TikTok star wounded in movie theater shooting has died from his injuries - CNN

Anthony Barajas, 19, died early Saturday morning, the Corona Police Department said in a news release.

"We extend our thoughts and condolences to his family and friends," the release said.

Barajas and a friend, Rylee Goodrich, 18, were at a showing of "The Forever Purge" at the Regal Edwards Movie theater in Corona on Monday, police said. The teens were friends and went to watch the movie together, according to police. Theater staff found them with gunshot wounds after the movie, according to police.

Goodrich died at the scene and Barajas was taken to a hospital for treatment where he was on life support.

Joseph Jimenez, 20, was arrested in connection with the shooting Tuesday and is being held on $2 million bail and charged with murder, attempted murder and robbery, according to an earlier CNN report. The police department said Saturday it is working with the Riverside County District Attorney's office to add another count of first-degree murder against Jimenez for Barajas' death.

CNN has reached out to the Riverside County public defender's office to determine if Jimenez has retained legal representation and has not heard back.

Jimenez was located by police at his home in El Cerrito, an unincorporated area of Corona. Police searched Jimenez' home and found a firearm and additional evidence related to the movie theater crime scene, they said.

"The Forever Purge," which debuted in theaters earlier this month, is the fifth movie in the "Purge" franchise. Each sequel is based on the premise that a totalitarian government has created one night each year where everything, including murder, is legal.

An 'unprovoked attack'

There were fewer than 10 people in the theater where Goodrich and Barajas were shot, Corona Police Capt. Paul Mercado told CNN earlier this week, yet it has not been determined if the shooting happened during or after the movie.

"They were shot in the head," Corona Police Cpl. Tobias Kouroubacalis told CNN in an email. "We will not know how many times or the exact entry point of the bullet(s) until the coroner performs their autopsies and writes their reports."

CNN has contacted the theater for comment but has not heard back.

Police believe that Jimenez, who had a movie ticket, acted alone and didn't know the victims or have any prior contact with them.

"It's an unfortunate turn of events here," said Mercado. "The public here are really looking for a motive. Right now, there is no motive. It's an unprovoked attack."

Police said that items were taken and "robbery is part of what happened during that crime," but that they are not calling it a motive in the shooting, Kouroubacalis said during a press conference held on Wednesday.

A TikTok enthusiast, a runner with a 'great heart'

Barajas had nearly 930,000 followers on TikTok and recently posted video updates from a family vacation. During high school, he was a standout soccer player at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, according to CNN affiliate KABC.

Goodrich attended Corona High School, according to KABC, and played volleyball, ran track and was a cheerleader. After high school, she received a college scholarship for Grand Canyon University's STEM program. She was in town visiting family for the summer.

Her cousin, Ashley Cole, told KABC she had a "great heart" and always willing to helping others.

Jimenez is expected to appear before a judge for arraignment in the next couple days, according to Kouroubacalis.

CNN's Jessica Flynn and Brian Lowry contributed to this report.

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Celtics Acquire Josh Richardson from Mavericks - Celtics.com

BOSTON, MA – The Boston Celtics have acquired guard Josh Richardson from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for center Moses Brown, the team announced today.

A six-year NBA veteran, Richardson, 27, has posted career averages of 12.3 points (42.7% FG, 35.8% 3-PT, 83.2% FT), 3.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.6 blocked shots, and 30.6 minutes in 373 career games (299 starts) with Miami, Philadelphia, and Dallas. He has averaged at least 10.0 points in each of his last five seasons from 2015-16 to 2020-21, including a career-high 16.6 points per game with Miami in 2018-19.

Richardson produced 12.1 points (42.7% FG, 33.0% 3-PT, 91.7% FT), 3.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.0 steals, and 30.3 minutes in 59 games (56 starts) with the Mavericks last season, marking the fourth time over the last five seasons he has recorded at least 10.0 points and 1.0 steals. The Oklahoma native was one of four NBA players to average 10.0 points and 1.0 steals while shooting at least 91.0% from the free throw line in 2020-21 (Paul/Curry/Irving).

Acquired from Oklahoma City as part of a three-player deal earlier this offseason on June 18, Brown has averaged 7.3 points (54.0% FG), and 7.6 rebounds in 52 career games over two seasons with Portland and Oklahoma City.

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Key Afghan City in Danger of Falling to the Taliban - The New York Times

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Government reinforcements arrived Saturday in Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand Province, but people were fleeing their homes and a hospital in the city had been bombed.

