Convention: The Democratic National Committee opens its convention in Chicago today. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is scheduled to speak tonight, before President Biden makes his scheduled seech to the delegates. During his address, Biden is expected to endorse Kamala Harris for President, recap some of his accomplishments as president, and warn against what he will characterize as the dangers of a second Donald Trump term in the White House.
George Santos: Disgraced former Congressman George Santos’s trial on fraud, credit card theft and other charges has been superseded by a plea deal. Santos was pleading guilty to the two dozen counts against him in Federal Court on Long Island. The plea deal was structured to allow Santos to avoid going to jail. A pool of potential jurors had already been summoned for his trial. Santos represented parts of Queens and Nassau County in Congress.
Canada’s railroads: The Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City have notified the Teamsters Union that they plan to lock out the union’s workers on Thursday if there’s no agreement by then on a new contract. About 10,000 of the railroad workers in Canada are represented by the Teamsters. A shutdown of rail operations in Canada would be expected to have severe impacts on the Canadian economy.
Israel-Hamas: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today that this may be the best and possibly final chance for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. Blinken was in Tel Aviv today to hold talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Herzog expressed appreciation for the Biden Administration’s support of Israel. Blinken goes to Egypt tomorrow, where cease-fire talks have been underway.
Acquisition: AMD, Advanced Micro Devices, announced today that it is acquiring ZT Systems, which supplies servers for computer systems. AMD will pay $4.9 billion in cash and stock and may pay an additional $400 million if certain milestones are reached before the closing takes place. AMD said that the acquisition is part of its strategy to build its operations in the field of artificial intelligence.
Phil Donahue: Former TV personality Phil Donahue has died at age 88. He appeared on “The Phil Donahue Show” for 29 years. Donahue also appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show” and had his own show on the cable network MSNBC. Donahue received 20 Emmy Awards and this year was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden.
