The news can often be hard to follow, but this week in particular has been a doozy.
There’s the seemingly endless staff changes in the Trump administration, the reported privacy breach and misuse of millions of Facebook users’ data, the death of the bombing suspect in Austin and the police shooting in Sacramento. It’s been a lot.
Here’s a rundown of some of the biggest news that happened in the last seven days.
Police fatally shot an unarmed black man in his yard.
On Sunday, Sacramento cops shot and killed 22-year-old Stephon Clark in his own backyard. After footage of the incident came out, hundreds took to the streets of Sacramento on Thursday to protest the latest police killing of an unarmed black man.
The Austin bombing suspect killed himself with an explosive.
After a series of bombs terrorized Austin this month, killing two black men and setting the city on edge, the suspected bomber, 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt, died on Wednesday after a device exploded in his car during a confrontation with police. While law enforcement struggled to find a motive, some denounced officials and the news media for humanizing the white bomber and not labeling the attacks “terrorism.”
Lawmakers demanded answers from Facebook about the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach.
Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy hired by the Trump campaign, reportedly secretly accessed and misused millions of Facebook users’ data. On Tuesday, U.S. lawmakers called for Facebook to explain the privacy breach. As an online movement began to grow calling for people to #deletefacebook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally apologized on Wednesday and said he would be willing to testify before Congress ― maybe ... if he’s the “right person.”
Trump moved to impose tariffs on China.
After 45 U.S. trade groups urged Trump not to impose tariffs on China ― warning it would be “particularly harmful” to the U.S. economy ― Trump signed a memo on Thursday that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports. After the news hit, U.S. stocks plunged.
There were more staff changes at the White House.
On Thursday, national security adviser H.R. McMaster left the Trump administration ― the latest of at least a dozen Trump aides to have stepped down from their posts in a little over a year. He was replaced by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and notorious foreign policy hawk John Bolton.
That same day, John Dowd, President Donald Trump’s lead attorney on the Russia probe, resigned. Dowd reportedly felt Trump was ignoring his advice on how to deal with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
There was a terror attack in France.
A man killed three people on Friday in a deadly rampage across multiple towns in southern France. After an hourslong hostage situation and standoff with police at a grocery store, the attacker was killed. French President Emmanuel Macron called the incident a terrorist attack.
Trump signed a major spending bill ― after threatening to veto it.
On Friday, just hours after Trump had threatened to veto the omnibus spending package, he signed the $1.3 trillion bill ― preventing a government shutdown and funding the government through September. After signing, Trump called the bill a ”ridiculous situation.”
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