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Daily Briefing: The right to lie?

Nicole Fallert   Paste BN

Central to the latest legal case against former President Donald Trump is that he knew he had lost the 2020 election, yet he still spread knowingly false claims of election fraud. Also in the news: The union for Hollywood writers has made the first official communication with representatives for studios since a strike began three months ago. And don't be fooled by this hurricane season so far — an intense period of potential storms is coming.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. Need some hump day motivation? This little girl's hype will inspire you.

Now, here we go with Wednesday's news.

Trump indictment alleges criminal effort to overturn election

In the latest legal case, federal prosecutors are accusing former President Donald Trump of undermining American democracy by organizing a wide-ranging conspiracy to steal the 2020 election that allegedly fueled a brazen and historic insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump faces the harshest accusation yet from the federal government: Namely, that his motivation was a criminal effort to cling to power.

Keep reading more special coverage from Paste BN on the indictment:

Hurricane risk is about to ramp up

Most forecasters have been confident of an unusually busy hurricane season. Specifically, earlier in July, the CSU team called for a "borderline hyperactive" season in the Atlantic Basin in 2023, with as many as nine hurricanes expected to form. Why? Despite El Niño, much of the tropical Atlantic Basin continues to see record-warm ocean temperatures. That's key because assuming other factors are equal, the deeper and warmer the ocean water, the stronger a storm or hurricane can become, experts said. Read more

More news to know now

What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

Is there going to be a government shutdown?

Congress is out for its August recess but lawmakers will have a monumental task ahead of them when they return to Washington next month – funding the federal government. Once lawmakers get back to Capitol Hill in mid-September, the House and Senate will be in session for roughly three weeks until the Sep. 30 deadline to pass a federal budget. If lawmakers cannot push through 11 out of 12 separate spending bills, after passing just one before the August recess, the country will face a government shutdown. Read more

DA cites 'massive amount' of evidence as Gilgo Beach murder suspect appears in court

The man charged with three of the notorious "Gilgo four" murders on New York's Long Island 13 years ago is facing a "massive amount'' of evidence in the case, prosecutors said Tuesday as he appeared in court for a pretrial conference hearing before a Suffolk County judge. Prosecutors said at the hearing they’ve given Rex Heuermann’s lawyer about 2,500 pages of records, DNA reports and about 100 hours of surveillance video recorded outside Heuermann’s home and office before his July 13 arrest, along with crime scene photos. Read more

  • How pizza broke the cold case: Police identified Heuermann as a person who could be a suspect in the case, tracked him down and found an abandoned pizza crust that he threw out in a Manhattan trash can, authorities said. The DNA on the food matched the DNA from a male hair officials found.

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Can AI really replace actors?

AI's threat to their livelihoods is the fear of SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America, unions representing American actors and screenwriters. Both guilds are on strike (the first time both have done so at once since 1960), and when the unions and studios finally meet again, they will have to put rules about the use of AI into new contracts. And the stakes are high, not only for the writers, actors and studios but for the rest of us watching from home. Meanwhile, union leaders told have told striking Hollywood writers that they plan to meet with representatives for studios to discuss restarting negotiations. Read more

Quick hits

Photo of the day: Valdez throws 16th no-hitter in Astros history

The Houston Astros' Framber Valdez threw the season's third no-hitter, blanking the Cleveland Guardians in a 2-0 win at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night. This is the fifth Astros no-hitter since the 2019 season and 16th in team history. The 16 no-hitters represents the most for any MLB expansion franchise added since 1961. Read more

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at Paste BN, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter. Support journalism like this – subscribe to Paste BN here.

Associated Press contributed reporting.

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