Happy Monday! America has an "attention divide," Apple has a box office win, and Disney has given President Trump an animatronic facelift. But first... |
Kieran Frost/Redferns/Getty Images |
The Glastonbury festival is over, but the fallout is just beginning. "British police are reviewing video footage of rap punk duo Bob Vylan's Glastonbury set after one of the artists led chants slammed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as 'appalling hate speech,'" CNN's Billy Stockwell reports.
This morning's UK papers are full of headlines blasting the BBC for live-streaming the performance, which included chants of "Death, death to the IDF," referencing the Israel Defense Forces. "The BBC needs to explain how these scenes came to be broadcast," Starmer said yesterday. The Israeli Embassy in the UK said the inflammatory rhetoric on stage "raises serious concerns about the normalization of extremist language and the glorification of violence."
Heading into the weekend, the BBC was already facing criticism from other quarters for preemptively saying it would not live-stream a set by hip-hop trio Kneecap. (One of the performers was recently charged with a terrorism offense after he allegedly displayed a Hezbollah flag. The band member has denied the charge.)
An edited version of Kneecap's performance was posted on-demand on the BBC iPlayer. Bob Vylan's set, meanwhile, is being kept off iPlayer, and the BBC is expressing regret that the stream was shown live.
"The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance," the broadcaster said earlier today. "We regret this did not happen."
>> The BBC holds a unique place in British life, so the scrutiny makes sense, but it's also worth recognizing that every fan at a music festival has a phone nowadays. This woman went viral for live-streaming Kneecap's entire set on TikTok and accumulating millions of views. "When there's censorship coming from large media institutions such as the BBC I think it's up to people like me to step in," she said.
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"Bias accusations over Israel and Palestine coverage" have roiled the BBC for months, The Guardian media editor Michael Savage writes. He says concerns about the BBC's coverage of the conflict topped the list of staff concerns at a recent town hall. "BBC figures point out internal complaints come from both directions," Savage adds.
>> Over the weekend Mehdi Hasan's Zeteo announced that it has picked up the global rights to "Gaza: Doctors Under Attack," a film that the BBC decided not to air. (The broadcaster said airing the film could create "a perception of partiality.")
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When I checked The Washington Post's website this morning, the #1 most-read article was "What's in Trump and Senate Republicans' tax and immigration bill?"
A "list of nearly everything in the Senate GOP bill" is at top of The New York Times' trending page, too. And the NYT's most popular article on Facebook is an explanation of "how the GOP bill saves money." (The answer from Margot Sanger-Katz and Emily Badger: "Instead of directly reducing benefits for the poor, Republicans are making them harder to get and to keep.")
Ahead of today's Senate "vote-a-rama," CNN's Stephen Collinson says the bill is "a snapshot of the transformation and contradictions of the modern Republican Party."
Critics like David Axelrod say lawmakers are "racing to ram this bill through" because "the longer it goes...the closer you look... the uglier it gets."
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Fact-checking the promises |
"I'm telling the president, 'You have been misinformed,'" GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said in a remarkable floor speech last night, hours after he announced he is not seeking reelection. Tillis warned that Trump is about to "betray a promise" to voters over Medicaid — essentially saying that voters are being misled about what's in the bill.
There is ample evidence of that misinformation campaign. Trump is "falsely saying it'll leave Medicaid 'the same' (it makes big changes and cuts), end tax on Social Security (it doesn't), and prevent a 68% tax hike (fiction)," CNN's Daniel Dale says. Read his full story with Tami Luhby here.
>> View from the left: "Trump's bill polls terribly," Brian Beutler writes, but "the information flowing outward to the public lacks the memetic quality that so alarmed voters about Project 2025..."
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Musk's (muted?) criticism |
Hadas Gold writes: Elon Musk spent his 54th birthday back at it again, bashing the Senate version of the "big beautiful bill" as "utterly insane and destructive."
"It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future," he wrote Saturday. But his criticism landed with much less of a bang this time around. And so far, Senate Republicans seem less affected, perhaps because Musk is several weeks removed from the White House and with his personal relationship with the president is strained.
>> In a chat with Maria Bartiromo that was taped before Musk's latest criticism, Trump called Musk a "wonderful guy" said the removal of "the EV mandate is a tough thing for him."
