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Here’s the biggest news you missed this weekend.
Pressure grows for Sen. Bob Menendez to resign
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., faces a growing number of calls to resign after he and his wife were indicted on bribery charges.
A number of New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Phil Murphy and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, have said he should step down. One of them, Rep. Andy Kim, announced Saturday that he plans to challenge Menendez for his Senate seat.
Some Senate Democrats aren’t calling for his resignation yet, though. Across the Sunday news programs, three of them were highly critical of Menendez but stopped short of calling on him to vacate his seat in the Senate, where Democrats have a slim majority.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he has “no interest” in running for Menendez’s seat if his presidential run is unsuccessful.
Writers strike negotiations hung up on language over AI as talks continue
As Hollywood writers and producers made progress in negotiations to end the strike that has gone on for 145 days, a critical point of contention has been the specific language over the use of artificial intelligence, two sources familiar with the negotiations said.
The back-to-back weekend meetings may be a sign of hope in a strike that ended some television programs before their seasons ended and postponed the annual fall season of debuts and returns.
Jimmy Carter makes surprise appearance before 99th birthday
Former President Jimmy Carter entered hospice care early this year, saying he was going to stop further medical intervention and spend the rest of his life at home.
It has been seven months since then, and on Saturday, just days ahead of his 99th birthday, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, made a surprise public appearance together at the Plains Peanut Festival in his Georgia hometown.
“We’re betting peanut butter ice cream is on the menu for lunch! #JimmyCarter99,” the Carter Center wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, where it re-shared a video of the Carters riding in a black SUV at the festival.
A historic first for NASA
A capsule containing precious samples from an asteroid traveled 4 billion miles over seven years before finally it landed on Earth on Sunday morning.
The dramatic event was a major milestone for the U.S.: The collected rocks and soil were the first asteroid samples NASA has brought back to Earth.
Experts have said the bounty could help scientists unlock secrets about the solar system and how it came to be, including how life emerged on this planet.
Soaring food prices hurt India’s families
Few foods are as essential to Indian cuisine as tomatoes and onions. But between soaring inflation and northern floods that have devastated this year’s harvest, prices of almost every part of a meal are now at record highs.
Raj Kumari, a migrant worker living in New Delhi, has made some hard choices she has planned meals. She said she has skipped buying her son’s favorite food, chicken, and limits how much cooking oil and flour she picks up from the street market.
Low-income families like theirs get about 33 pounds of wheat from the government every month, but that is enough to last only 10 days, leaving them at the mercy of the market for the rest of it.
“What can a poor family like ours do when we can’t even find work?” Kumari said.
Meet the Press
President Joe Biden plans to head to the United Auto Workers picket line Tuesday to show support for striking union members.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday on “Meet the Press” that Biden is joining the autoworkers because he’s “the most unapologetically pro-worker, pro-union president we’ve ever had.”
Former President Donald Trump plans to deliver a prime-time speech to autoworkers Wednesday. Asked by Kristen Welker whether Biden was trying to get ahead of his predecessor, Buttigieg said he’s going because he stands with the union.
Welker also asked Buttigieg about specifics of what a win-win deal would look like and whether the administration was in favor of a proposed four-day workweek.
You can watch the full interview here.
What workers are fighting for
- For many Black UAW members, striking is about keeping the promise of a middle-class life. “For Black people, who have been held back in society, building cars was a way to have a great life,” said Lynda Jackson, a Stellantis worker and the recording secretary of UAW Local 7 in Detroit.
Politics in Brief
2024 polling: The latest NBC News poll shows that overwhelming majorities of voters have concerns about former President Donald Trump’s multiple trials and President Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness.
Careening toward shutdown: The deadline to avert a government shutdown is the end of the month, and pay for 4 million federal employees is at risk if Congress doesn’t act before then.
#SwedishScarf: The story of a man who went from working as a background actor in John Mayer and LeAnn Rimes music videos to storming the Capitol and ending up on the FBI wanted list.
Christie skips Iowa: Every Republican presidential candidate is campaigning in Iowa — except Chris Christie. He’s instead going with a New Hampshire-focused strategy that illustrates how different the two states can be.
Pandemic aid: Relief money that went to renters facing eviction was overpaid, some officials say, and they’re scrambling to claw back millions of dollars. Some of the notices ask for five-figure sums within weeks.
Culture & Trends
The comedian Russell Brand made his first public comments Friday following the publication of several sexual abuse allegations against him.
Brand has denied the allegations, saying all his relationships have been consensual. His video Friday on X focused mostly on criticism of the British government, which he said had “asked big tech platforms to censor our online content, and some online platforms have complied with that request.”
The allegations have provoked sudden soul-searching in the United Kingdom about its toxic and violently misogynist media culture of the 2000s, in which Brand was a peacocking protagonist.
Many in Britain are confronting the reality that the ugliness of the era may lurk much closer to the surface of public life than many realized or admitted.
In case you missed it
- Six people are dead, including three children, after a train crashed into a car crossing railroad tracks in Florida on Saturday evening.
- A 13-foot alligator was spotted in a Florida canal Friday with human remains in its mouth.
- A 10-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl took their mother’s car on a ride after she took away their electronic devices, Florida authorities said. They ended up a three-hour ride north of home.
- The Russian-installed head of an annexed region of Ukraine has imposed a new curfew, prohibiting residents from being outside from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on weekdays, according to a decree published Sunday.
- An increase in space weather could lead to the greatest display of the northern lights in the past two decades.
- Sir Richard Branson sat down with NBC News’ Chloe Melas on Tuesday to talk about his latest initiative, Planetary Guardians, which aims to combat climate change around the world.
- Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending injury happened on artificial turf. Is it worse for NFL players than natural grass?
- Before Rupert Murdoch turned his attention to U.S. broadcasting, he was well-known in Australia and the U.K. Supporters herald his love for journalism, but critics believe he debased the industry.
- Monday night’s Powerball jackpot drawing will be worth an estimated $785 million, the game’s fourth-largest prize ever.
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