Good morning! It happened again. Abraham Lincoln lost his head in Washington. A local elementary school installed a huge wax statue of him in February. Surprising no one but the people who put it there, the wax was no match for D.C.’s summer heat.

CRIME

⚖️ U.S. drops charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

The Biden administration dropped a longstanding American quest for the head of Julian Assange on a silver platter. Okay, that's an exaggeration. Sort of.

What’s this about? Julian Assange is an Australian journalist who founded leaked documents site WikiLeaks.org in 2006. Assange’s legal troubles kicked into high gear after he published thousands of leaked U.S. diplomatic documents in 2010.

• Not surprisingly, the feds wanted to toss him in a cell and throw away the key.

• The leaker, Chelsea Manning, later spent time in prison for theft and espionage.

Assange has been in hiding or in prison since late 2010. He was initially arrested by Sweden for sexual assault charges (that were later dropped). He fled Sweden and Ecuador gave him asylum in their London embassy.

• Embassies are basically considered foreign soil, so despite their desires, British police couldn’t arrest him. He lived there until Ecuador got sick of him in 2019.

• Unbeknownst to Assange, he was being spied on the entire time. The embassy’s third-party security staff consistently leaked his activities to the CIA.

When Ecuador got sick of him, Assange went from one tiny room to another (only with worse food). British police arrested him immediately and he’s spent the past five years in prison there.

• Since then, it’s been a legal back-and-forth between half the planet and Assange’s attorneys.

• The U.K. planned to hand him over to the U.S. (that’s what friends are for). But British judges wouldn’t let him go unless the U.S. promised not to execute him.

Assange is Australian and his country’s government has long wanted their man to come home.

They got their wish this week when the U.S. government agreed to give up the chase. Assange was released by the Brits and taken to a U.S. federal court. He pleaded guilty to violating the Espionage Act and was sentenced to time served (that five years in British prison).

• His hearing took place at the U.S. courthouse in the Northern Mariana Islands, a little U.S. territory in the South Pacific. Assange (understandably) refused to travel to the mainland U.S.

• Assange has plenty of fans who consider him a freedom fighter. But his detractors will note that his leaks resulted in the murder of Afghans who assisted the U.S. military during the War in Afghanistan and hurt U.S. diplomatic interests around the world.

Related: Donald Trump has promised to settle a government score with another figure popular with many libertarians. Should he win the election, Trump says he’ll commute the life sentence of Ross Ulbricht, founder of dark web black market site Silk Road.

In other U.S. news…

1. 🩺 The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murphy, declared gun violence a public health crisis for the first time and began a push for tighter gun laws.

2. ⚖️ Two federal courts blocked President Biden's student loan forgiveness program, saying it was not properly authorized by Congress.

3. 🌴 U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is likely to lose next week’s election. Rumors are he’s dumping London for California, where he already owns a $7 million beach house.

POLITICS

⚪ Two old men will yell at each other on TV for 90 minutes tomorrow night starting at 9 p.m. Eastern. The first presidential debate of 2024 will air on CNN and stream on Max and on CNN.com. Unlike previous shows run by the Commission on Presidential Debates, this one won’t be available on every network. It’s also the earliest debate ever (these things are usually in the fall). CNN plans to keep things in check by muting the candidates’ mics when it’s not their turn to speak.

🔴 Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) may or may not be on Donald Trump’s shortlist for VP. But he will appear at Trump’s post-debate rally in Virginia on Friday. Trump hopes to become the first Republican to win the state since 2004.

🔵 Joe Biden's campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, conceded that Florida (the former king of swing states) is not in play this year. Her comments were quickly refuted by a campaign press release.

Election results from last night:

• 🔵 Left-winger (and wannabe fire marshal) Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) got shellacked in the Democratic primary last night as he sought a third term.

• 🔴 Right-winger (and PDA aficionado) Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) move clear across the state to run in a different district paid off. She easily won her crowded primary.

TRIVIA

American electricity usage is, predictably, at record-high levels. But the type of power we use is changing. What percentage of U.S. electricity will come from solar this month?

Hint: It’s the same as RFK Jr.’s national polling average.

WORLD

🇪🇺 European Union: Ukraine and Moldova, its little neighbor to the west, both kicked off their accession talks with the EU yesterday. Joining the EU is a years-long process that began in 2022 and has been fast-tracked due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

🇮🇱 Israel: Israel’s political environment was thrown into chaos this week. Its Supreme Court ruled that "ultra-orthodox” Jewish men must serve in the military just like everyone else. They were previously exempt from the country's mandatory service for religious reasons.

🇰🇪 Kenya: Barack Obama's half-sister was among the protestors who got tear-gassed by police as a mob tried to storm the capitol over an unpopular tax bill. Violence erupted, parliament was set on fire, and at least five people died in the chaos.

BRIEFS

• Pigs sprouted wings as the IRS apologized to billionaire Ken Griffin for leaking his private tax information

• A century-old dam in Minnesota partially failed amid catastrophic floods that have killed at least two in the Midwest

• Rivian stock soared by 40% after Volkswagen announced it would invest $5 billion in the electric truck and SUV startup

• Elder Millennials were shaken to their cores as the dormant MTV News site got pulled offline by parent company Paramount Global

• OpenAI's official ChatGPT desktop app for Mac is now available to non-premium users

QUOTE

SNACKS

🏆 The (other) Stanley Cup: The (Miami area) Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers to win their first-ever NHL championship and extend Canada’s dry spell. In what is surely a long-running national embarrassment, no Canadian team has won ice hockey’s big prize since 1993.

🏀 Big promotions: A former volunteer fourth-grade boys basketball coach just got promoted to become head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Sure, he played 15 seasons in the NBA and cohosts a podcast with LeBron. But still, big jump.

🎤 Hitmakers: Sabrina Carpenter of "Girl Meets World" fame and nothing else grabbed her first #1 single with this month's drop of "Please Please Please."

ANSWER

According to a clean-energy group in London, “nearly 7%” of U.S. electricity this month will come straight from the sun.