Wednesday's Daily Briefing: USMCA trade pact, Facebook audit

Welcome to Wednesday, Daily Briefing readers!

Before we get to what's happening today, I've got some breaking podcast news for you: Changing The Game just dropped its latest episode. Award-winning sports journalist Nancy Armour sat down with BMX freestyle rider Chelsea Wolfe, who tells us how she just wants equal treatment. When BMX freestyle makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo, Wolfe wants to be there. For herself, for her sport, and for the trans community.

Speaking of Olympic athletes, Usain Bolt has finally revealed his daughter's perfect name: Olympia Lightning Bolt. With a name like that, it won't be a surprise if she takes the world by storm.

It's N'dea, let's get to more news you need to know today.

President Trump, Mexican president celebrate new trade deal

President Donald Trump and Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will meet at the White House on Wednesday to highlight a new trade deal signed between Mexico, Canada and the United States. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) went into effect last week and replaces NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) that essentially eliminated tariffs between the three countries. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he will skip the meeting, citing tariff threats from the U.S. and ongoing coronavirus concerns.  

• Trudeau won't be in Washington: Canada's prime minister cited concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and U.S. tariff threats last week
• Trump signs new trade deal: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office said Democrats had been shut out of the rare bipartisan celebration
• Border lockdown: Nonessential travel from the U.S. into Mexico and Canada is shut down until July 21

Fact check: Beach photo posted to Facebook shows Rio de Janeiro, not Raleigh, NC

As the Fourth of July weekend approached, shore towns prepared for swaths of visitors and locals alike at the beach. North Carolina hosted thousands from Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Maryland and more. One Facebook user shared a post from another user’s account, including a photo of a packed beach.

“People will never listen! Covid is never going away!” the original poster, Kal El, shared on Facebook. The original poster then claimed that the beach depicts Raleigh, North Carolina, and encouraged others to share the post. 

The claim that the photo depicts a Raleigh, North Carolina, beach during the July 4 holiday weekend is rated FALSE. The photo actually shows a beach in Rio de Janeiro photographed in 2013.

• Fact check: Researchers found coronavirus in March 2019 wastewater; more study needed
• The Backstory: How and why the Paste BN Network fact checks issues, people and statements in the news

Facebook civil rights audit to be released

The final civil rights report in a years-long audit of Facebook's policies and practices, authored by former ACLU director and civil rights attorney Laura Murphy, will be released Wednesday, according to chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. The report's release will come a day after civil rights leaders ripped into CEO Mark Zuckerberg, saying he showed no signs of taking steps to curb hatred and violence on the social media giant's platforms. Civil rights groups have led a massive backlash against Facebook, with nearly 1,000 companies pulling millions of dollars in advertising to protest the spread of hate speech, violent threats and misinformation on the company's platforms.

• What civil rights groups want from Facebook boycott: Stop hate speech and harassment of Black users
• Facebook ad boycott: Sandberg vows company will get better at removing hate speech
• Will the Facebook advertising boycott force the social media giant to change? Not likely

Three racist incidents in California

Officials announced Tuesday that the white man and woman who were captured on video vandalizing a Black Lives Matter street mural in California will face hate crime charges. Another man seen in a viral video spouting expletives and racist comments toward an Asian family at a restaurant in Carmel Valley, California, has been identified by multiple publications as a San Francisco tech CEO. A California law enforcement officer is also under internal investigation after allegedly sharing a "vulgar image" of George Floyd, the Black man whose death on Memorial Day sparked worldwide protests against racial inequality and police brutality. 

Here are more of the latest headlines on race in America:

• How to talk to your family, friends about racism and white privilege
• Young Black voters say they aren't enthusiastic about a Joe Biden presidency
• University of California names first Black president in system's 152-year-history: Michael V. Drake to succeed Janet Napolitano
• Terry Crews and CNN's Don Lemon clash over Black Lives Matter during broadcast
• Meet Shani Dowell, the first Black woman in Tennessee to raise $1 million for a start-up

Ivy League takes a stance on college athletics in the fall

The Ivy League will decide Wednesday whether its schools will try to play sports this fall in an announcement that could serve as a bellwether for the rest of college athletics. On March 10, the Ivy League was the first college sports entity to announce that its basketball conference tournament would be canceled due to the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, many fans and even some of the athletes viewed that decision as an overreaction. But just two days later, other conference tournaments and eventually the NCAA announced they would not be able to go forward. 

