Reaching for the sky, tweeting up a storm, rescuing Cupcake. It’s Friday, and here are the 5 things you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
1. Democratic National Convention
Hillary Clinton — beaming, smiling, bursting with pride — fully embraced the history she made last night as the first woman to lead a major presidential ticket: “When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit.” Her speech lacked the poetic sweep of President Obama’s, but it was in keeping with someone who presents herself as a practical, perseverant, policy-oriented striver who, in true Chumbawamba style, gets knocked down, gets up again. But she didn’t forget about Donald Trump, pummeling him even more than many expected. Can you really trust a man “you can bait with a tweet,” she said.
2. Donald Trump
While Clinton made history, Donald Trump kept on keeping on. The GOP nominee spent most of yesterday doing damage control on his ‘Russia-please-hack-Hillary’s-email’ comments: ‘Hey, I was just kidding’! he told Fox News. At a rally in Iowa, he said he wanted to hit those who railed against him at the DNC “so hard, their heads would spin.” We hope he was just joking about that one too. And when Clinton started her acceptance speech, Trump grabbed his phone and tweeted up a real-time rebuttal.
3. Chandra Levy
For years we thought it was Ingmar Guandique, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, who killed Chandra Levy. But prosecutors pulled a shocker yesterday: they’ll drop charges because of “unforeseen developments.” They wouldn’t say what. Levy’s disappearance 15 years ago was a media sensation, mainly because of her romantic hookup with a California congressman. Guandique will soon be released — to immigration officials, who plan to deport him.
4. Terrorism
ISIS is going to fall. And when it does, terrorism in the West will get worse. Wait, what? That’s what FBI Director James Comey predicts. He says when ISIS’ self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria is finally crushed, a “terrorist diaspora” will fan out across the world, launching more attacks. ISIS has lost 12% of its territory in western Iraq and northern Syria this year.
5. Pope Francis
Pope Francis is at Auschwitz this morning. Francis’ visit to the notorious World War II Nazi concentration camp (and his tribute to its victims) is part of his tour of Poland for World Youth Day. Yesterday he delivered Mass before thousands in Krakow on the 1,050th anniversary of Poland’s “baptism” as a Catholic country. Francis traveled to Krakow on a tram with 20 disabled youth and called on young people to have a positive impact on the world.
BREAKFAST BROWSE
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Ancient ills
Cancer’s being plaguing humanity for much longer than we thought. Scientists found cancer in a foot bone and spine nearly 2 million years old.
Shark bait
Taking on opposing QBs was no problem for Warren Sapp during his playing career. Sharks? He met one during a recent fishing trip. It didn’t go well.
Deep thoughts
Ever think about the world’s deepest underwater sinkhole? We hadn’t either. But if you care, it’s been found. It’s 987 feet deep, in the South China Sea.
Burritos to burgers
Chipotle’s jumping in the burger biz. Might as well, since the Mexican food chain is struggling to right the ship after an E. coli outbreak hobbled it business.
Saving a cupcake
Twitter rejoiced over the rescue of a 13-year-old horse named Cupcake, including the fact it was tweeted in real time. See, social media isn’t all bad.
Quote of the day
“You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”
Khizr Khan, father of a Muslim-American soldier killed in Iraq, blasting Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims.
Number of the day
$859 million
That’s how much Google lost last quarter on its “moonshot” projects, like self-driving cars and Google Fiber. We’re pretty sure Google’s not going broke, though.
AND FINALLY …
Funny face
It’s been a pretty intense week. Here’s just the thing to end it with: a music class full of toddlers and one little boy with an adorable case of the giggles.