--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, August 6th.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. The Times has learned Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walls as her running mate.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The governor doesn't have the name recognition of some of the other contenders who were on the shortlist. But he became a favorite recently after multiple cable news appearances in which he framed the behavior of Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, as, quote, weird, a term that caught on with Democrats and Harris herself.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Walls, who's 60 years old, was a social studies teacher, coached high school football, and served in the Army National Guard before he won a congressional seat in rural Minnesota, which he held for 12 years. He's currently on his second term as Minnesota's governor, where he signed bills securing abortion rights, paid family leave, gun control, and the legalization of marijuana.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He doesn't represent a crucial battleground state like some of the other VP contenders that were floated, but his plain-spoken style and Midwestern roots could appeal to moderate voters, while his progressive record has made him popular with liberals.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Walls will be in Philadelphia tonight with Harris for a rally.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the moment the financial markets opened in Asia yesterday to the closing bell in the United States, stock prices plummeted. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 had its biggest drop in two years.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Driving the dip was widespread panic that the United States economy could be slowing down, which could shake the global economy. But as of this morning, some measure of calm has returned, with the markets in Asia on the rebound from their sudden drops.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So Monday market freakout was really dramatic but it doesn't necessarily reflect what's really going on in the economy.
--:-- Lydia DePilis: I'm Lydia DePilis, an economics reporter for The Times. While recent data showed that hiring slowed in the U.S., that data is not the whole story.
--:-- Lydia DePilis: The jobs report on Friday really spurred fears that the Fed miscalculated and slowed the economy down too quickly and that the trajectory was going to keep on going, resulting in layoffs and maybe even negative job growth.
--:-- Lydia DePilis: But that is not at all an inevitability. Other economic data recently has been really healthy. We got a GDP report which showed an unexpectedly high degree of consumer spending and business investment. Perfectly healthy.
--:-- Lydia DePilis: We've seen lending data that shows that loan demand is pretty robust. There's all kinds of indicators that nothing is fundamentally wrong.
--:-- Lydia DePilis: It's fair to say that we're probably entering a period of more pronounced volatility. But the people who watch this day in and day out generally think that the economy is in a good place.
--:-- Lydia DePilis: And as long as that remains true, the stock market isn't going to totally fall off a cliff. It's just going through a bit of a rough patch.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Washington yesterday, a federal judge issued a landmark antitrust ruling against Google, saying it acted illegally to maintain its monopoly on internet searches.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Over the years, Google has become synonymous with looking something up. You Google it. But the Justice Department claimed the company was keeping that dominance by paying other companies to have its search engine front and center.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It spent billions of dollars a year to have Google be the default on Samsung phones, Apple products, and other web browsers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The judge ultimately sided with the government saying those payments hurt competition by blocking out smaller tech companies.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This is a really big deal. It's the first time in the modern internet era that there's been an antitrust ruling like this against a tech giant.
--:-- David McCabe: I'm David McCabe, a tech policy reporter for The Times. So exactly what happens to Google still remains to be seen.
--:-- David McCabe: The judge decided he would make a ruling first on whether or not the company broke the law, and then have a second phase of the trial in which he determines how to fix any problems he found.
--:-- David McCabe: So that process is still ongoing. Generally speaking, the options available to a judge include both structural changes to a company, like spinning off or breaking off part of a company, and changes to their behavior, right, demanding that they no longer engage in certain practices.
--:-- David McCabe: The other important question here is how does this law, that is in some cases more than a century old, really apply to the dominant tech platforms of today?
--:-- David McCabe: And what the judge found in this case is that they can be applied, and it's a big vote of confidence in these regulators who have brought cases against not only Google, but Amazon and Apple and Meta, the owner of Facebook as well.
--:-- David McCabe: And we'll be looking to see whether or not this ruling emboldens government regulators to continue to be aggressive against these tech giants.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Iraq, at least five people, including U.S. troops and contractors, were injured after a rocket attack on an air base last night.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The region has been on high alert for days after Iran said it would retaliate for last week's killings of a Hamas leader in Tehran and a Hezbollah leader in Beirut.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's unclear if this attack on the base is part of that response. Iran-backed groups have been targeting American forces in Iraq for months in an attempt to force them out of the country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: As of this morning, no one has taken responsibility for the strike.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally in Paris the women's boxing matches have erupted in controversy as people questioned the gender of two women in the competition, Iman Khalif of Algeria and Lin Ting of Taiwan.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In a murky and controversial decision, they were both disqualified from last year's Women's Boxing World Championships.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The International Boxing Agency claimed they failed an unspecified test and were found to have, quote, competitive advantages over female competitors.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Olympic Committee, however, has objected to the boxing agency's process and no longer recognizes its authority.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This year, amid a flurry of misinformation, Olympic officials have repeatedly said Khalif and Lin meet every benchmark to fight in the women's divisions.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And an Olympic spokesman has emphasized that neither athlete is transgender. The committee relies on passports and medical clearances to determine eligibility.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But the questions and accusations have continued. Solid straight right hand from Khalif there.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One of Khalif's opponents, Angela Carini of Italy, abandoned an Olympic match last week after taking a hard punch from Khalif.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And Italy's prime minister called it a match that did not seem on equal footing.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Carini herself, meanwhile, said she doesn't object to Khalif fighting, and even said she hopes she wins gold.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Khalif will fight again today in the semifinals.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The chief spokesman for the Olympic Committee acknowledged there's a lack of consensus about how to resolve eligibility issues across women's sports, calling the topic, quote, a minefield.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, more about what the market panic could mean for the U.S. economy going forward. You can listen on The Times audio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
