The Headlines - Abortion Access on the Ballot, and Hamas Won’t Attend Peace Talks

Starting point is 00:00:00 From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. Today is Wednesday, August 14th. Here's what we're covering. The question of abortion access is shaping up to be a defining issue in this year's election, and millions more Americans will now be voting on it directly. This week, Arizona and Missouri became the latest states that will have measures guaranteeing abortion access on the ballot in November.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Abortion rights groups spent months collecting enough signatures to put forward state constitutional amendments on the issue. Those signatures were just certified. So far, six other states will have similar measures to establish or protect abortion rights on their ballots, including Florida, New York, and Nevada. Notably, every time the question of how to regulate abortion has come up for a vote since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the majority of voters have sided with abortion rights groups. Meanwhile, Democrats are hoping the measures will energize voters and drive higher turnout in their favor, particularly in Arizona and Nevada, two key battleground states. The Times has learned previously unreported details about Hunter Biden's business dealings while his father was vice president. Newly released records from 2016 show that Hunter Biden asked the State Department for help on a potentially lucrative energy project. At the time, Hunter was on the board of the energy company Burisma, which was having trouble getting approval for a geothermal power project in Italy.

Starting point is 00:01:41 He wrote at least one letter to the U.S. ambassador there, hoping to help push the plans forward. Hunter Biden's lawyers say the outreach was proper, but documents show that embassy officials seemed uncomfortable with the request. This outreach is part of a pattern that we've seen with Hunter Biden over the years, particularly when his father was vice president, a time during which subsequently he's drawn a lot of criticism for implicitly leveraging his father's political clout to try to solicit and advance these foreign business arrangements. We've seen it in China. We've seen it in Ukraine. We've seen it with his work in Romania. Kenneth Vogel is an investigative reporter at The Times. He spent years trying

Starting point is 00:02:21 to get access to any files showing contacts between Hunter Biden and government officials. We actually initially filed Freedom of Information Act requests back in 2021. The State Department didn't produce any records. We had to sue the State Department. close the request at one point, then only in the week after President Biden dropped the doubt did they actually produce these documents that shed light on the issue that we most wanted to find out about, that is Hunter Biden's outreach to the U.S. government on behalf of his foreign businesses. According to the State Department, the timing was coincidental. And one source familiar with the plans to release the documents said they were underway weeks before Biden made his decision not to run for re-election.

Starting point is 00:03:09 Still, Kenneth says the delays in making presidency, trying to spotlight Hunter Biden's foreign business as a way to kind of hold against President Biden. They are probably going to raise some questions about why this information wasn't available to them while he was still in the race for his reelection before he dropped out and endorsed Kamala Harris. The energy project in Italy that Hunter Biden was working on never got off the ground. And so far, he has not been charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to disclose

Starting point is 00:03:52 when they lobby the government on behalf of foreign interests. But Hunter Biden is facing charges of evading taxes on millions of dollars in income from Burisma and other foreign businesses. His trial in that case is set to begin in three weeks. In the Middle East, mediators are preparing for the latest round of negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza. The talks will be held tomorrow, but as of now, Hamas representatives say they are not planning to take part.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Hamas's expected absence does not mean they've completely left the bargaining table, though. Throughout the war, Hamas leaders have relied on Egypt and Qatar to act as intermediaries. And representatives from those countries, as well as the U.S. and Israel, are still expected to meet. Officials tell The Times that Hamas is willing to engage with mediators after the meeting if Israel puts forward a, quote, serious response to the group's latest offer, which they made in July. Starbucks abruptly ousted its CEO yesterday after slowing sales had its investors demanding change. Loxman Narasimhan had held the top spot since last March, and while he'd previously run a company that owned big brands like Lysol, he had essentially no background in restaurant chains.

Starting point is 00:05:24 Under his tenure, Starbucks' stock dropped 20 percent. The coffee giant's been struggling in its biggest markets, the U.S. and China, and it's faced accusations of retaliating against workers trying to unionize. Aiming for a fresh start, Starbucks has announced that its new CEO will be Chipotle's chief executive, Brian Nicol. Nicol knows his fast casual. He spent three years at the top at Taco Bell before taking over Chipotle in 2018. Since then, Chipotle's stock soared from around $6 a share to a record high of $65 this summer. Still, steering Starbucks will be a massive challenge. It has 38,000 stores,

Starting point is 00:06:10 more than 10 times the number of Chipotle's. And finally, in Bangladesh, it's been just over a week since the country's authoritarian prime minister fled and resigned amid mass protests, putting the country on the brink of collapse. Almost all of the police, who led harsh crackdowns on the protesters, have gone into hiding, and there's been a wave of violence, including revenge killings. In the midst of the chaos, the young people who started the protest movement have stepped up to take control. Times reporter Mujib Mashal is currently in the country's capital. I arrived in Dhaka on Friday, and it is quite remarkable what's happening here. Basically, it's a city run by young students and teenagers.

Starting point is 00:07:00 You see them at roundabouts, blowing whistles and guiding traffic. You see them at a museum trying to clean the mess that was left by the mob that burned it down. You see them on duty outside the residence of the prime minister that fled the country. You see them taking on the responsibility to restore some order to a city that basically collapsed into anarchy. They're not just visible and taking roles on the streets. Two of the 17 members of this interim cabinet are 26-year-old student leaders. Around them is a larger group of student leaders. They have abstract principles that they have sort of articulated, that they want a Bangladesh that is built on compassion, responsibility, and dignity. And Bangladesh's new interim leader, who is this 84-year-old Nobel laureate, he has basically declared publicly that he only takes orders from these students,

Starting point is 00:08:08 that he is in his job to implement the vision of these students that toppled an entrenched former government. So what's clear is they are the most dominant force right now about shaping a future for this country. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, what the blockbuster antitrust case

Starting point is 00:08:31 against Microsoft in the 1990s tells us about how the government's current case against Google could play out. You can listen on the Times audio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracey Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.

The Headlines - Abortion Access on the Ballot, and Hamas Won’t Attend Peace Talks

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