Tesla Crash Case, Afghan Resettlement, & Pickleball Origins

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Adam Rogers
July 16, 2025

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The British government revealed Tuesday it accidentally leaked personal data of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied for UK relocation after the Taliban takeover, then secretly resettled thousands who were deemed at greatest risk. The spreadsheet was mistakenly emailed in 2022, but officials only discovered the breach 18 months later when data appeared on Facebook.
To prevent the leaked data from being published more widely, the government obtained an unprecedented "super injunction" that barred media from reporting on the breach and prohibited anyone from revealing that the court order even existed. The secret £850 million resettlement program brought 4,500 Afghans to Britain while keeping Parliament and the public in the dark about the entire operation.
The judge who lifted the gag order Tuesday criticized it as the first known government super injunction, saying it created a "scrutiny vacuum" that shut down democratic accountability.

Flash flooding across the Northeast killed two people in New Jersey and caused widespread transportation chaos as heavy rain dumped over 7 inches in less than five hours Monday night. The victims died when their vehicle was swept into Cedar Brook in Plainfield during the peak rainfall.
New York City subway passengers were forced to stand on seats as floodwater poured onto platforms and into train cars, suspending some lines and severely delaying others. The flooding set a new July 14 rainfall record for NYC at 2.64 inches, while emergency crews conducted 16 water rescues in Pennsylvania, where some homes reported 5 feet of water inside.
The storm overwhelmed infrastructure across the tri-state area, temporarily closing major highways and leaving buses and trains facing delays into Tuesday morning. Some towns declared a disaster emergency to access additional recovery resources.

Tesla faces its first federal trial over Autopilot technology, with a jury deciding if the self-driving feature failed to prevent a 2019 crash that killed a university student. A federal judge ruled the family can seek punitive damages that could prove costly, making this case unusual since Tesla rarely goes to trial and usually settles crash cases.
The Model S sedan struck a parked vehicle at nearly 70 mph, killing Naibel Benavides Leon and seriously injuring her boyfriend. Plaintiffs argue Tesla's Autopilot detected the car but failed to warn the driver, while Tesla blames the crash on the distracted driver reaching for his dropped phone.
The trial threatens Tesla's robotaxi rollout plans as the company prepares to deploy hundreds of thousands of autonomous vehicles by next year. A judgment against Tesla could undermine public confidence in self-driving technology that's crucial to the company's bottom line amid declining sales.

White House budget director Russ Vought said Tuesday the administration accepted a Senate amendment exempting the global AIDS program PEPFAR from $9 billion in cuts. (More)

House Republicans voted down a Democratic push Tuesday to force the release of Jeffrey Epstein documents, the second time this week they blocked such efforts. (More)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered 2,000 of 4,000 National Guard troops withdrawn from Los Angeles after he said protests over immigration raids are cooling down. (More)

Five EU countries, France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, and Spain, will test an app that checks if users are over 18 to block children from harmful online content. (More)

French Prime Minister François Bayrou proposed cutting two public holidays, including Easter Monday and Victory Day, to help slash France's €43.8 billion budget deficit. (More)

Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers got four years in prison Tuesday for cutting down England's famous Sycamore Gap tree that appeared in Robin Hood. (More)

US stock markets closed mixed on Tuesday (S&P -0.40%, Nasdaq +0.18%, Dow -0.98%). The Dow and S&P fell on higher June inflation data, while the Nasdaq got a boost from Nvidia. (More)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the Trump administration approved selling advanced H20 AI chips to China, sending shares up over 4% Tuesday after the announcement. (More)

Bitcoin fell below $117,000 on Tuesday after cryptocurrency bills were blocked in the House, with 13 Republicans joining Democrats to defeat the measures in a 196-223 vote. (More)

For the first time ever, the MLB All-Star Game ended in a Home Run Derby-style swing-off, with the National League edging the AL 4–3 thanks to Kyle Schwarber’s three homers. (More)

Apple TV+'s "Severance" led Emmy nominations Tuesday with 27 nods, followed by "The Penguin" with 24. The 77th awards show will be held on September 14. (More)

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and union head Tony Clark said they're exploring major leaguers playing in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics during an extended All-Star break. (More)

UK scientists finished scanning 100,000 volunteers' organs over 11 years, creating the world's largest medical imaging database that researchers can use to predict diseases. (More)

Geologists found a new thermal pool in Yellowstone's Norris Basin with 109-degree blue water that formed from small underground explosions. (More)

Research shows humans increasingly use "GPT words" like "delve" and "meticulous" in speech since ChatGPT's release, suggesting AI is reshaping how we communicate naturally. (More)

How did pickleball get its name?

An erotic mosaic stolen by WWII Nazi captain returns to Pompeii.

The most common job in every state in 1998 vs. 2024.

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