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👇 This deserves your attention! |
CNN's Ariel Edwards-Levy has new data to share about America's "attention divide." Since you're reading this, you're probably among the 32% of American adults who say they frequently seek out the latest news.
"A middle group of 31% has people who say they follow major developments but don’t seek them out," she writes. "And then there’s the lower-attention group: 25% who say they pay attention only when necessary and another 12% who tune out altogether. Those fault lines are key to understanding American politics," so read on...
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Trump teases TikTok deal again |
Trump also told Bartiromo that "we have a buyer for TikTok," with details to come "in about two weeks." Trump alluded to "a group of very wealthy people" — but it's already been well established that multiple such groups want to buy the platform, so the real sticking point is still the sell side, not the buy side. Trump said "I think I'll need probably China approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it..."
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"You have to be a consumer to be a producer."
— Chris Hayes talking to Ezra Klein about TikTok videos, political communicators, and Zohran Mamdani's "textural sense" of short-form vertical video. Check out the full Q&A.
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>> Hannah Natanson documented the "creeping culture of secrecy" in the Trump admin, and why it matters. (WaPo)
>> The NYT Sunday Business section featured the first gobsmacking excerpt from Michael Grynbaum's forthcoming Condé Nast exposé. (NYT)
>> Steven Levy wrote about Substack "having a moment — again," pointing out that "while star reporters continue to flock to Substack, subscription fatigue is only getting worse." (Wired)
>> Adam Gabbatt detailed "how Fox News helped champion Trump’s attacks on Iran." (The Guardian)
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Jury deliberations are set to begin in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs this morning. Also: The Wimbledon Championships are underway... The Aspen Ideas Festival continues through Tuesday... Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at 1pm ET... |
Wednesday: "Jurassic World Rebirth" opens wide.
Wednesday: Paramount holds its shareholder meeting.
Friday: CNN's "The Fourth in America" telecast starts at 7pm ET.
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>> The Canadian government announced late last night that "it is rescinding the digital services tax," days after Trump "demanded it gone and cut off Canada-U.S. trade negotiations." (CBC)
>> The government agency that houses Voice of America is having trouble laying people off properly, Minho Kim reports. (NYT)
>> For this second annual list of "America’s Best Towns to Visit," CNN Travel editors tapped readers and contributors for nominations. Check out Victor Blackwell's trip to the No. 1 town here. (CNN)
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A 'liberal misinformation bubble' at work? |
The Atlantic's Helen Lewis says yes. She says many liberals "are stuck in media bubbles in which well-meaning commentators make confident assertions for youth gender medicine — claims from which its elite advocates have long since retreated." And she wonders: "Can this misinformation bubble ever be burst?" |
Newsom's performative lawsuit |
California governor Gavin Newsom's defamation lawsuit against Fox News is "petty, petulant — and pretty damn perfect," because it's "flipping the MAGA playbook on its head," Mediaite's Colby Hall wrote when Newsom rolled out the suit on Friday.
Fox called it a "transparent publicity stunt," and it's obvious why. Demanding $787 million in damages — the same amount Fox paid to settle with Dominion — is the biggest "tell." I think Newsom's suit doubles as a statement about the ridiculous nature of Trump's legal attacks against media outlets...
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Apple finally has a long-awaited theatrical hit, with "F1" zooming into first place at the box office over its opening weekend, nabbing $55.6 million across North America and another $88 million around the world. (Still, "for Apple to make money, the movie will need to attract substantial crowds in the weeks ahead," the NYT's Brooks Barnes notes.) Universal and Blumhouse's
"M3GAN 2.0," also in its freshman weekend, was a distant second, pulling in $10.2 million. |
>> A group of authors sent an open letter to book publishers on Friday, asking that they pledge to temper their use of AI tools. (LitHub)
>> Vin Diesel revealed that a tenth installment of the "Fast & Furious" franchise will come out April 2027 — and that the late Paul Walker's character will somehow return. (Deadline)
>> The Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom officially reopened on Sunday "following its latest refurbishment," with Trump is back at center stage following his re-election. The presidential figure "has an updated animatronic face." (WDW News Today)
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