The Fitness Magazine: Your Presidential Daily Brief: GOP Senators Diverge on Health Bill

IMPORTANT

June 24, 2017

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks at a Friday New York rally against Senate Republicans' health care bill. Source: Getty

GOP Senators Far From United on Health Care

Let the healing begin. After the Senate bill to replace Obamacare was unveiled Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz doubted "it has the votes to pass." He's joined four colleagues opposing the current language, including Sen. Rand Paul, who complained it's like "keeping Obamacare." Moderates worry its Medicaid cuts will pull the rug from under opioid-addicted constituents, and two of them decry the legislation's Planned Parenthood defunding. If Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can satisfy 50 of 53 Republicans by next week's vote, it would, observers say, be nothing short of a legislative miracle.

Sources: AP, USA Today, Washington Post

If Voters Won't Help Democrats, There's Always Russia

They're back to square one. Democrats failed to chip away support from President Donald Trump and the GOP Congress in Tuesday's special election in Georgia, falling four points short of victory. Now it's back to Russiagate, which Trump reinvigorated Friday, tweeting - a day after he said an intelligence assessment detailing Russian election meddling was a "HOAX" - that the Obama Administration "did nothing about" Russian election meddling. He also said earlier that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's relationship with ousted FBI director James Comey was "very bothersome," perhaps preparing the ground for another dismissal.

Sources: NYT, ABC, Politico

The Curious Decline of Neoliberal Britain

They're letting laissez-faire be. As anger over growing inequality in the U.K. begins to move voters, a struggling Conservative Party appears to be shedding the small-government, free-market ethos popularized during the Margaret Thatcher era. With its confusing "neoliberal" label, the philosophy that helped privatize British railroads and other government services now seems a liability. Even before socialist Jeremy Corbyn snapped away Tory support in the June 8 elections, Theresa May's party had already declared it had rejected "untrammeled free markets" and "selfish individualism" - signifying a kinder, gentler breed of conservative.

Sources: NYT Magazine

Ukraine Knows What It's Like to Be Russia's Cyber Punching Bag

They know about meddling. While Americans examine evidence of Russia's election interference, Moscow's western neighbor already has plenty of harrowing cyberwarfare stories to tell. Russia or its surrogates have targeted virtually every part of Ukrainian society - from elections to electricity - reportedly to cause chaos in a country the Kremlin desperately wants to restore to its political orbit. Whether sabotaging TV broadcast systems or sparking city-wide blackouts, Russian cyberattackers in Ukraine seem to have proven they're ready to take on someone their own size.

Sources: Wired

Briefly

The Week Ahead: Indian President Narendra Modi is set to visit President Trump at the White House on Monday. That day, the Congressional Budget Office is due to release its cost estimate for the Senate health care bill. And new South Korean President Moon Jae-in is also scheduled to visit the White House, on Thursday and Friday, amid mounting tensions over the North Korean nuclear threat.

Know This: At least 140 people are missing after a landslide in China's Sichuan Province. A suicide bomber detonated Friday during a Saudi police raid near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, reportedly killing only himself. And in the wake of the deadly Grenfell Tower fire, London authorities have evacuated 800 apartments in other high-rise buildings covered with similar flammable material.

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INTRIGUING

How Sick Is North Korea?

The prognosis isn't good. With an idealistic eye toward reunification, South Korean researchers are using a long-term study to assess the health and development of some 1,100 North Koreans who've escaped to the peninsula's southern half. These mentally and physically scarred refugees tell of surviving a society where 70 percent suffer protracted "food insecurity," and where the best medicine comes from black marketeer doctors and Chinese folk traditions. Their data has taken on special relevance with Americans demanding answers about U.S. student Otto Warmbier, who died after 17 months in the Hermit Kingdom's care.

Sources: Undark

Sustainable Startups Are Electrifying Africa

It's a glimmer of hope. By 2040, experts predict, a half-billion sub-Saharan inhabitants still won't have electricity as power grids remain out of reach. But startups are rewriting that history, taking advantage of more affordable and efficient photovoltaic generation - and a surplus of sunshine. For $13 down and $8 a month - paid wirelessly - Tanzania-based Off-Grid Electric provides a solar panel, battery, phone charger, LED lights and a radio. It might not run freezers, but it's gradually connecting remotest Africa to the empowered world.

Sources: New Yorker

Who Do You Call When Your Stalker Is a Cop?

You have the right to remain silent. For domestic abuse victims whose tormentors are police officers, that can seem like their only option. Law enforcement skills, such as projecting a "command presence" and using pressure points to subdue suspects, make some members of the force masters of psychological and physical abuse, while their access to official databases helps them track down terrified partners wherever they might hide. In Delaware, two women have filed criminal complaints against the same state trooper - and victims' advocates are making noise in a quest for justice.

Sources: Huffington Post

Metrosexual Ken and His Rainbro Coalition

Are you a man or a little plastic man? Ken dolls - Barbie's perennial boyfriends - are striving to be both, with toymaker Mattel trying to resuscitate sputtering sales with a radical new look for the iconic eunuch. Several looks, actually: Rather than manufacturing Ken and Barbie's "friends" to add diversity, Ken and Barbie themselves are available in a variety of races, body types, wardrobes and ideologies, offering hope they'll improve kids' self-esteem - just as Mattel hopes it'll boost profits somewhere between wide-eyed gift-opening and sadistic dismemberment.

Sources: GQ

Cord-Cutters Dashing Diamond Dreams

It seemed like a home run. The Philadelphia Phillies haven't exactly dominated baseball, so when they secured a $2.5 billion, 25-year contract for Comcast to air their games, it was a dream come true. It theoretically allows them to lavish the proceeds on top players, just like the chumps-to-champs Chicago Cubs did. But web-happy viewers are cord-cutting in droves, potentially bankrupting these cable cash cows. So fans may delight in streaming their Phils under a new league deal with Facebook, but come October, their path might not be a cake walk.

Sources: OZY