Senate
hearings on the campaign-finance scandal opened. Committee Chairman Sen.
Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., announced that he had evidence of a Chinese plot to
infiltrate the United States, but couldn't say more because the evidence is top
secret. Ranking Democrat John Glenn, D-Ohio, indirectly accused Thompson of
McCarthyism and upstaged him by announcing an offer from John Huang to testify
in exchange for partial immunity. Republicans worried that an immunity grant
might let Huang off the hook, à la Ollie North. Hours later, Republicans
(including Rep. Dan Burton, the chairman of the House committee investigating
the scandal) toasted North at a gala in his honor. The early line is that the
hearings aren't catching fire. For Slate's take, see Jacob Weisberg's "Dispatch." (7/9)
Doctors
reported that fenfluramine and phentermine, a popular diet pill
combination, may cause severe heart-valve disease . The story is all over
front pages and the TV news because the pills are prescribed about 20 million
times a year. The Food and Drug Administration is sending warnings to thousands
of doctors. The news cycle on drug scares has become so fast that the backlash
(accusing the new report of over-hyping the heart-disease link and ignoring the
benefits of reduced obesity) is already underway. (7/9)
NASA
landed a robot on Mars and began exploring the surface. Scientists are
steering the 2-foot-long, 23-pound robot by remote control (from 119 million
miles away) and downloading the video and geological data it collects. Evidence
of ancient flood water (which might now be frozen at the poles or beneath the
planet's surface) and signs of repeated melting and crystallization of the
planet's crust indicate that Mars is much more like Earth than was previously
thought. The mission's official Web site has reportedly surpassed 150 million hits in
five days, making it the busiest site in the history of the Web.
(7/9)
Cambodia 's second prime minister staged a successful coup against
the country's first prime minister. The victors began looting, and hunting down
the new leader's political rivals, one of whom has already been executed.
Analysts foresee two possible outcomes: brutal tyranny (the optimistic
scenario) or bloody civil war. This follows Cambodia's history of: 1) massive
genocide; 2) a decade-long civil war; and 3) billions of dollars in foreign aid
to restore democracy, which now seem to have been wasted. (7/9)
Boxing
regulators revoked Mike Tyson's license to fight and fined him $3
million for biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear. Tyson can apply for
reinstatement in a year. Optimists called the penalty stiff and predicted that
it would restore some standard of decency to the sport. Pessimists pointed out
that Tyson gets to keep $27 million he earned from the fight and can take his
services overseas. Fans rated the bite the most disgusting offense in the
history of sports. (7/9)
Mexico's ruling party lost control of the national assembly for the
first time in 68 years. It was the longest-reigning political party in the
world. Reasons for the defeat: 1) Voters were sick of the country's lousy
economy; 2) they were sick of the ruling party's tradition of rigging
elections; and 3) this time, the ruling party neglected to rig the election.
President Ernesto Zedillo executed one of history's most impressive
post-election spin jobs, portraying his party's defeat as proof of the climate
of freedom and democracy he has fostered. Now that the party has lost its grip,
analysts foresee a wave of opportunistic defections by politicians, as happened
to Southern Democrats in the United States. (7/9)
Sports
news: Cleveland Indians catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. won baseball's All-Star
Game for the American League with a two-run, seventh-inning home run in his
team's ballpark. Martina Hingis and Pete Sampras won the women's and men's
tennis championships at Wimbledon . Sportswriters lionized Hingis as a
Wunderkind (she's 16, the youngest Wimbledon champ in a century) and
Sampras as arguably the greatest player ever (he's on track to shatter the
record for men's grand slam titles). Women's runner-up Jana Novotna choked away
a third-set lead in the finals for the second time but managed (unlike last
time) not to cry on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent. (7/9)
Miscellany: NATO formally admitted Poland, Hungary, and the Czech
Republic . The United States successfully pressured its allies to postpone a
similar decision on Romania and Slovenia until 1999. The investigation of
Michael Kennedy's alleged affair with his kids' teen-age baby sitter is being
dropped because the baby sitter won't cooperate. Hawaiian legislators decided
to give domestic-partnership benefits to gay couples instead of letting
them marry. Lockheed Martin announced its purchase of Northrop Grumman,
completing the defense industry's consolidation into two camps ( Lockheed vs.
Boeing ). The British company that recently won fame for cloning a sheep is
reportedly on the verge of deriving human blood plasma from sheep and cows. A
new scientific report claims that puberty begins as early as the age of 6. A
woman in North Carolina was charged with murdering her son by whacking him with
a computer keyboard. (7/9)
The
British finally relinquished Hong Kong to China. Thousands of U.S.
journalists found excuses to spend the week there, playing up the possibilities
of political confrontation and violence (China oafishly sent thousands of
troops to show everyone who's the boss) before conceding that nothing was going
to happen. Poorest excuse for a reporter's travel expenses: "Hong Kong Ponders
Meaning of Record Rainfall" ( Los Angeles Times ). Pundits agreed that
capitalism will continue to flourish there even if democracy doesn't: The
New York Times ' Tom Friedman noted that replicas of the "Goddess of
Democracy" (erected in 1989 by protesters in Tiananmen Square), which were
being peddled by Hong Kong demonstrators, were "Made in China."
(7/7)
Jimmy Stewart,
Robert Mitchum , and Charles Kuralt died. Hollywood pundits
contrasted Stewart (the idealistic gentleman) with Mitchum (the hard-living
rogue) and juxtaposed both of them--"the last of the giants of Hollywood's
golden era," said the Los Angeles Times-- with today's mediocre movie
stars. Cultural commentators paired Stewart with Kuralt as champions of virtue
and the common man. Television journalists ceaselessly glorified Kuralt's
television journalism. (7/7)