KABUL, Afghanistan — An important city in Afghanistan’s south was in danger of falling to the Taliban on Saturday as their fighters pushed toward its center despite concerted American and Afghan airstrikes in recent days.

Reports from Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand, a province where the Taliban already controlled much of the territory before their recent offensive, were dire: People were fleeing their homes, a hospital in the city had been bombed, and government reinforcements were only now arriving after days of delays.

“We are just waiting for the Taliban to arrive — there is no expectation that the government will be able to protect the city any more,” said Mohammadullah Barak, a resident.

What comes next in Lashkar Gah is anything but certain — the city has been on the brink of a Taliban takeover off and on for more than a decade. But if the insurgent group seizes the city this time it will be the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since 2016.

The worsening situation in Lashkar Gah is a more acute version of what is happening in cities across the country after the Taliban seized around half of Afghanistan’s 400-odd districts since U.S. and international forces began withdrawing from the country in May.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded — the highest number recorded for the May-to-June period since the United Nations began monitoring these casualties in 2009. At least 100,000 more have been displaced from their homes.

On Saturday, fighting between insurgent and government forces around Herat city, a traditionally safe area in the country’s west, edged dangerously close to its periphery. Many shops were shuttered on Saturday and Herat’s airport remained closed to civilian travel for a third day. On Friday, a U.N. compound there was attacked, and one of its guards was killed.

Security officers on Saturday outside the compound of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in the Guzara district of Herat province, Afghanistan.Hoshang Hashimi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Taliban fighters also remained entrenched in neighborhoods in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, in the country’s south. In Kunduz city, an economic hub on the Tajikistan border, efforts to root out the Taliban now garrisoned within its walls have stalled.

The government’s response to the insurgents’ recent victories has been piecemeal. Afghan forces have retaken some districts, but both the Afghan air force and its commando forces — which have been deployed to hold what territory remains as regular army and police units retreat, surrender or refuse to fight — are exhausted.

In the security forces’ stead, the government has once more looked to local militias to fill the gaps, a move reminiscent of the chaotic and ethnically divided civil war of the 1990s that many Afghans now fear will return.

In Lashkar Gah, an Afghan military officer said government forces had requested reinforcements for days without luck, and described the situation as dire. Reinforcements began arriving on Saturday evening, he said.

In May, Afghan and U.S. airstrikes pushed back an attack on the city, and a few staunch Afghan army units held what territory they could after the local police fled. But this time there is less American air support, and Afghan defense officials were frantically trying to reinforce the cities under siege to stall the Taliban advance.

Just north of Lashkar Gah, in a nearby town, the Taliban on Saturday hanged two men accused of kidnapping children from the entrance gate for all to see — a troubling indicator that the insurgents’ hard-line rule of law was inching closer to the provincial capital.

In an effort to break the siege, Afghan aircraft bombed Taliban positions in neighborhoods across Lashkar Gah Friday night, a tactic that almost always results in civilian casualties when carried out in populated areas. Emergency Hospital, one of the main surgical centers in the city, reported on social media Saturday that it was full.

Attaullah Afghan, the head of the provincial council in Helmand, said the Afghan air force had bombed a private hospital in the city after the Taliban took shelter there, killing a civilian and wounding two others. Several Taliban fighters were also killed in the strike, he said.

“Only the center of the city is free of the Taliban,” said Abdul Halim, a resident. “The city is locked and surrounded by the Taliban from all four fronts.”

Afghan forces on the front line in Lashkar Gah in May.Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Mr. Halim said that the presence of U.S. aircraft, part of a muted bombing campaign launched by the U.S. military earlier this month to slow the Taliban’s advance and boost the morale of Afghan security forces, has done little to stop the fighting during the day.

“We have no idea what is going to happen,” Mr. Halim said.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff reported from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar. Asadulah Timory contributed from Herat.

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Eviction Moratorium Set to Lapse as Biden Aid Effort Falters - The New York Times

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The administration made a last-ditch, failed appeal to extend the moratorium to buy more time for states to distribute rental aid.

A nationwide moratorium on residential evictions is set to expire on Saturday after a last-minute effort by the Biden administration to win an extension failed, putting hundreds of thousands of tenants at risk of losing shelter, while tens of billions in federal funding intended to pay their back rent sit untapped.

The expiration was a humbling setback for President Biden, whose team has tried for months to fix a dysfunctional emergency rent relief program to help struggling renters and landlords. Running out of time and desperate to head off a possible wave of evictions, the White House abruptly shifted course on Thursday, throwing responsibility to Congress and prompting a frenzied — and ultimately unsuccessful — rescue operation by Democrats in the House on Friday.