• Opinion: College football should consider punting its season until the spring
• Virtual recruits: How high school football is adjusting to the ongoing pandemic
• Uncertainty due to COVID-19: Pandemic putting pressure on college athletics' marketing deals

US pulls out of WHO as coronavirus cases near 3 million

Hospitalizations continued to rise and ICU beds were quickly filling as the nation reached the brink of 3 million coronavirus cases Wednesday. A U.S. senator said the U.S. has begun the process of dropping out of the World Health Organization and Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

Here's more of the latest news on COVID-19:

• Coronavirus updates: US nears 3M cases; Florida hospital ICUs reaching capacity; movie theater chains sue to reopen in New Jersey
• School reopening plans are now part of COVID-19 politics. Teachers fear for their safety
• Florida state officials are ordering all schools to reopen in August 'at least five days per week for all students'
• Younger people are driving new cases of COVID-19, putting the elderly at risk
• What doctors are saying about coronavirus risks at Trump's New Hampshire rally
• 'I feel threatened!': Florida man's viral outburst over Costco's mask policy costs him his job at insurance company
• 'Government needed a villain': Louisiana lawmaker equates coronavirus mask mandates to Holocaust

Major League Soccer will return with 'MLS is Back' tournament ⚽

Major League Soccer will open its World Cup-style tournament, "MLS is Back," in Florida at 8 p.m. EST on ESPN. All matches will be played without fans in attendance at the sports complex at Walt Disney World. The games will be the first time the league has been in action since play was shut down on March 12 because of the coronavirus. Orlando City will play expansion Inter Miami in the first match. The second game of the day, Nashville SC vs. Chicago Fire FC, has been postponed after five Nashville players tested positive for COVID-19.

• Nashville SC match postponed: Five players test positive for COVID-19
• One team down: FC Dallas pulls out of MLS tournament after 10 players test positive
• Not a great start: Meals for MLS players at bubble got Fyre Fest comparisons

More news you need to know

• Thandie Newton recalls frustrating Tom Cruise scenes, Hollywood meeting with Black stereotypes
• Mary Kay Letourneau, the former Washington state teacher jailed for raping a student, dies of cancer at 58
• 'Far beyond garden-variety narcissism.' Book by Trump's niece paints him as habitual liar, inept businessman
• Booker beats progressive challenger, Van Drew race set and other takeaways from Tuesday's primary
• Mike Greenberg returns, 'Golic & Wingo' out of morning show slot amid ESPN Radio shakeups
• Dunkin' is closing 450 locations by the end of 2020. Here's where the closures are expected

SpaceX to launch Starlink satellites 🚀

After several hardware-related delays, SpaceX is slated to launch the tenth batch of Starlink internet satellites into space on Wednesday. A 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket, packed with 57 Starlink satellites and two spacecraft for BlackSky Global, is scheduled to launch at 11:59 a.m. According to the new U.S. Space Force (no, not Steve Carell's "Space Force"), weather for the attempt stands at 70% "go" with the possible presence of cumulus clouds noted as the primary liftoff concern.

• Opinion: SpaceX heralds a new, cheaper space age
• Gallery: SpaceX successfully launches humans into orbit

In better news: A record-breaking wedding anniversary 💍

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are relationship goals. 

The former president and first lady celebrated their 74th wedding anniversary Tuesday, adding to their record as the longest-married presidential couple in our nation's history. 

The Carters officially clinched the title in October after passing the previous record held by former President George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush, who were married 73 years and 111 days when Barbara died in April 2018. 

Carter, 95, and Rosalynn, 92, married July 7, 1946, in a Methodist church in their hometown of Plains, Georgia, when he was 21 and she was 18, after Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy.

The couple credit their marriage's longevity to their faith.