On Point
Lil Nas X has broken the record for the longest running No. 1 single on the Billboard charts The young rapper deserves every moment of this victory lap. His remix, featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, managed to outrun pop music stalwarts Taylor Swift, Shawn Mendes, and Ed Sheeran for the honor. He's currently being claimed by happy black and LGBTQ+ fans, and being lauded by industry analysts as a true music marketing phenom. "Streaming has overwhelmingly been the reason why 'Old Town Road' has stayed at number one so many weeks," pop critic and chart analyst Chris Molanphy tells NPR . "But it's also been a big hit at radio and it has outsold most songs on downloads for much of the last three to four months." NPR
Staff shakeup at DCCC over diversity Top staffers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee resigned yesterday after a tense meeting about the lack of diversity in their executive ranks. First out was DCCC executive director Allison Jaslow, followed by five others, including communications director Jared Smith, and director of diversity Van Ornelas. "Today has been a sobering day filled with tough conversations that too often we avoid," said Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), the chair of the committee. "But I can say confidently that we are taking the first steps toward putting the DCCC back on path to protect and expand our majority, with a staff that truly reflects the diversity of our Democratic caucus and our party." Black and Hispanic lawmakers had become outraged by Bustos's lack of leadership on the issue, according to Politico. Politico
Former BET CEO heads to AT&T board Debra Lee, former chair and CEO of BET Networks, is leaving Twitter's board at the end of August after a three-year term and joining AT&T's. She will be the fourth woman to join the teleco's board, which is expanding to 13 members. It comes at an auspicious time. Other women on the board are Beth Mooney, chairman and CEO of KeyCorp; Cynthia Taylor, president and CEO of Oil States International; and Laura D'Andrea Tyson, professor at the Haas School of Business. Click through for Lee's extraordinary bona fides. Variety
Bruce Lee's daughter 'disheartened' by her father's portrayal in Tarantino's latest film If you're planning on seeing Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood , you might want to wait to read this discouraging assessment from Shannon Lee, the daughter of film star and martial arts icon Bruce Lee. Brad Pitt plays a stunt man, who has a run-in with a character playing Bruce Lee in the film. In her view, the encounter paints her father in a negative light, as "an arrogant asshole who was full of hot air." Even in context, it goes too far, considering how hard her father fought to be taken seriously as an Asian-American film professional, she says. "[T]hey didn't need to treat him in the way that white Hollywood did when he was alive." The Wrap
On Background
Which mass shootings deserve our attention? The editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer would like to remind you that there was another mass shooting on Sunday night, though one that didn't warrant a CNN breaking news chyron, or a Twitter hashtag. A group of young filmmakers, barely 20 years old, were filming a music video in South Philadelphia. A man opened fire, killing one, and injuring five more. Pennsylvania's attorney general referred to it as "everyday gun violence," drawing a distinction between a random act against innocent people, and a routine event in black communities. "While the former is a tragedy that deserves national attention, the latter has been relegated to a consequence of poverty that is prevalent in the black and brown communities of cities like Philadelphia." Philadelphia Inquirer
In a first, doctors use gene-editing tool to treat a patient with sickle cell disease Victoria Gray is the first patient with a genetic disorder to undergo a treatment using the CRISPR gene-editing tool. She's part of a groundbreaking study that might change the way certain disorders are treated. But that the treatment is being first applied to sickle cell disease, which primarily affects people of African descent, feels like a different sort of breakthrough. Click through for the fascinating science, which involves the patient receiving an infusion of their own genetically modified bone marrow cells. "I always had hoped that something will come along," Gray tells NPR from her hospital bed. "It's a good time to get healed." NPR
Meet Chiune Sugihara Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who was stationed in Lithuania before the start of World War II. According to this wonderful Google Doodle tribute, he began issuing travel visas to Jewish refugees on this day in 1940. In direct defiance of his official orders, he issued thousands. "I told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs it was a matter of humanity," he said later. "I did not care if I lost my job." He paid dearly for his stand. A true hero gets an elegant tribute. Google Doodle
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Quote
"Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful."
—Samyutta Nikaya, The Grouped Discourses of the Buddha, 56.11
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