The collapse of those efforts reflected the culmination of months of frustration, as the White House pushed hard on states to speed housing assistance to tenants — with mixed results — before the moratorium expired. Hampered by a lack of action by the Trump administration, which left no real plan to carry out the program, Mr. Biden’s team has struggled to build a viable federal-local funding pipeline, hindered by state governments that view the initiative as a burden and the ambivalence of many landlords.

As a result, the $47 billion Emergency Rental Assistance program, to date, disbursed only $3 billion — about 7 percent of what was supposed to be a crisis-averting infusion of cash.

Adding to the urgency, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh warned last month, when the Supreme Court allowed a one-month extension of the eviction moratorium to stand, that any further extensions would have to go through Congress. But there was little chance that Republicans on Capitol Hill would agree, and by the time White House officials asked, only two days remained before the freeze expired, angering Democratic leaders who said they had no time to build support for the move.

“Really, we only learned about this yesterday,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had publicly and privately urged senior Biden administration officials to deal with the problem themselves.

“What a devastating failure to act in a moment of crisis,” said Diane Yentel, the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which had pressed for an extension of the moratorium. “As the Delta variant surges and our understanding of its dangers grow, the White House punts to Congress in the final 48 hours and the House leaves for summer break.”

The federal eviction moratorium, put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in November, was effective, reducing by about half the number of eviction cases that normally would have been filed since last fall, according to an analysis of filings by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

Advocates have argued it is also a public health imperative, because evictions make it harder for people to socially distance.

The lapse of the federal freeze is offset by other pro-tenant initiatives that are still in place. Many states and localities, including New York and California, have extended their own moratoriums, which should blunt some of the effect. In some places, judges, cognizant of the potential for a mass wave of displacement, have said they would slow-walk cases and make greater use of eviction diversion programs.

On Friday, several government agencies, including the Federal Housing Finance Agency, along with the Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs Departments, announced that they would extend their eviction moratoriums until Sept. 30.

Nonetheless, there is the potential for a rush of eviction filings beginning next week — in addition to the more than 450,000 eviction cases already filed in courts in the largest cities and states since the pandemic began in March 2020.

An estimated 11 million adult renters are considered seriously delinquent on their rent payment, according to a survey by the Census Bureau, but no one knows how many renters are in danger of being evicted in the near future.

Bailey Bortolin, a tenants’ lawyer who works for the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers, said the absence of the moratorium would lead many owners to dump their backlog of eviction cases into the courts next week, prompting many renters who received an eviction notice to simply vacate their apartments rather than fight it out.

“I think what we will see on Monday is a drastic increase in eviction notices going out to people, and the vast majority won’t go through the court process,” Ms. Bortolin said.

The moratorium had been set to expire on June 30, but the White House and C.D.C., under pressure from tenants groups, extended the freeze until July 31, in the hopes of using the time to accelerate the flow of rental assistance.

A crash effort followed, led by Gene Sperling, who was appointed in March to oversee Mr. Biden’s pandemic relief efforts, including emergency rental assistance programs created by coronavirus aid laws enacted in 2020 and 2021.

Mr. Sperling, working with officials in the Treasury Department, moved to loosen application requirements and increase coordination among the state governments, legal aid lawyers, housing court officials and local nonprofits with expertise in mediating landlord-tenant disputes.

In June, 290,000 tenants received $1.5 billion in pandemic relief, according to Treasury Department statistics released last week. To date, about 600,000 tenants have been helped under the program.

But administration officials concede the improvements have not progressed quickly enough. Over the past week, Mr. Sperling; Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council; Susan Rice, Mr. Biden’s top domestic policy adviser; and Ms. Rice’s deputy on housing policy, Erika C. Poethig, made a late plea for Mr. Biden to extend the freeze, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

Dana Remus, the White House counsel, expressed concerns that an extension was not a legally available option, and other officials suggested it could prompt the Supreme Court to strike down the administration’s broad use of public health laws to justify a range of federal policies, and their view prevailed, the officials said.

In a statement Friday evening, Mr. Biden sought to put the onus on local officials to provide housing aid, saying “there can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants.”

“Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can,” he added.

In the past week, Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary overseeing the program, had sent letters to officials in several localities, including New York, warning that their share of the cash could be taken back if it was not spent by mid-September, according to two senior administration officials. The White House is especially concerned about the sluggish pace of spending in Florida.

Emily A. Benfer, a professor at Wake Forest University who specializes in health and housing law, said it was not entirely fair to blame the states, because many local governments had had to build their rental assistance programs from scratch.

