The RNC Looks To The Future, Scientists Look For Dark Matter

PNUT GALLERY

This article from 2014 gave Nintendo free advice: make a Pokemon game for iOS. I bet they’re glad they listened. 

IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ

RNC: The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Throw Shade

It began as a night of smiling faces and positivity. Nobody mentioned Ted Cruz doubling down on his refusal to endorse Trump. Nobody mentioned Fox News CEO Roger Ailes resigning over allegations of sexual harassment. For hours, the speakers kept things upbeat and the crowd was comfortable. And then Peter Thiel came along. While his “Proud to be gay; proud to be Republican” speech was resounding, it marked a turning point in the evening that received mixed reviews. His calls for federally funded research, criticism of invading the Middle East and support of LGBTQ rights infused some nuance into a night of fun catchphrases. “I don’t pretend to agree with every plank in our party’s platform,” Thiel admitted, to some awkward silence, “but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline.”

But what did Trump say?

The Donald kicked things off by doubling down on his first and only policy: building a wall. He tried to rally Bernie Sanders’ now defunct supporters by promising to fix trade deals, though Bernie quickly took to Twitter to rebuke such an idea. Trump’s foreign policy ideals centered on “Americanism, not globalism,” where ideas like fixing the TSA lines at airports got chants of USA! USA!

Some mentions – like protecting the LGBTQ community and fixing student debt – did not get the robust applause you might hear at a Democratic National Convention, but proved a major deviation from your typical acceptance speech: Trump rarely mentioned religion, personal spirituality or even America as a global actor. Instead, he focused on internal issues and promised to direct his attention to issues inside the US borders …or the forthcoming walls. 

Rio Is Going After Unwanted Guests

Rio is having a hard time managing their guest list for the upcoming Olympics. Despite the Russian Olympic Committee trying to overturn the suspension, 68 Russian athletes will not be attending this year’s Games for doping violations. But they aren’t the least welcome attendees. Brazilian police arrested 10 aspiring ISIS members for allegedly planning acts of terror. While they were not official members of the terrorist group, they did try to contact ISIS and submit an application. They also attempted to contact a weapons supplier in Paraguay to get AK 47 assault rifles. With this in mind, the federal government is releasing an extra 24 million dollars to improve security ahead of the Olympics.

Good Read: Why Brazil Is Worried About ISIS

NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ

Turkey Can Now Ignore Human Rights Legally

Making sure nothing slows down the purge, President Erdogan is suspending the European Commission on human rights, not that he was paying much attention to it anyway. The suspension will last the duration of the current three-month State of Emergency that was enacted this week. By suspending the European Convention, the government will be allowed to rule by decree and pass bills by rule of law. These bill could still be overturned by parliament if they’re that outlandish, but considering most of the MPs belong to the ruling party and Erdogan is looking for any excuse to purge the government of his detractors, that seems unlikely. 

Police Shooting: Because America

We almost made it until the end of the week without a police shooting of an unarmed black man but, alas, we were just too optimistic. Miami Police shot and injured Charles Kinsey, a behavioral therapist, yesterday. Charles, who had his arms raised before being shot, had been working with an autism patient who was holding a toy truck. The whole incident was captured on video. Luckily, Charles survived the shooting and his patient was not harmed. 

Super Mario Ready To Bail Out Italia

Just in case the global financial crisis was a relic of the past, Italy decided to give us a fresh reminder that for some parts of the world, it ain’t over ’til it’s over. European Central Bank (ECB) Governor Mario Draghi, aka Super Mario, lent a hand to his Italian compatriot and Prime Minister Mateo Renzi by approving a public bailout of Italy’s crisis-ridden banks. The bailout will let banks offload bad loans without, hopefully, igniting a financial crisis. Italy has suffered from low-growth since the crisis, stoking a secessionist movement in the North and a left-wing movement run by former comedian Beppe Grillo. 

KEEPING OUR EYE ON…

Sydney: A man in Sydney was arrested after reportedly setting his car on fire and then driving it into a police station. The suspect suffered serious burns after ramming the flaming vehicle into the front gate of the police parking lot. No one else was harmed. 

France: CNIL, the country’s data protection authority, ordered Microsoft to stop collecting excessive data on Windows 10 users. Microsoft has three months to quit tracking its users’ browsing data, otherwise France could initiate sanctions. 

HSBC: The FBI arrested Mark Johnson, a British citizen and HSBC’s global head of foreign exchange trading. Johnson is being charged with fraudulently rigging a multi-billion dollar currency exchange deal. He’s the first individual to be charged in a lengthy FBI probe and is expected to appear in court on Wednesday.

LOOSE NUTS: FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

People In Search Of Invisible Dark Matter Can’t Find Any

Scientists are a bit confused that after years of searching for the elusive and obviously invisible dark matter, they couldn’t get their hands on it. For three years, scientists working on the Large Underground Xenon, or LUX Project, searched a former gold mine in Lead, South Dakota and still came back empty handed. Why couldn’t they find anything? Well, despite using sensitive equipment that cost $10 million to build, dark matter is still invisible. 

Weekend Reads:

• What are CEOs reading? McKinsey’s got you covered. Most popular book: The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks.
• Polyamorous in Portland: the city making open relationships easy.
• The New Yorker covers the Purge in Turkey.
• Turns out catching a cold has nothing to do with the weather being cold.
• Diary of a nightmare: searching for food in Venezuela.
• How New York remodeled Governors Island to have a built-in defense against climate change.
• Elon Musk’s master plan for taking over the world.
• Donald Trump’s ghostwriter tells all. 
• It seems like what we like on Facebook falls on party lines.

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