Wall Street woes: Is it time to start sounding the recession alarms again? Wall Street is a mess this morning thanks to fears about the US economy slowing down, a result of a less-than-ideal jobs report released on Friday that prompted a mass sell-off. The S&P 500 was down by 4%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,197 points, or 3%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 5.5%. Markets around the world mirrored Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped a precipitous 12%, the biggest dip since the Black Monday crash of 1987. Things are bad in South Korea markets and in markets across Europe. Even gold took a 2% tumble. Seems bad!
Have you voted? Washington's primary election is on Tuesday, so you still have time to vote!! Which you should do!! At this point, to be extra sure your ballot will arrive on time, drop it in a nearby drop box instead of in a mail box. And, of course, vote the way The Stranger tells you to. Wanna just read our CliffsNotes? Here's the election cheat sheet.
One early morning, four shootings: Okay, lots going on here. At around 2:30 am on Monday morning, police showed up to the area of Broadway and East Pike Street where they found a man and a woman in their twenties with gunshot wounds. He had a gunshot wound on his finger, and a bullet had grazed her head. Meanwhile, around the same time, a different man in his twenties with a gunshot wound on his ankle and in his lower back crashed his car into the front entrance of Swedish First Hill Hospital. Finally, a third man in his twenties sought medical attention for a gunshot wound to his leg at Kaiser Permanente Hospital. Police are unclear whether the injuries are related.
Hollingsworth pulls anti-worker bill: Council Member Joy Hollingsworth said "lol jk" about the bill she introduced last week to impose a permanent sub-minimum wage for restaurant workers. The bill would allow businesses with fewer than 500 employees to continue allowing tips to count toward the wage, a decade-long compromise from labor set to end next year. Hollingsworth said this bill was about starting the conversation. Well, it certainly did, and she got an earful from workers, activists, and good ol' Kshama Sawant about how bullshit that conversation was. Ultimately, the pressure worked. Now Hollingsworth and the mayor's office will run a "stakeholdering process" before introducing a different version of the bill. But there already was a stakeholdering process! Ten years ago! When we passed the fucking $15 minimum wage!!!!
A good reminder: Please actually vote, so we don't end up with more corporate drones on the council and in other branches of government. Clearly, these people are not interested in actually helping people.
US wins gold in 100-meter dash photo finish: American Noah Lyles beat Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by five thousandths of a second, or, as the Associated Press described it, 20 times longer than it takes to blink an eye.
NOAH LYLES’ OLYMPIC DREAM COMES TRUE!
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 4, 2024
100M GOLD MEDALIST. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/qR6bkXLHhE
Aberdeen City Councilman arrested: Police arrested Riley Carter, 39, last week on suspicion of first-degree rape of a child. The victim, a minor, reported that Carter touched them sexually "a lot of times." Carter reportedly told a detective that the victim's narrative was true. His bail is set at $150,000.
Those astronauts are still in space: The two astronauts who went on a crewed test flight of the new Boeing Starliner capsule were only supposed to stay on the International Space Station for eight days. It's been 59 days. Technical issues such as helium leaks and glitchy thrusters delayed their return flight. NASA and Boeing are adamant that these astronauts are not stuck in space and that these bumps and delays are all part of spaceflight. Still, they don't have a return date, yet. That doesn't help the not-stuck-in-space narrative.
Birth of a brain worm: To get ahead of a New Yorker profile on him, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released this weird video of him explaining how he scooped up a bear cub carcass and then, as a joke, put it in Central Park underneath a bicycle so people would wonder if the bear died via cycling accident. In the New Yorker piece, RFK Jr. joked that handling the dead bear could have been how he first contracted a brain worm.
Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one, @NewYorker… pic.twitter.com/G13taEGzba
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 4, 2024
The bear cub mystery: This is so dark. Just a prank, though!
How NYC local news covered the dead bear RFK Jr put into Central Park ten years ago 😬👀 https://t.co/J25gDeLQ1Q pic.twitter.com/nJio51Li3R
— Luther Lowe (@lutherlowe) August 4, 2024
Hey, knock that off: Thieves nabbed $30,000 worth of equipment and gear from the Key Peninsula Fire Department. Firefighters need that stuff to save your lives, dummies.
Bangladesh prime minister flees: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been in power for 15 years, fled the country and resigned from her post Monday due to increasing violence in the protests over her policy establishing a quota system for government jobs. The protests began when students peacefully spoke out against the quota system, which they said favored candidates from Hasina's party. But, they gained momentum and turned into a broader protest against Hasina and her party. The government has used force to stop the protests, killing 300 people in the process. On Sunday alone, 95 people were killed. Authorities cut internet access on Sunday, hoping to stop protests that way. Then, on Monday, thousands stormed Hasina's private residence. Her departure will likely cause even more unrest, according to Politico.
A heatwave in Antartica: It's southern hemisphere winter right now, and things are way hotter than normal. Ground temperature across the Antarctic ice sheets is 50 degrees Fahrenheit higher than it should be. Temperatures are still below zero, but they're much warmer than is typical for this time of the year. For example, according to CNN, "high temperatures in portions of East Antarctica that are typically between minus 58 and minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit are now closer to minus 13 to minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit." These are summer conditions in the dead of winter at the south pole.
Cute! Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade won gold in gymnastics floor, beating out Americans Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles. The two, all smiles, bowed down to Andrade on the podium.
This is everything. pic.twitter.com/FrXz7wWtQg
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 5, 2024
A song for your Monday: Something upbeat for you to start the week. Because I care.