It has also been difficult to gain buy-in from landlords, who are required to fill out complex financial forms and follow strict eligibility rules. Some simply do not want to, especially if they have more informal arrangements with tenants. In addition, many landlords and tenants, do not even know the aid program exists.

Big and small landlords are nearly unanimous in their disdain for the C.D.C.’s moratorium and the patchwork of state and local moratoriums that have augmented it.

“They just said ‘You cannot evict and that’s it,” said Shaker Viswanathan, 65, who owns 16 units in San Diego. “The tenants are the ones that they are trying to take care of, and not anybody else. We still have to make mortgage payments.”

If there is one point both tenants and landlords agree on, it is that gaining access to the money remains difficult, and the process must be streamlined.

“These applications are just a bear” said Zach Neumann, a lawyer who runs the Covid-19 Eviction Defense Project in Denver, which has received dozens of calls and emails from renters panicked by the end of the freeze. “It adds a ton of time onto the process and that increases the risk for tenants.”

Evictions can be personal crises for all involved — so traumatic, in fact, that many tenants will often leave without resisting just to avoid the ordeal, according to marshals and sheriffs responsible for showing up at people’s doors, hauling out their belongings and locking them out.

Kristen Randall, a constable who oversees evictions in the Tucson area, has been reaching out to people on both sides to figure out what happens next.

It is a mixed, cloudy picture. Some landlords who are waiting for tenants to get rental assistance are in no rush to evict. Others are planning to take legal action next week to enforce judgments against tenants they have already taken to court.

Ms. Randall spent part of Friday visiting renters who faced imminent eviction.

“It has been an emotional day,” she said.

Ms. Randall repeated what she has been telling those tenants: “When you leave on your own, it is better than me showing up and locking you out.”

Ron Lieber contributed reporting.

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Jan. 6 committee faces decision on whether to call McCarthy, Jordan, Trump to testify - The Washington Post

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The leaders of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are promising a vigorous inquiry into a day they have called a threat to American Democracy, which could lead to an unprecedented legal and political showdown over how to force members of Congress to take the witness stand.

Several congressional Republicans have admitted to having some contact with President Donald Trump during the insurrection or in the days leading up to it, making their testimony potentially key to the panel’s stated goal of being “guided solely by the facts.”

The Jan. 6 panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), said in an interview that there is “no reluctance to subpoena” any member of Congress “whose testimony is germane to the mission of the select committee” if they resist cooperating voluntarily.

Thompson said the panel will be seeking the White House telephone and visitor logs to further scrutinize which members were in touch with the White House on Jan. 6.

“I would say between noon and 6 p.m., any call that went to the White House, you assume had to be something that had to do with it,” he said.

But legal experts said there is little precedent for forcing lawmakers to testify as part of a congressional inquiry if they resist a subpoena, an issue members of the Jan. 6 panel said they have yet to fully investigate or plan for as they plot out the next steps of their probe.

“I don’t know what the precedent is, to be honest,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the committee who oversaw the first impeachment trial of Trump and has one of the heftiest investigative résumés in the House. “Obviously we will have to look into all those questions.”

Some congressional Republicans strayed from party leaders' message and called for a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in interviews on May 23. (JM Rieger/The Washington Post)

Members of the executive branch have often avoided or delayed for years appearing before Congress by asserting executive privilege. Lawmakers on the Jan. 6 panel are hoping that tactic will be less useful to former Trump administration officials after the Justice Department recently said it would break from tradition and not invoke that privilege with regard to inquires regarding the attack on the Capitol.

But while the steps are clear — if arduous — for compelling administration officials to testify, that’s not the case when it comes to lawmakers.

“I don’t recall a case where members of Congress were subpoenaed to an oversight hearing,” said Stanley Brand, an expert on congressional ethics investigations and the former House counsel from 1976 to 1983.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) have been the recent subject of questions about which members could be called to appear before the select committee.

Earlier this year, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) described what McCarthy told her about a phone call he had with Trump on Jan. 6 in which he asked the president to help calm his supporters who had broken in to the Capitol.

“When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement in February, referring a to a loosely knit group of far-left activists. “McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.’ ”

Jordan for months has seemed to indicate that he spoke to Trump that day, but would obfuscate when asked specifically if he talked to him on Jan. 6, saying he spoke to the former president all the time. But this week he confirmed to a local television reporter that he did talk to Trump while not revealing the content of their discussion or what time the phone call occurred.

