Biden Drops Presidential Bid
On July 21, 2024, President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. He officially ended his Democratic re-election, leaving the Democratic Party without a nominee four months before Election Day. Biden’s announcement came as a letter he distributed via X, formerly known as Twitter.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while I have intended to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” wrote Biden.
In a subsequent post, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the next Democratic nominee. In the weeks before his announcement to drop, Biden insisted that he planned to stay in the race. The decision was not made until the day of the announcement, and Biden’s senior staff was notified only a minute before the public.
Notable Democratic politicians reacted positively to President Biden’s choice not to pursue reelection. Former President Barack Obama called Biden “a patriot of the highest order” for his choice to step down, and praised his leadership throughout his presidential term. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, posted a joint statement on X, thanking Biden for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also endorsed Harris for president, and said that “nothing has made [them] more worried” for the country than “the threat posed by a second Trump term.”
Pete Buttigieg, who ran against Biden in the 2020 Democratic primaries, said that Biden has “earned his place among the best and most consequential presidents in American history.”
Vice President Harris became the official nominee of the Democratic Party on Aug. 5, 2024, and has selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Drake vs. Kendrick
A simmering feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake reached a boiling point in the spring of this year when Lamar, Future and Metro Boomin released “Like That.”
In the song, Lamar raps the standout line, “Motherf-ck the big three, it’s just big me.”
The Big Three refers to Drake, Kendrick and J. Cole as the top three rappers of the current time.
J. Cole first used the line in “First Person Shooter.”
J. Cole was initially involved in this feud, releasing a song called “7 Minute Drill,” which directly dissed Lamar. He later distanced himself from the conflict, calling his actions some of the “lamest, goofiest sh-t he’s participated in.”
Drake responded to Lamar by releasing two songs, “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” in which he referred to Lamar as a “pipsqueak” and teased him for doing features on pop songs.
“Taylor Made Freestyle” was a short-lived diss. The song was removed from all public platforms when Tupac Shakur’s estate served Drake a cease-and-desist for using AI-generated vocals to imitate Shakur’s voice.
Lamar responded to Drake’s two diss tracks. The first diss “Euphoria,” was released on April 30. The track received massive attention due to his fast-firing consecutive disses, many of them targeting Drake’s biracial identity.
Lamar notably ends the song by saying how he doesn’t like how Drake says the N-word, and says, “We don’t want to hear you say N— no more.”
Drake responded to Lamar with the track “Family Matters,” questioning if Lamar is the father of the child he has with his fiance, Whitney Alford.
In the song, Drake also alleges that Lamar is unfaithful and physically abusive to Alford. Drake also called Lamar’s discography phony, rapping, “Always rappin’ like you ‘bout to get the slaves freed/You justin actin’ like an activist, it’s make-believe.”
Less than an hour after Drake released “Family Matters,” Lamar dropped “Meet the Grahams.” The notably haunting and aggressive song begins with Lamar apologizing to Drake’s son, Adonis. Lamar apologizes to Adonis as he alleges his father, Drake, is a pedophile with a secret daughter.
He then doubled down on his tirade against Drake, releasing the hit track “Not Like Us,” which continues to label Drake as a pedophile, and also calls him out for using Tupac’s AI-generated voice. Drake released “The Heart Part 6” soon after, denying the allegations of pedophilia and claiming he purposely fed Lamar fake information to see if he’d fall for it.
“Not Like Us” became one of the most popular songs of the summer, amassing over 700 million streams on Spotify alone. It’s considered one of the best diss tracks of all time and has had a vast cultural impact in the Western world, breaking numerous musical records and generating popular trends on social media. However, the feud ended with no clear winner in sight, as both artists have been criticized for the diss tracks and their conflict overall.
USA Women’s Olympic Domination
At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Team USA won a total of 126 medals including 40 gold medals, 44 silver medals and 42 bronze medals. Women were responsible for 65% of Team USA’s gold medal victories. Amongst these women, gymnastics champion, Simone Biles, helped lead the US women’s team to all-around gold and earned herself an individual all-around gold as well. Biles competed alongside Team USA after sitting out at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to an injury.
The US women’s soccer team won its first gold medal in 12 years, fueled by the “Triple Espresso” attacking trio of Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith. They beat out Brazil 1-0, scoring 10 of the US’ 12 goals at the tournament.
The US women’s basketball team also came out on top with a 67-66 victory over France, with outstanding performances from A’ja Wilson, who scored 21 points, had 13 rebounds and four blocks. Kahleah Cooper also competed outstandingly well, scoring 10 of 12 points during the final 10 minutes of the match. The USA basketball team has now won 8 consecutive gold medals.
Mpox Resurgence
The World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced that mpox, also known as monkeypox, is a global health emergency. The announcement was released due to a sudden surge of cases in Africa. So far there have been outbreaks in 13 African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. More than 17,000 cases have been reported across Africa in 2024, and there have been at least 500 deaths.
Mpox is spread from close person-to-person contact, and can be sexually transmitted. The illness usually lasts from two to four weeks, causing symptoms very similar to chickenpox or smallpox, with fluid-filled lesions that go through various stages before drying and falling off. About 10 million vaccine doses are needed for the outbreaks in Africa, reported the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
WHO has actively developed a plan to combat the disease, which will cost an estimated $135 million. It calls for advanced surveillance of the transmission of the disease and rapid response. It also heavily focuses on distributing vaccines, specifically prioritizing healthcare workers and those in close contact with recent cases.
For now, the CDC says the spread of monkeypox is “very low risk” in the USA.
