Congress starts vacation early
Plus: Britney actually had to fight to release “Toxic,” producer says
Congress got to start summer vacation early because the boss is mired in controversy. Meanwhile at Astronomer, where the old boss had the decency to resign, everyone’s getting back to work.
Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end to find out how the best place to run Apache Airflow, unifying the experience of running data, ML, and AI pipelines, at scale, has influenced the streaming charts. — Hunter Schwarz
Congress starts vacation early:
The U.S. House started its August recess early last week, breaking Wednesday after House Speaker Mike Johnson said he wanted to give the White House “space” to release documents related to Jeffrey Epstein on its own time and avoid a bipartisan House vote forcing it.
“There’s no purpose for Congress to push an administration to do something that they’re already doing,” Johnson said.
The DOJ reportedly told Trump he was in the Epstein files:
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump during a routine briefing in May that his name was among the high-profile names found in documents related to Epstein. Simply being named in the files is by itself not evidence of wrongdoing. Trump previously had denied Bondi had told him that.
Trump said Monday during a meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer (that I’m sure Starmer was thrilled to be at),“I never had the privilege of going to his [Epstein’s] island, and I did turn it down,” and Trump didn’t rule out a pardon for Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell but said no one’s asked him for it. “Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon,” Trump said. “It's in the news, that aspect of it. But right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”
When you’ve lost the QAnon Shaman…:
If you’re curious how Trump is doing with his die-hard MAGA base with all this, Jacob Chansley, aka the “QAnon Shaman” who was among the Jan. 6 rioters Trump pardoned after taking office for his second term, now thinks Trump is a “fraud.”
“F*** this stupid piece of s***,” Chansley wrote on X in a since-deleted post last Wednesday.
Vance says they have nothing to hide:
The Veep isn’t turning on his boss. “We’re not shielding anything,” Vice President J.D. Vance said Monday in a stop in his home state, in Canton, Ohio about the administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
“The president has directed the attorney general to release all credible information and, frankly, to go and find additional credible information related to the Jeffrey Epstein case,” Vance said. “He's been incredibly transparent about that stuff, but some of that stuff takes time.”
Powell says he’s not resigning:
After touring the Federal Reserve with Trump last Thursday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has told allies he won’t resign amid Trump’s pressure campaign to convince him to step down or lower interest rates. That’s because he worries it would hurt the Fed’s independence from political influence.
“He feels very strongly that his responsibility is to maintain that independence,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told CNN. “I’ve asked him, and he says no, that would reduce the independence of the Federal Reserve.” Powell took his position in 2018 after Trump appointed him, and his term doesn’t end until May 2026.
A House panel voted to rename the Kennedy Center after FLOTUS:
Could Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center be renamed after First Lady Melania Trump? The House Appropriations Committee voted last week to rename the performing arts center after FLOTUS in a funding bill for the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other agencies.
Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, said on Instagram a federal statute that restricts “additional memorials or plaques” at the KenCen prevents the facility from being renamed, but if the Trump administration actually cared about things like federal statutes, we wouldn’t be here in the first place, so idk, man.
Santos goes to prison:
Diva down. Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) began his more than seven-year sentence Friday after pleading guilty last year to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and he is now in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, N.J.
“Well, darlings… The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed,” Santos wrote on X in a post with a photo of him blowing a kiss at the camera before heading to prison. “From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news what a ride it’s been! Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried… most days. To my supporters: You made this wild political cabaret worth it. To my critics: Thanks for the free press. I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust me legends never truly exit.”
Lara Trump won’t run for Senate:
For the second time in eight months, first daughter-in-law and Fox News host Lara Trump is taking herself out of the running for a U.S. Senate seat. After opting not to run for Senate in Florida late last year, Trump said last Thursday she also won’t run for Senate in her home state of North Carolina, where outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is retiring after POTUS threatened to primary him for not supporting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act over cuts to Medicaid.
“After much consideration and heartfelt discussions with my family, friends, and supporters, I have decided not to pursue the United States Senate seat in North Carolina at this time,” Trump said.
Obama calls for aid to Gaza:
Former President Barack Obama made a rare statement about foreign policy on Monday, speaking out about aid to Gaza, where 111 people have died hunger-related deaths, including 81 children, according the Gaza Health Ministry. “Aid must be permitted to reach people in Gaza,” Obama said. “There is no justification for keeping food and water away from civilian families.”