“I spoke with him that day, after?” Jordan said during an interview with Spectrum News, in which he was asked to clarify previous comments. “I think after. I don’t know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don’t know. … I don’t know when those conversations happened.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on July 22 said past statements by Republican congressmen made it “impossible” for them to serve on the Jan. 6 committee. (The Washington Post)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently rejected Jordan and one other of the five members McCarthy proposed to represent the minority side on the select committee, prompting GOP leaders to boycott the panel. Jordan’s contacts with Trump were among the reasons Democrats cited for keeping him off the select committee, for which the only Republican representation is Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), both appointed by Pelosi.

Cheney has said both McCarthy and Jordan could be called as witnesses.

On Thursday, McCarthy said that if the panel had included the five members he recommended, Republicans would have “gladly” appeared before it as witnesses. When asked later if he personally would comply with a potential subpoena, he laughed. Jordan has declined to say whether he would testify.

Other lawmakers who could be of interest to the panel include Rep. Greg Pence (R-Ind.), former vice president Mike Pence’s older brother who was with him that day, and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who participated in the same rally as Trump on Jan. 6. Across the Capitol, Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) also spoke to Trump. The president accidentally called Lee looking for Tuberville, who spoke with Trump for several minutes after being passed the phone by Lee and before the senators were evacuated from the chamber.

Lawmakers who spoke with the vice president or White House officials could also be potential targets.

Members of the Democratic caucus have been careful to say how they want the committee to run the investigation, while making clear they want any Republicans with potentially pertinent information to testify.

“It’s not just progressives, it’s the country wants to know what happened and in order to know what happened and to make sure it never happens again,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “We have to bring in a number of those individuals. People who are in Congress who may have been involved.”

The issue could be politically tricky for Democrats. While panel members have brushed aside any concerns about setting a precedent for forcing a member to appear as a witness, it’s an almost certainty Republicans would look to retaliate if they were to take back control of the House after the 2022 midterms. The committee could also potentially have to rely on a vote of the full House to compel any testimony, which could be difficult if any Democratic members balk at the idea given the party’s slim majority.

Some Hill aides have speculated that whether a member has to testify could wind up being an issue for the Ethics Committee, while acknowledging that too would be unchartered territory.

“The House rules say that members shall reflect credibly on the House,” Brand said. “I’m sure that somebody could formulate a theory that says you’re duty bound to respond to a subpoena.”

Members who exhaust their legal options and are forced to testify could invoke their right against self-incrimination, according to legal experts, but that could be a politically damaging stance to take, particularly during a public hearing.

When members have testified in the past it has been to advocate their policy views or as part of an ethics investigation involving their behavior. There are also instances in which members have voluntarily agreed to testify in complex investigations. In 2017, for instance, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) agreed to be deposed in a GOP-led House Intelligence Committee investigation of Trump’s alleged Russia ties.

Jessica Levinson, director of Loyola Law School’s public service institute, said the fact that there is even a discussion about whether a member’s role or relevance to an assault on Congress can be used to force them to testify reflects the breakdown in political norms since Trump was elected and the divisiveness that now accompanies even something as seemingly unifying as investigating a violent attack on the Capitol.

“We’ve never been here before — but if we had been here before, really, we’re in deep trouble,” she said.

So far, most rank-and-file House Republicans have taken a wait-and-see approach regarding the issue of their colleagues appearing before the Jan. 6 panel.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said that while it’s “appropriate” for members to question whether a subpoena is justified, “if the court orders you to testify, I think you’ve got to follow a court order.”

Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), meanwhile, whom McCarthy had pitched as one of his five picks to serve on the panel, said only that he hoped “any subpoena process is not just a partisan attack.”

The Jan. 6 committee is looking beyond former Trump officials and Republican lawmakers for its witness list.

Thompson said he intends to press the Justice Department for access to many of the people who are presently facing federal charges for their participation in the attack — particularly those who have pleaded guilty. More than 550 people who took part in the riot or its planning have been charged with federal crimes so far, including 165 who are accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

“If somebody’s pled guilty, and if in return they’re offering some information, that could be helpful — either to further prosecutions or to the benefit of our investigation,” Thompson said in an interview. “We don’t want to impede the prosecutions, but we think there’s a body of information that would be germane to what we’re doing. … We need a process of expediting requests.”

Thompson later added that discussions with Justice Department officials to put such things in motion will begin next week. He also expressed optimism that the department will abide by its recent promise to the House Oversight and Senate Judiciary committees not to prevent Justice officials from testifying in Jan. 6 probes. He added that he hoped that the Pentagon and other agencies would follow suit.

Thompson expressed confidence turf battles with other committees over witnesses would not be an issue.

