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"In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.”

–Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

On Wednesday, two IRS agents testified before Congress for the first time regarding their allegations that officials within the Justice Department improperly interfered in the federal investigation into Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son.

⚖️ Some quick background: Last month, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges for failing to pay about $1 million in federal taxes on a combined $3 million worth of unreported taxable income in 2017-18.

The deal, which likely means the president’s son will avoid any jail time, ended a five-year criminal investigation into a range of Hunter Biden’s activities. These include his tax records, his role in foreign businesses – including a board seat with Ukrainian energy company Burisma – and whether he violated foreign lobbying or money laundering laws.

🏛️ That brings us to Wednesday… when IRS Special Agents Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley, who said they played a central role in the Hunter Biden investigation, testified that DOJ prosecutors didn’t appear to follow normal investigative procedures while probing Biden’s affairs.

Instead, the two whistleblowers claim DOJ officials placed roadblocks to obstruct the investigation – including ordering prosecutors to avoid certain topics such as Joe Biden’s potential involvement – and ignored an internal recommendation for both felony and misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter Biden.

• Ziegler also alleges the DOJ investigation found members of the Biden family (not including Joe Biden) received a combined ~$17 million from foreign business dealings in Ukraine, Romania, and China from 2014 to 2019.
• House Republicans claim these payments were part of an illegal influence-peddling scheme involving then-VP Joe Biden (but haven’t yet produced conclusive evidence showing he was involved).

🔀 On the flip side: House Democrats express skepticism of the two IRS whistleblowers’ testimony, and question the accuracy of connecting President Biden – or members of his administration – to the DOJ’s alleged failures.

• They note the DOJ team investigating Hunter Biden was formed under former President Trump, and was led by a Trump-appointed attorney who submitted written testimony denying several of the whistleblowers’ claims.
• Democrats also say that some of the delays described by the whistleblowers occurred in 2019 and 2020 due to laws implemented by then-AG William Barr, another Trump appointee.

📊 Flash poll: In general, does the Hunter Biden situation impact whether you’ll vote for Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

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🇮🇶🇸🇪 Iraq severed diplomatic ties with Sweden yesterday for allowing planned burnings of the Quran. The action, which involved expelling Sweden's ambassador to Baghdad and recalling Iraq’s ambassador to Stockholm, came after hundreds of Iraqi protesters stormed and set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad yesterday. Sweden’s government has criticized burnings of the Quran and repeatedly denied permits for such events in recent months, citing national security concerns. But their decisions have been overturned by domestic courts ruling that freedom of speech must be prioritized unless there’s an immediate threat to public safety.

🇭🇰🇨🇳 A Hong Kong man was sentenced to three months in prison for insulting China’s national anthem. The 27-year-old photographer was accused of editing a YouTube video featuring a Hong Kong athlete being awarded an Olympic gold medal to include a pro-democracy protest song “Glory to Hong Kong,” instead of the Chinese national anthem. He’s the first person to be tried under a national anthem law that was passed in 2020. The Hong Kong government is also currently seeking a legal injunction to ban all playing and distribution of “Glory to Hong Kong,” including its lyrics and melody.

🎤🇪🇸 Shakira, a-near-a… to jail time, potentially. A Spanish court yesterday announced a second investigation into alleged tax fraud by the Colombian singer, who’s already facing an upcoming trial – and potentially an eight-year prison sentence – over accusations she resided in Spain from 2012-14 but failed to pay nearly $14 million in taxes. Shakira has denied the previous tax fraud charges, saying her official residence was in the Bahamas over that period. The latest investigation will focus on two alleged counts of tax fraud in 2018, though further details weren’t disclosed.

Wedding season is in full swing. And, according to a series of record earnings reports released by major airlines over the past week, the summer travel season is too.

• American Airlines: Reported record quarterly revenue of $14.1 billion yesterday.
• United: Posted record quarterly earnings of $5.03 per share yesterday.
• Delta: Reported its highest quarterly earnings and revenue in history, generating top-line sales of $14.6 billion for Q2.

And if to these record numbers 👆 you said “pffft, small change, airlines also generate cargo revenue so that doesn’t mean people are traveling” – try this hat on for size. The TSA screened ~2.9 million people on the Friday before Fourth of July weekend, the most it’s ever handled in a single day.

📸 Big picture: Demand for domestic travel is starting to flatten, per the airlines, but demand from Americans wanting to have their Emily in Paris moment is going gangbusters. According to estimates from AAA, international travel bookings through May 2023 were up 40% compared with the same time period in 2022.

The top destinations? Spain, Italy, Greece, and the south of France (at least for Delta travelers).

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💬 Quoted… "Dinosaurs and Spielberg ... and now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig."

