Summary‍

President Biden's surprise withdrawal from the 2024 race has endorsed VP Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, potentially making history as the first Black woman on a major party's presidential ticket amidst uncertain party reception. A global Microsoft outage disrupted services worldwide; a wildfire in Salt Lake City prompted evacuations; the Secret Service faced criticism over security denials for major figures; tensions escalated between Israel and Yemen after mutual attacks.

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Today's Script

Good morning everyone and welcome back to Current2, brought to you by Just Bagels! Today is Monday, July 22nd, and we’ve got a mountain of news to cover, so let’s wait no further and jump into it!

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In Must Know News:

• In a bombshell decision, President Biden withdrew his bid for office in the 2024 presidential election. The announcement comes after intense pressure from both sides for the 81 year old to end his tumultuous campaign. Since then, Biden along with several other Democrats have endorsed VP Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee, with only 4 months until the election. Talk about a nail biter! Harris would be the first black woman on a major party's presidential ticket, and is expected to carry on with many policies Biden supported during his term. Going even further, Harris will be able to inherit the 96 million already gathered by Bidens campaign, whereas other candidates would potentially not have access for weeks while legal issues are settled, so sources believe Harris is the likely pick, despite some cold reception from Dems in Congress. However, the actual process of selecting the Democratic candidate is up to representative vote, so really, we can't say for sure. Any way this goes down, this decision by the Biden administration is certainly historic, with no other president ever out of dropping the race this close to the election. You heard it here, folks, in one of the most contentious elections in American history, things just got a lot more interesting (as if that was even possible).

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In Other Notable News:

• Beginning on Thursday and lasting well into the weekend, Microsoft systems experienced a global outage that grounded flights, disrupted health care systems, and caused service lost for many systems across the world. The U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike announced that their service had detected blocks and hacking threats, but later announced it was not a cyber attack and all data remained protected. All in all, it wasn’t the greatest start to the weekend. 
• A massive wildfire spanning 150 acres has erupted in Salt Lake City, causing many to evacuate their homes to escape the potential danger. No immediate injuries have been reported, but Utah police have listed it as human-caused and zero percent contained on Sunday morning.
• According to a Secret Service official, the federal agency denied two years worth of requests to increase security for major figures leading up to the attempted assassination on Donald Trump. The Secret Service defended their decision, claiming that they didn’t have the resources, but spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi stated that the denial of resource requests for Trump’s detail was “absolutely false.” 
• Following Israel’s first attack on the Houthi rebels in Yemen that killed 6 people on Saturday, Yemen launched a retaliatory missile into the Israeli city of Eliat, but Israel intercepted before impact and shot it down. The Houthis vowed to continue attacking Israel in response, with no “red line”, meaning everything will be a target. 

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That’s all from us today at C2! If you liked this episode, make sure to send it over to your friends! We hope you have a great start to your week, and thanks once again for listening to Current2, the easy way to stay informed!

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Sources:

Biden drops out (⁠AP⁠, ⁠Reuters⁠) 

Crowdstrike (⁠CNN⁠)

Utah wildfire causes evacuations (⁠CBS⁠)

Secret Service denied extra security for Trump (⁠NBC⁠)

Israel shoots down Yemeni missile (⁠Reuters⁠)