NCAA Payday, Power Outages, and a dead tan.

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Big Stories

NCAA Settles with Student-Athletes for Billions

The NCAA and Power 5 conferences agreed to a settlement that will pay billions to college athletes and allow schools to share revenue with them.

• In 2020, a group of athletes sued the NCAA and its top five conferences, arguing that they deserve back pay for the time they spent playing for the colleges. Four years later, they won the suit. The NCAA and the power conferences will split $2.75 billion in damages paid to thousands of Division 1 athletes who played between 2016 and ’21.

• Each power conference school will also begin sharing broadcast revenue with players - estimated to be around $20 million per year. This agreement could begin as early as ‘25.

• Lawyers are still hammering out how much each qualified athlete will receive but the ruling delivered a major blow to the NCAA’s business model. Before the ruling, no athlete had been directly compensated by the NCAA. The association generates over $1 billion per year.

• The NCAA is still in multiple legal battles to determine whether athletes should be classified as employees. It hopes the settlement will convince Congress to pass a law preventing further athlete compensation changes and put the ongoing lawsuits to bed.

U.S. Asks for Troops to be Sent to Haiti

The Biden administration is requesting an immediate deployment of a Kenyan-led security force to Haiti after two Americans were killed there.

• The pair had been working as full-time missionaries in the country. Gangs raided a mission where the victims were leaving a church service. The gangs killed three people before police could respond to their calls for help.

• The U.S. National Security Council has pledged to support the Kenyan force's deployment. The UN and humanitarian organizations have also called for more aid for Haiti. However, many Haitians doubt the effectiveness of the foreign force, citing past intervention failures and a lack of details about the new mission.

• Gang violence has been escalating in Haiti since 2021, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. The UN estimates that over 1,500 people have been killed in gang violence this year alone. Haiti's interim government is struggling to address the crisis, and the police force is ill-equipped to offer much assistance.

Israel Claims Secondary Explosion Caused Deadly Fire

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that the bombs they dropped near a tent camp in Gaza could not have caused the large fire that killed at least 45 displaced Palestinians on Sunday.

• They believe a secondary explosion, possibly from a hidden weapons stash, started the blaze. Regardless, the airstrike was the deadliest in Rafah since early May. The Biden administration is now reviewing if the strike violated President Biden's "red lines" regarding Israel's actions in Rafah.

• Israeli officials said the strike was aimed at and killed two senior Hamas operatives, and Prime Minister Netanyahu called the fire a "tragic accident." The incident happened shortly after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop its military offensive in Rafah.

• IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari stated that the strike was aimed at a sealed building where Hamas officials were hiding. It was located away from the tent camp. He presented drone surveillance footage and claimed the IDF used small bombs that couldn't have caused such a large fire.

Little Stories

• Texas was hit by another round of severe storms on Tuesday, causing widespread power outages. Over a million customers are without power after strong winds hit Dallas and Houston, reaching hurricane force in both cities. This comes just weeks after other destructive storms impacted Texas. (More)

• After leaving the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda French Gates's first move will be donating $1 billion over two years to empower women and families. This includes supporting reproductive rights, particularly in the U.S. after the recent legal changes. She will be directing the funds through her organization Pivotal. (More)

• T-Mobile is buying most of U.S. Cellular's wireless business for $4.4 billion. The deal includes U.S. Cellular's customers, stores, and 30% of its spectrum licenses. U.S. Cellular will keep most of its licenses, towers, and other investments. (More)

• Hall of Famer Bill Walton, who won two NCAA championships with UCLA and two NBA championships, died at 71 after battling cancer. He was a college player of the year three times and NBA MVP in 1978. (More)

• Four zebrafish sent to China's space station in April are doing well but seem disoriented. They're swimming erratically, possibly due to microgravity. The experiment aims to study the effects of space on vertebrate development and create a mini ecosystem in space. (More)

Extra Credit

A question that didn’t need answering: Can a dead body still get a suntan? 

Do you live close to one of America’s largest landfills? 

How to craft the perfect cheeseburger.

Humans vs. monkeys.