“The chairs of the committees have said, if we’re going down a path that you all see yourselves going, we’ll get out of the way,” he said.

Thompson has promised to issue “quite a few” subpoenas in the coming weeks and months, but will not say where he plans to start — or whether Trump will be on the list.

“If we get an inkling that there’s any resistance with providing the committee some of this information, boom, here comes the subpoena,” he said. “We’re not there yet.”

“Nobody has said no,” he added coyly, “but we’ve not made any requests yet.”

Paul Kane contributed to this report.

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5 lessons from Duolingo's bellwether edtech IPO of the year - TechCrunch

Duolingo landed onto the public markets this week, rallying excitement and attention for the edtech sector and its founder cohort. The language learning business’ stock price soared when it began to trade, even after the unicorn raised its IPO price range, and priced above the raised interval.

Duolingo’s IPO proves that public market investors can see the long-term value in a mission-driven, technology-powered education concern; the company’s IPO carries extra weight considering the historically few edtech companies that have listed.

Duolingo’s IPO proves that public market investors can see the long-term value in a mission-driven, technology-powered education concern; the company’s IPO carries extra weight considering the historically few edtech companies that have listed.

For those that want the entire story of Duolingo, from origin to messy monetization to historical IPO, check out our EC-1. It has dozens of interviews from executives, investors, linguists and competitors.

For today, though, we have fresh additions. We sat down with Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn earlier in the week to discuss not only his company’s IPO, but also what impact the listing may have on startups. Duolingo’s IPO can be looked at as a case study into consumer startups, mission-driven companies that monetize a small base of users, or education companies that recently hit scale. Paraphrasing from von Ahn, Duolingo doesn’t see itself as just an edtech company with fresh branding. Instead, it believes its growth comes from being an engineering-first startup.

Selling motivation, it seems, versus selling the fluency in a language is a proposition that international consumers are willing to pay for, and an idea that investors think can continue to scale to software-like margins.

1. The IPO event will bring “more sophistication” to Duolingo’s core service

Duolingo has gone through three distinct phases: Growth, in which it prioritized getting as many users as it could to its app; monetization, in which it introduced a subscription tier for survival; and now, education, in which it is focusing on tacking on more sophisticated, smarter technology to its service.

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Key moments from the Olympic Games: Day 8 - ABC News

Here's what you missed from Day 8 of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

July 31, 2021, 2:13 PM

• 18 min read

Each day, ABC News will give you a roundup of key Olympic moments from the day’s events in Tokyo, happening 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time. After a 12-month delay, the unprecedented 2020 Summer Olympics is taking place without fans or spectators and under a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky bring home the gold, make history

Rising superstar Caeleb Dressel dominated the field in the Men's 100m butterfly, setting a new world record of 49.45 seconds. Meanwhile, established super star Katie Ledecky won the 800m freestyle yesterday and with it became the first female swimmer to win six individual gold medals in the Olympics.

The wins were each their third gold medal at the 2020 Games, Dressel now has four total Olympic gold medals for his career while Ledecky has now won seven.

Caeleb Dressel of the United States swims in the men's 100m butterfly on July 31, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.

Katie Ledecky of Team USA poses with her two Gold and two Silver medals after a giving a press conference to the media during the Tokyo Olympic Games on July 31, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

Simone Biles withdraws from individual vault and uneven bars finals

U.S. gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of the individual finals competitions for vault and uneven bars after withdrawing from individual all-around finals earlier this week. "She will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether to compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam,” USA gymnastics said in a statement.

Team USA’s MyKayla Skinner, who finished with the fourth-highest score during qualifications, will replace Biles.

Simone Biles is seen at training on July 22, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

Mykayla Skinner of Team United States competes on uneven bars during Women's Qualification on day two of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on July 25, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

COVID-19 cases at Tokyo Olympics rise to 246, cases in Tokyo area set new record high

There were 21 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 among people at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, all from games concerned personnel or Olympic contractors. The total now stands at 246, according to data released by the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.

The surrounding city of Tokyo reported 4,058 new cases on Saturday, a 7-day average increase of 217.0%, according to data released by the Tokyo metropolitan government.

People are seen in the streets of Harajuku shopping area during the state of emergency, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan July 31, 2021.

Djokovic leaves Olympics empty-handed after withdrawal from bronze medal match

What could have been a historic Olympics for Serbia's Novak Djokovic has resulted in frustration and injury. Djokovic's dreams of achieving a Golden Slam were dashed after a loss to Alexander Zverev yesterday, and the world's top-ranked tennis player lost again today in the bronze medal match to Pablo Carreño Busta, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.