In a recent interview with Collider, Barbie producer and star Margot Robbie revealed the pitch to try and get studios to greenlight the movie revolved around how profitable pairing a big idea with a visionary director (in this case, Greta Gerwig) has been for studios. “I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, okay?!”

• As they say – shoot for the stars and maybe you’ll land on the clouds. While not quite the three-comma club, when all’s said and done analysts project Barbie’s box office could land somewhere around $500 million worldwide (which, considering the movie reportedly cost ~$145 million to make, wouldn't be too shabby).

🚘 Stat of the Day: Car thefts in the US have more than doubled since 2019 (+104.3%), per a new report from the Council on Criminal Justice. And the trend is like a vehicle driving into oncoming traffic – it keeps going the wrong way. Thefts are up roughly 34% since this time last year.

🤔 Did You Know?... America technically had a national speed limit of 55 MPH from 1974 through 1995, though the law was widely disregarded by motorists across the country.

📰 Worth a Read: Why so many brands use sound to make you buy stuff → (The Hustle)

• ☝️ A waterfront compound on Nantucket Harbor recently sold for $38.1 million, representing the highest price paid for a single residential property in Massachusetts history.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Visit Lodi

• 💰 US markets closed mixed yesterday (S&P: -0.7%; Dow: +0.5%; Nasdaq: -2.1%); the Dow notched its ninth-consecutive day of gains.
• 🖐️ Amazon’s palm payment technology is coming to all US Whole Foods stores. | 🏦💸 The Fed officially launched its instant payments system, FedNow.
• 💵 Private-equity giant Blackstone’s assets under management passed $1 trillion in Q2. | ⚡🔋 Magnolia, Arkansas, is poised to become the epicenter of a US lithium boom.

*From our partners: 🍷🥳 Wine tasting fees in Lodi start at just $15… with 85+ award-winning wineries and a culture rich with arts and fine dining, see why Lodi is the ultimate destination for wine lovers – get the 2023 official Lodi visitor’s guide here.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 The NFL approved former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder’s plan to sell the team for $6.05 billion to a group led by private equity billionaire Josh Harris; it’s the highest price ever paid for an American sports team.
• 🍿 Theater chain AMC dropped its plan to charge a higher price for premium seats, citing a lackluster response from moviegoers and a desire to keep prices competitive.
• 🕴️ Suits was the most-watched show across all streaming sites in its first full week on Netflix, per new data from Nielsen.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Flume

• 🌪️💊 A Pfizer plant in North Carolina was severely damaged by a tornado on Wednesday, an event that could create long-term shortages of drug supplies at US hospitals.
• 🚀☄️ NASA said its Psyche mission, which aims to launch a spacecraft on a 2.5-billion-mile journey to study an asteroid containing metal estimated to be worth as much as $10,000 quadrillion, is on track to launch October 5.
• 🦈📦 Sharks may be feasting on bales of cocaine dumped into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, per a series of experiments carried out in Cocaine Sharks – a show on Discovery's Shark Week.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🐦🍽️ America is digging the early-bird special: Data from Yelp and Uber indicates restaurant-goers in the US are increasingly making dinner reservations before 5 pm.
• ✈️ The House voted 351-69 in favor of a bipartisan bill aimed at easing nationwide airline delays; the measure would raise the retirement age for pilots from 65 to 67 and allocate funds to recruit and train new air-traffic controllers.
• 🏛️ Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified yesterday in a House subcommittee hearing regarding the “weaponization of the federal government." (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• ⛰️ The most incredible suspended hikes in the world.

The Lynchburg Fire Department in Virginia received a special type of call to the station from a local family earlier this month. Soon after, firefighters opened their doors to a very special visitor: Smokey the Dalmatian puppy. 

🦴Too cute for words... Smokey and his humans Luella, John, Lucille, and Margaret spent a few hours visiting the station and getting a behind-the-scenes tour. 

• "Smokey was a Very Good Boy the entire time he was here," read a post by the fire department, "and the kids had a blast climbing on the ladder truck and checking out the equipment." 

It’s time to find out – our weekly news quiz is live.

• Test your mettle against the team.

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make. Easy peasy! (The rules, at least.)

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Fresh tomatoes
• Fresh mozzarella cheese
• Fresh basil leaves
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Potato
• Tomato
• Onion
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Peas
• Chickpeas
• Coconut milk
• Tomato paste
• Curry powder
• Cayenne pepper
• Cumin
• Cumin seeds
• Vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Ripe bananas
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Unsalted butter
• Brown sugar
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Chopped walnuts or pecans

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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☝️ Recipe #1: Caprese salad

✌️ Recipe #2: Veggie curry

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Banana-nut muffins