Obama said while “a lasting resolution to the crisis in Gaza must involve a return of all hostages and a cessation of Israel’s military operations,” there is an “immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation.”
Beyoncé just temporarily reunited Destiny’s Child and wrapped the biggest country tour in history:
Beyoncé ended her Cowboy Carter Tour Saturday in Las Vegas where she brought out Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams for the first Destiny’s Child reunion since the band performed together at Coachella in 2018. The trio performed “Lose My Breathe,” “Energy,” and “Bootylicious.” “Destiny’s Child, b****!” Beyoncé said.
The Cowboy Carter brought in $407.6 million over 1.6 million tickets for 32 shows. Beyoncé is now the first female artist to gross more than $400 million on two separate tours and the Cowboy Carter Tour is the highest grossing country tour in Billboard Boxscore history, according to Billboard. It’s also the shortest tour to gross more than $400 million. To make a record sum in such a short time period, Beyoncé packed more dates into fewer cities this time, stopping in arenas in just nine cities in three months.
Mariah Carey on how to become a gay icon:
Fortune Feimster guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live last week when she asked Mariah Carey how one becomes a gay icon. “I don’t know. You just have to, I think, really you have to be yourself and be the most fabulous version of yourself whenever you can,” Carey said, which sounds about right.
Britney actually had to fight to release “Toxic,” producer says:
Producer Tricky Stewart said he had four months to work with Britney Spears ahead of her 2003 album In The Zone, and he co-wrote and co-produced the album’s lead single “Me Against the Music” feat. Madonna. When it came to the follow-up single “Toxic,” produced by Bloodshy & Avant, though, Britney had to fight for it.
“Toxic was like a record that they didn’t even want it. You know, truth be told, they didn’t like it,” Stewart told the “Behind The Wall” podcast. “She had to pull some major weight around to get that record out there.” He said the experience of writing for Britney taught him the difference between hits and smashes and propelled him onto later writing Rihanna’s “Umbrella.”
“Toxic might be Britney’s biggest record and I had to go up against that record and I lost,” Stewart said.
Adam Levine is getting sued over a hurricane relief post:
The video licensing firm Global Weather Productions is suing Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine over an Instagram post he made in 2019 that used video footage of Hurricane Dorian’s damage in the Bahamas the company says he didn’t have permission to post. Levine posted the footage to ask his followers to donate to hurricane relief.
This suit is one of many. Global Weather Productions has sued media companies and content creators dozens of times since 2023, according to Billboard.
This is what Ozzy Osbourne said he wanted for his funeral:
Ozzy Osbourne, who died last week at the age of 76, wrote in a 2011 column for The Sunday Times, “I honestly don’t care what they play at my funeral; they can put on a medley of Justin Bieber, Susan Boyle, and We Are the Diddymen if it makes ’em happy — but I do want to make sure it’s a celebration, not a mope-fest.”
“I don’t want my funeral to be sad. I want it to be a time to say ‘thanks,’” he said. RIP. 🕊️
What Trump said about Hulk Hogan:
It wasn’t as good as his comments after hearing the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, but Trump said after Hulk Hogan’s passing Thursday at the age of 71, “He was MAGA all the way.”
“He wasn’t a political guy and in the last three years, I’d say, he became very political and he said I’m so angry for myself for not doing it earlier,” Trump said. “He was an unbelievable showman, I’ll tell you what, he was a physical specimen.” RIP. 🕊️
Ryan Reynold’s marketing agency did the Gwyneth Paltrow ad for Astronomer:
Maximum Effort, the production company and marketing company Ryan Reynolds started in 2018 with co-founder George Dewey, was behind Gwyneth Paltrow getting a “very temporary” gig last week as spokesperson for Astronomer.
Paltrow’s ex-husband Chris Martin, of course, fronts Coldplay, which played the show that caught the old Astronomer CEO on the kiss cam. Paltrow starred in the new, viral one-minute video that sought to put the focus on the company’s work instead of the controversy through humor and acknowledging the salacious questions without answering them.
Astronomer’s new CEO Pete DeJoy wrote on LinkedIn that he’d like “to thank the team at Maximum Effort for their remarkable work with our very temporary spokesperson.”
…And yes, Coldplay streams are up:
According to data from Luminate, Coldplay streams are up 25% since the kiss cam moment lol.
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