Afterward, Djokovic was due back on court for his bronze medal match in mixed-doubles but withdrew from the match citing a left-shoulder injury, according to The Associated Press.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic smashes his racket during his Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games men's singles tennis match for the bronze medal against Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta at the Ariake Tennis Park in Tokyo on July 31, 2021.

Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, reacts after being defeated by Pablo Carreno Busta, of Spain, in the bronze medal match of the tennis competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 31, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.

Elaine Thompson-Herah defends 100m gold, Poland wins mixed-relay

The second day of track events featured an Olympic-record run by Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica in the 100m and the first gold medal in the mixed-gender 4x400 relay for Poland.

Thompson-Herah successfully defended her 2016 gold medal in the 100m with an Olympic record time of 10.61 seconds. Jamaica swept the event with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce taking silver and Shericka Jackson the bronze.

Poland was victorious in the first mixed-gender 4x400 relay in the 2020 Games, setting a new Olympic record set just 24 hours earlier. The U.S. team won the bronze.

Elaine Thompson-Herah of Team Jamaica celebrates after winning the gold medal in the Women's 100m Final on day eight of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on July 31, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

Poland celebrates after winning the 4 x 400-meter mixed relay final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 31, 2021, in Tokyo.

U.S. men’s basketball team finds its stride

After the first game loss to France, Team USA found its rhythm in the last two games, finishing the group round with a 119-84 win against Czech Republic. The effort was led by Jayson Tatum with 27 points and helped the team secure a spot in the quarterfinals

Bam Adebayo of Team United States drives to the basket against Jan Vesely during the first half of a Men's Basketball Preliminary Round Group A game on day eight of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Saitama Super Arena on July 31, 2021 in Saitama, Japan.

BMX freestyle makes Olympic Debut

The 2020 Olympic Games has been a monumental moment in the history of action sports. Not only have surfing and skateboarding made it to the world’s largest stage, but the cycling discipline has also expanded to include BMX freestyle for the first time. Preliminary rounds were held today, with Team USA's Hannah Roberts topping the women's division in the park competition. The finals in are park scheduled for tomorrow’s events.

Charlotte Worthington of Team Great Britain jumps during the Women's BMX Freestyle seeding event, run 1 on day eight of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Urban Sports Park on July 31, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

US baseball wins second game against South Korea

The U.S. team won its second game over South Korea 4-2 today, coming off of an 8-1 victory over Israel in yesterday’s competition. The Tokyo Games brought back baseball to the Olympics for the first time since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Nick Allen of the United States celebrates a home run with teammates on July 31, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

More scenes from today's action:

Members of the French women's track cycling team round the track during a training session inside the Izu velodrome at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 31, 2021, in Izu, Japan.

Piotr Lisek of Poland reacts after competing in the men's pole vault on July 31, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

Katie Ledecky of Team United States competes in the Women's 800m Freestyle Final at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 31, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

Jamaica's Tajay Gayle competes in the men's long jump qualification during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on July 31, 2021.

France's Chloe Valentini jumps to shoot during the women's preliminary round group B handball match between Russia and France of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo on July 31, 2021.

Sheila Chajira of Team Kenya puts a fend on Ghislaine Landry of Team Canada in the women's on July 31, 2021 in Chofu, Tokyo, Japan.

Verena Steinhauser of Italy walks past other competitors in the Triathlon Mixed Relay of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo, Japan, July 31, 2021.

Australia's Dani Stevens competes in the women's discus throw qualification during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on July 31, 2021.

Catch up on the best moments from the previous days' events

For more Olympics coverage, see: https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/Olympics

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Belichick: Patriots starting from scratch, but Cam Newton's 'our starting quarterback' - NFL.com

Training camp is for competition, preparation, improvement and evaluation in the NFL. It's also an essential period for making decisions on a franchise's immediate future.

Bill Belichick has made such a decision at quarterback, at least for now. After spending a first-round pick on the position and increasing the rate of pay for veteran Cam Newton , the Patriots do not appear to have deviated from their assumed plan: start Newton, let Mac Jones develop, and see where the two are as the season progresses.

Saturday offered an interesting admission from Belichick, though, who relayed the Patriots' usual evaluation process to reporters in Foxborough and sounded as if he wasn't so certain about the situation under center.

"We'll take a look at the whole situation. I don't think you want to evaluate players at any position off of one or two plays or maybe a day," Belichick said. "From a consistency standpoint, that's always important, and obviously production. Hopefully those things will be good, and I'm sure it will be a hard decision. But we'll see how it goes. Let 'em play and try to do what we feel like is best for the team based on their performance."

