July 2023 News Quiz: What’s Trump Charged With Now?

Former US President Donald Trump received a target letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith, dated July 2023. The letter indicates that Trump is under investigation for his role in the January 6 Capitol riots. The letter cites three potential charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, and violation of section 241 of the US legal code that makes it unlawful to conspire to violate civil rights. These charges relate to various instances of Trump pressuring officials, including his former vice president Mike Pence, and his efforts to obstruct power transfer.

AFTRA is a labor union representing US performers, broadcasters, and other media professionals. It merged with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 2012 to form SAG-AFTRA, the largest actor union in Hollywood. SAG-AFTRA declared a strike against major studios and streamers over issues such as residuals, streaming royalties, artificial intelligence, and diversity on July 14, 2023. The SAG-AFTRA and writers’ guild strikes halted most film and TV production in the US for 191 days.

Fun Fact: SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, best known for her role in the ’90s sitcom The Nanny, has led the strike with fiery speeches against corporate greed and exploitation. She has also called Bob Iger, former Disney CEO, a “medieval land baron” for his comments on union demands.

The much-anticipated Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was banned in Vietnam. The movie, set to hit Vietnamese – and worldwide – theaters on July 21, 2023, includes a scene featuring a map showing China’s controversial “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea. This line is a bone of contention between China and several other countries, including Vietnam. It extends Beijing’s territorial claims far into the waters claimed by these nations. The Vietnamese National Film Evaluation Council, finding this subplot unamusing, banned the movie on July 3.

Taylor Swift achieved this feat with her latest release, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” which debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated July 22, 2023, with 716,000 equivalent album units. Her other three albums in the top 10 were “Midnights” (No. 5), “Lover” (No. 7), and “Folklore” (No. 10). The last living artist to have four albums in the top 10 simultaneously was Herb Alpert in 1966. Prince did it posthumously in 2016.

Fun Fact: She also surpassed Barbra Streisand as the female artist with the most #1 albums in history, with 12.

20-year-old Spanish sensation Carlos Alcaraz won his second Grand Slam title by defeating Novak Djokovic in a five-set final at Wimbledon on July 16, 2023. He became the youngest men’s champion since Boris Becker, who won the title at 17 in 1985.

Fun Fact: Roger Federer, who retired earlier this year, won his first Wimbledon title at 21 in 2003.

What happened to Djokovic?

Alcaraz’s victory ended Djokovic’s long Wimbledon reign. Djokovic aimed for his eighth Wimbledon crown, equalling Margaret Court’s 24 majors record. During the match, he received two warnings: one for taking too long to serve and another for smashing his racket against the net post.

On July 1, 2023, Twitter implemented this revised policy to discourage “extreme levels” of data scraping and system manipulation. Verified accounts were limited to reading 6,000 posts daily, while unverified accounts were restricted to 600 posts daily. This decision led to a digital uproar, with the hashtag #TwitterDown trending in some parts of the world. Not missing a beat, Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, saw this as an opportunity to announce their new Threads app.

Meta (formerly known as Facebook) tossed another social media player into the ring on July 6, 2023. This contender, named ‘Threads,’ is a text-based conversation app. It’s like Twitter but with a Zuck instead of a Musk. Users can conveniently use their existing Instagram login details to sign up. Threads became an overnight sensation, attracting over 100 million users only days after its launch.

Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984. Elon Musk was born 13 years earlier, on June 28, 1971. Zuckerberg shared a photo of him training with UFC stars Israel Adesanya and Alex Volkanvski at his home in Northern California on July 11, 2023. Musk has been taunting Zuckerberg on social media and said he would donate $1 billion to charity if Zuckerberg wins a UFC-style cage fight against him.

Elon Musk, the tech mogul behind SpaceX and Tesla, announced the formation of his new artificial intelligence company, xAI, on July 12, 2023. Musk, known for his ambitious and futuristic projects, aims to use xAI to “understand reality” and delve deeper into the realm of AI. The announcement was made on Twitter, and Musk also had a July 14 Twitter Spaces talk to discuss the venture in more detail.

The Alef model A is the first flying car approved for testing by the US government. It was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on June 12, 2023. Alef Automotive, a California startup, can now exhibit, research, and develop its flying car. The Model A can carry one or two people, fly up to 110 miles, and park like a normal car. The company has taken refundable pre-orders for more than 400 vehicles. However, it still needs approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to be used on roads.

