Start your week smart: Gymnast stripped of medal, Brazil plane crash, Trump campaign hack, fighting inside Russia

By CNN

Published August 11, 2024 6:03 am

CNN

By Andrew Torgan and Daniel Wine, CNN

(CNN) — Shoppers looking for backyard barbecue or back-to-school supplies are in for a spooky surprise: Stores are rolling out their Halloween merchandise earlier than ever.

Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart.

The weekend that was

• US gymnast Jordan Chiles will be stripped of a bronze medal after the International Olympic Committee reallocated it to Romania’s Ana Bărbosu. Team USA won the gold in men’s basketball with a thrilling victory over host France, and the gold medal race between the US and China comes down to the final day. Follow live updates.
• A passenger plane carrying 62 people crashed outside São Paulo, Brazil, killing everyone on board. Dramatic footage circulating on social media showed the plane’s fall and its destroyed fuselage in flames on the ground.
• Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said it had been hacked and blamed Iran, though it’s not clear who was responsible for the hack. A news outlet reported that it had received emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside the campaign.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Kyiv’s troops are fighting inside Russia, days into the surprise Ukrainian cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region that has become a major embarrassment for the Kremlin.
• Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, a tech pioneer who was one of Google’s earliest employees, died after living with lung cancer for two years, according to her husband. She was 56.

The week ahead

Monday
Trump says he will be interviewed by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who publicly endorsed Trump’s presidential bid on his social media platform X. Relations haven’t always been so friendly between the two billionaires. Musk quit serving on two White House business councils in 2017 after Trump announced the US would withdraw from the Paris climate accord. But for the last several years Musk has repeatedly shown support for Trump — and opposition to President Joe Biden.

Tuesday
Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin will hold nonpresidential primary elections.

Thursday
Mediators from the US, Qatar and Egypt are expected to present what they have called a “final bridging proposal” that urges Israel and Hamas to agree on a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. A source familiar with the discussions told CNN last week that a meeting is being planned in either Cairo or Doha, although Israel and Hamas had not yet confirmed their attendance. The three countries have been leading mediation efforts to strike a deal and US officials claimed they were getting close before the political leader of Hamas, a principal negotiator on the deal, was killed in Iran in a blast widely believed to have been orchestrated by the Israelis. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

TikTok and other platforms owned by the China-based company ByteDance will be removed from all phones managed by the House of Representatives, according to a memo to House staffers obtained by CNN. The announcement comes nearly two years after the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer directed all lawmakers and staffers to remove the app from their official phones, deeming the platform a “high risk to users due to a number of security risks.” TikTok is suing to block a US law that could force a nationwide ban of the popular app, following through on legal threats the company issued after President Biden signed the legislation earlier this year.

Korean Air says that beginning August 15, it will no longer serve ramen instant noodles to passengers traveling in economy class on long-haul flights. Why? Apparently, turbulence and hot water don’t mix, with the airline saying burn accidents occur frequently as a result of serving the popular snack.

Listen in

One Thing: 🎧 Stuck in space?
In today’s “One Thing” podcast, CNN’s Kristin Fisher explains why two astronauts who have been on the International Space Station eight weeks longer than expected could remain there until 2025. Listen here.

Photos of the week

Check out more images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos.

What’s happening in entertainment

TV and streaming
Hoping to capitalize on the success of its “Worst Roommate Ever” series, Netflix debuts “Worst Ex Ever” on Wednesday. From “chilling betrayals to murder plots,” Netflix says the true-crime docuseries “dissects the dark side of love through eyewitness testimonies.”

In theaters
More than 45 years after audiences first witnessed a terrifying spider crab-like creature with a tail emerge from inside a gelatinous egg, “Alien: Romulus” arrives on the big screen. Set in the fictional time between the events of 1979’s “Alien” and 1986’s “Aliens,” this new franchise installment features a group of young fortune hunters (Isabela Merced, Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux and David Jonsson) facing the same face-huggers that doomed most of the crew of the Nostromo. You can hear their screams on Friday. (Editor’s note: Those who suffer from claustrophobia, kabourophobia, arachnophobia or thalassophobia are advised to skip the above trailer.)

CNN Heroes

She was told she wouldn’t live past her 8th birthday. Now her life’s mission is to fight for patients with this deadly disease
In a region that has the world’s highest rates of sickle cell, CNN Hero Lea Kilenga and her nonprofit are helping fellow Kenyans get crucial treatment and battling the stigma surrounding the disease.

Quiz time!

Looking for a challenge to start your week? Take CNN’s news quiz to see how much you remember from the week that was! So far, 56% of fellow quiz fans have gotten eight or more questions right. How will you fare?

Play me off …

‘Purple Haze’
Tuesday is Left Handers Day! Celebrate with rock ‘n’ roll’s best-known left-handed guitarist, Jimi Hendrix. (Click here to view)

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