circuit Court ruled a "baby bonus" ballot initiative is unconstitutional. An advocacy group garnered enough signatures to propose an amendment giving parents at least $1K for the birth of a new child; the city's mayor and council fought to block the ballot question (More)

  • The Food and Drug Administration approved the first nasal spray to treat anaphylaxis. Epinephrine, the drug used to treat the life-threatening allergic reaction, has only been available as an injection (More)

World News

  • The U.S. reportedly may grant amnesty to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro if he concedes the country's recent election and steps down. The strongman was hit with federal drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges in 2020; he is clinging to power amid growing evidence opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won decisively (More)

  • Hamas rejected an invitation to participate in a final round of Gaza ceasefire and hostage negotiations. Palestinian officials said at least 80 died in an Israeli airstrike on a school; Israeli officials said the building housed one of the militant group's command centers (More)

  • A regional commercial airline flight crashed in Brazil, killing all 62 passengers, the pilot and the co-pilot. Investigators have recovered the black box, but do not know what caused the disaster outside of Sao Paulo; a preliminary report is expected within 30 days (More)

Campaign News

  • President Joe Biden told CBS he ended his re-election bid so he would not be a "distraction" for Democrats. The president also said Trump is "a genuine danger to American security" in his first interview since exiting the race (More)

  • Vice President Kamala Harris said she would end federal income tax on worker tips if elected president. Former President Trump made the same pledge weeks ago; economists have criticized the proposal and said it is unlikely to have the intended impact (More)

  • Harris is leading Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by 50-46 margins, according to new polls by The New York Times and Siena College. The vice president has an edge in the critical swing states regardless of whether independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was in the surveys (More)

Business & Markets

  • Major indexes closed higher on Friday. The markets ended the week having clawed back almost all losses from the sell-off to start it (Dow +0.13%, Nasdaq +0.51%, S&P 500 +0.47%).

  • Stellantis will indefinitely lay off over 2K autoworkers at a Michigan plant. The workforce reduction is due to the discontinuation of Chrysler's classic version of the Ram 1500 pickup truck; a replacement vehicle has not yet been announced (More)

  • Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki died at 56 after a two-year battle with lung cancer. She was one of Google's first employees; co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page originally worked out of her California garage (More)

Entertainment & Sports

  • North Carolina women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance retired after 45 seasons. He led the Tar Heels to 21 national championships during his tenure, the most by any coach across all NCAA Division-1 sports (More)

  • Deadpool & Wolverine topped $1B in global box office sales over the weekend. The superhero movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman could soon surpass Joker as the highest-grossing R-rated film in history (More)

  • Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence said a fourth season has not been ruled out. The fate of the popular Apple TV series is up to star Jason Sudeikis; potential spinoffs are still on the table as well (More)

Quick Hitters

  • Fun Stuff: There is admittedly nothing fun about having your lunch stolen at work. But you may get a kick at how some people have handled things with the colleague that purloined their grub.

  • Go Deep: The U.S. Navy's warship production is at a 25-year low. The Associated Press took an in-depth look at the crisis, its causes, and the concerns surrounding an arms race with China.

  • New Idea: Fans make a lot of noise at sporting events. A 17-year-old believes that passion can be harnessed to generate electricity in an ingenious way.

  • Take Note: The first day of school is right around the corner in some parts of the country. Here are some tips for parents to ensure a stress-free return for their kids.

  • Life Hack: Eliminating microplastics from drinking water may be pretty straightforward, albeit cumbersome. A new study found that boiling water can remove up to 90% of the substances.

The Transatlantic Accent used to be how Hollywood, and high society, spoke.

Looking Ahead …

Disney revealed a slew of future plans for its theme parks at its biannual D23 convention on Saturday night in Anaheim. Among them: A new part of the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando will be dedicated to the villains of its iconic films.

Question of the Day

What American city should bid for the Summer Olympics next?

Let us know!

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Last week’s results:

Trivia: Another network program called Saturday Night Live predated the famous sketch show. Who was its host?

ABC launched Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Howard Cosell, in the fall of 1975, three weeks before NBC launched Saturday Night. But the Cosell show was a flop, getting canceled a year later. NBC then moved in and grabbed the name.