The ITU held the world’s first-ever news conference with humanoid robots in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 7th, 2023. Nine robots and their creators were available for reporters’ questions at this “unprecedented media event.” This was part of the UN’s AI for Good Global Summit. The humanoid robots reassured human reporters at the event that they had no intention of overthrowing or replacing them. They did suggest they could be more efficient government leaders.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. In this film, Ethan (Tom Cruise – as usual, performing his stunts) and his team must track down a dangerous experimental AI called Entity, which can hack into any system. Paramount Pictures released the film in the US on Jul. 12, 2023. It is one of the most expensive films ever made, with an estimated $291 million budget.

John Oliver’s show, Last Week Tonight, has been moved to another category in 2023 — outstanding scripted variety series. The Television Academy changed its rules to define variety series as “unscripted or improv-based.” Since Oliver’s show is mainly scripted and pre-recorded, it no longer qualifies for the previous category. The new category also includes Saturday Night Live. Oliver’s former Daily Show colleagues, Late Night with Stephen Colbert, The Problem with Jon Stewart, and the actual The Daily Show with Trevor Noah were competing against late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers in a different category, where Trevor Noah’s final season grabbed the trophy. The ceremony on Fox, initially scheduled for Sept. 18, was postponed to Jan. 15 due to the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strike. The 2023 Emmy Awards nominations were announced on Jul. 12, 2023. Oliver won his new category.

Australia is the first country worldwide to approve MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for hard-to-treat depression. The Therapeutic Goods Administration put the two drugs on the approved medicines list starting July 1, 2023, but for a price — the treatment costs about $10,000 (Australian. It’s roughly $6,600 US dollars) per patient.

Fun Fact: Oregon was the first US state to legalize adult psilocybin use, and Colorado’s voters decriminalized psilocybin in 2022.

The semiquincentennial is 250 years old – exactly the age of the United States on July 4, 2026. The semiquincentennial celebrations will mark the 250th anniversary of United States independence from Great Britain. America250, a nonpartisan organization created by Congress in 2016 to mark the anniversary, will oversee the celebrations, officially announced on July 4, 2023, during an MLB match.

Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man” speech was delivered on July 4, 1939, at Yankee Stadium in New York City in front of more than 60,000 people. Gehrig had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), later known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He retired from baseball that day and died two years later. In the speech, Gehrig said he considered himself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. On the 84th anniversary of Gehrig’s famous speech, on July 4, 2023, Sarah Langs, a baseball reporter and producer at MLB Advanced Media, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease, was honored at Yankee Stadium along with six other women with the disease.

The Birkin Bag is one of the world’s most coveted and expensive handbags, created by French luxury house Hermès. It was named after British actress and singer Jane Birkin, who died on July 17, 2023, at 76. Birkin sketched the bag design in 1984 on an airplane sickness bag while sitting beside Jean-Louis Dumas, former Hermès chairman. She complained that she couldn’t find a bag suitable for her needs as a young mother. The bag included a dedicated space for baby bottles in the spacious rectangular pouch with a burnished flap and saddle stitching.

Fun Fact: The Birkin Bag is also considered one of the hottest luxury investments. Its value increased by 38% in 2020, eclipsing stock market returns.

Alan Arkin’s performance as George Aaronow in Glengarry Glen Ross was memorable but did not award him an Oscar. He died on June 29, 2023, at 89. Arkin won an Oscar in 2006 for his performance in Little Miss Sunshine, for which he also won the BAFTA award, and was nominated for three other Oscars and six Emmys in his career. He was also a Tony Award-winning actor and won a Golden Globe award in 1967 for his first major film role in “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.”

Brad Pitt was spotted in racing gear, diving into a role in his upcoming movie. The film, directed by Joseph Kosinski of “Top Gun: Maverick” fame, takes place in the high-stakes world of Formula One racing. Pitt’s character is a retired F1 racer called back to the track to help his old team. To add authenticity to the film, Pitt was on the grid at the British Grand Prix in July 2023, suited up and ready to race.

Hugh Grant plays one of the Oompa Loompas, the mysterious workers of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, in the upcoming musical sequel Wonka. The film, directed by Paul King and starring Timothée Chalamet as the young Willy Wonka, explores how he met the Oompa Loompas on one of his earliest adventures. Wonka is scheduled to be released on Dec. 15, 2023. Watch the trailer!