That statement sounds a lot like Belichick is very much still evaluating his signal-callers, leading to a question about a potential timeframe for naming a starter. Belichick quickly ripped away any potential intrigue regarding the position with his response.

"No," Belichick responded. "I mean, Cam's our starting quarterback, I think I've said that."

Essentially, Belichick is more comfortable going with what he knows, even if what he knows (Newton) he's only known as a Patriot for a year. Jones would have to mount a stunning push for the starting job as it currently stands.

Belichick managed to circle back to the usual coach speak of this time of year in regards to camp competition, but it did seem to have added truth to it after such a busy offseason. There's more to figure out than just who will be receiving the snap from center.

"That's right. Everyone does start from scratch," Belichick said. "Again, we all have to re-establish ourselves and that goes for a lot of other players that you could name as well that I'm sure in your mind you think they're starters and maybe they are and probably will be starters. But they all have to re-establish their positions. That's across the board for the whole team. That doesn't pertain to one particular position."

New England is at somewhat of a pivotal point in its franchise's history following a subpar first season without Tom Brady. The Patriots spent accordingly in the spring, but the money only matters when the production matches it. The work toward such output has already begun and stretches far beyond the one calling the cadence, but as we all know, the quarterback is the linchpin.

Right now (and seemingly for the near future), that essential figure is Newton.

Training camp is finally here! Be sure to check outNFL Network's extensive live coverage, including Inside Training Camp every day and highlighted by Training Camp: Back Together Saturday Fueled by Gatorade on July 31.

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New Orleans EMS can't keep up with calls due to the Covid-19 surge as mayor restores a mask mandate - CNN

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"Thanks to the Delta variant, the Covid pandemic is once again raging out of control." New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference.

"We have been here before; we've seen the movie. ... What was once unpreventable, today is preventable. And it's through our people getting vaccinated."

Over the past week, the city saw more than 1,000 new Covid-19 cases, Cantrell said. And the daily case average also spiked to 272, up from 104 last week, she said.

"This is a very dangerous number," she said. "Our children are dying. From two weeks old to two years old to four years old. You cannot make it up. Our children are dying."

The mayor's mask mandate is effective immediately and applies to indoor settings and large outdoor crowds. The mayor is also requiring all city employees to get vaccinated.

More than 71% of New Orleans city employees are vaccinated, but that is not good enough, Cantrell said.

"You really need that mask on, period -- whether you are vaccinated and, of course, if you are unvaccinated," she said.

As for the EMS, Cantrell said, "We currently do not have the capacity to respond to 911 calls that come from our community right now."

With only 36.8% of Louisiana's population fully vaccinated, the state saw the country's highest case rate per 100,000 people over the past week at 573.3 cases, federal health shows.

The state's seven-day death rate per 100,000 people is 1.7, the third-highest in the nation, with Nevada being the highest and Arkansas in second, according to the federal data published Friday.

The rise in cases has pushed Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards to seriously consider a mask mandate.

"The Delta variant is a game-changer, and at this point, it's not whether we vaccinate or mask, we have to do both," Edwards said Friday at a news conference.

"Right now at least 83.7% of all the Covid cases in our region is a result of the Delta variant, and so anyone who is Covid positive in Louisiana should assume that it is from the Delta variant, and ultimately you have to take the same precautions, regardless," he said.

The variant has been spreading throughout the country, alarming health officials. Safety restrictions and mask guidances are making a return as cases rose by at least 10% in nearly every US state in the last week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The variant spreads quicker and more easily than the first coronavirus strain and can infect fully vaccinated people whose symptoms are usually milder.

And with lagging vaccination numbers, children are bearing the brunt of new cases.

Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is experiencing a spike in Covid-19 cases now that is twice what they saw in the pandemic's initial surge last year, said Dr. Trey Dunbar, the hospital's president.

"We've seen over the past couple of weeks a pretty dramatic increase," Dunbar told CNN by phone Friday. "A good number more of children are requiring hospitalization."

The hospital is currently treating seven Covid-19 patients, but Dunbar estimated eight to 12 patients are being admitted per day. The hospital is up to about six admissions per day with about 50% of those patients going to the ICU, according to Dunbar.

Meanwhile, Louisiana's Caddo Parish will require everyone to wear masks in its facilities and buildings starting Monday. According to the state health department, 32% of the parish's population is fully vaccinated.

CNN's Hannah Sarisohn, Jeremy Grisham, Deanna Hackney, and Paul P. Murphy contributed to this report.

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