On the Up and Up

Start your day smarter with the most important world news, plus intriguing and offbeat stories. www.ozy.com [OZY]() Your World. Bold & Bright [Presidential Daily Brief]( Sponsored by [Cariuma]( Start your day smarter with a dossier on the most important world news, rounded off with a shot of intriguing and offbeat stories. Like the president, you deserve no less. Jul 14, 2022 Today Rates in the U.S. are likely to rise as the world grapples with inflation. Sri Lanka waits for the president in self-exile to resign. Californians get ready: It may be time to mask up again soon. And an arrest has been made in the child rape case that galvanized the abortion rights movement. All this and more in today’s PDB. [A Gift For You]( [Cariuma]( The shoe with the [61,000-person waitlist]( is back! If you missed them the last time around, the sneakers we can’t get enough of are back - and just in time for summer! These all-season low-tops are OZY’s favorite look for dressing up or down. But don’t wait around, these comfy kicks fly off the shelves and won’t be around for long! Grab a pair with our exclusive code, [OZY20](, landing you 20% OFF. This special offer is just for OZY readers. [Snag A Pair Here]( IMPORTANT Recession Watch Interest Rate Hike All But Guaranteed With Shock Inflation Federal Reserve officials could bring in an unprecedented 1% rate rise later this month following higher-than-expected inflation numbers for June. Last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he expected 50 to 75 basis points, but 9.1% inflation in the first half of the year has watchers nervous. “Everything is in play,” Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said. The outlook for the rest of the world is equally dim: Cost-of-living increases are “only getting worse,” International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva said Wednesday. “It is going to be a tough 2022 — and possibly an even tougher 2023, with increased risk of recession.” (Sources: [Bloomberg](, [The Guardian]() Limbo Sri Lanka Holds Tight as President Holds Out on Resignation President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was expected to resign after fleeing to the Maldives Wednesday, but no resignation letter has been forthcoming. Officials in the Maldives said he boarded a flight to Singapore Thursday, en route to Saudi Arabia. Rajapaksa told the parliamentary speaker he is “under a lot of pressure and that steps will be taken to send the resignation letter as soon as possible.” Meanwhile, protesters occupying government buildings have left, saying peace and an orderly transition are important. They have largely rejected plans for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to replace Rajapaksa, saying he, too, is tainted by the economic crisis. (Sources: [The Guardian](, [CNN]() Variant Stress Californians May Have to Mask Up Again Amid Fresh Wave If the current trend of transmission of omicron strain variants continues, Los Angeles county health authorities said, an indoor mask mandate will be reintroduced. Deaths have doubled in the country’s most populous county in the last month. Public health officials warned that the exhausted public health system is again seeing a surge – county health Director Barbara Ferrer said many emergency rooms “are filled with many folks … looking for care for their COVID-related illness.” The White House is also watching numbers closely. The new variants have proved more resistant to current vaccines, sparking the Biden administration to increase alerts to the public. (Sources: [AP](, [LA Times]() Child Welfare Arrest Made in 10-Year-Old Girl Rape That Inflamed Abortion Debate Gerson Fuentes, 27, was arrested in Ohio Tuesday on charges of rape. The girl was forced to travel to neighboring Indiana to seek an abortion after being denied one in her home state with the striking down of Roe v. Wade last month, attracting headlines internationally. Indiana’s Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita said his office will investigate the local doctor who assisted her. “This is a child, and there’s a strong public interest in understanding if someone under the age of 16 or under the age of 18 or really any woman is having abortion in our state,” he said. (Sources: [USA Today](, [Politico]() Briefly Here are some things you should know about today: Tragedy. Police in South Africa arrested the owner of a bar where 21 teenagers died in mysterious circumstances last month. The cause of the deaths is yet to be released, but local sources suggest a gas leak or accidental poisoning. (Source: [Al Jazeera]() Next Top PM. Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed his front-runner status in the first round of voting to be the next Conservatives leader — and British prime minister. Another round of voting begins today. (Source: [BBC]() How Not to Win Friends. North Korea has formally recognized the independence of two Russian-backed breakaway regions in Ukraine. Kyiv immediately cut diplomatic ties. (Source: [AP]() [5 STARS FOR COMFORT]( [Cariuma]( No one likes breaking in a new pair of shoes. With [Cariuma’s]( broken-in-out-of-the-box feel, you’ll be sure to recommend them to friends! Planning on walking around town this summer? Make sure you check out their vast range of colors, prints, and exciting limited edition collabs - they have a style for every look! Excited to try them? Get [20% OFF](at checkout with your personal code, OZY20. This special offer is just for OZY readers. [LET’S GO!]( INTRIGUING Not Tonight, Honey FDA Asks: What's Really in Your Horny Honey? Is it the magic of the birds and the bees, or just undisclosed amounts of the active ingredients found in Cialis and Viagra? The Food and Drug Administration has found it to be the latter for four companies producing honey marketed as a natural alternative to help boost libido and sexual performance. The packaging, however, boasts obscure products like caviar powder and tongkat ali root — a herbal supplement from Southeast Asia — as the secret. It’s not just an embarrassingly timed erection that is risky. The pharmaceutical ingredients can cause debilitating illnesses or even death if not properly prescribed, health professionals warn. (Source: [Vice]() Debut Netflix’s Newest Production: A Microsoft-Backed, Ad-Powered Service Netflix is desperate to patch up its leaking subscriber numbers. It hopes a cheaper, advertising-backed subscription offering could bring back the millions of eyeballs that have looked away in recent months — and sent stock prices tumbling. Co-CEO Reed Hastings was against having ads on the platform but now sees it as an inevitability. Microsoft may be a little more excited about the deal. Advertising is a slowly growing area for the company and currently accounts for around 6% of revenue. A foray into streaming with the most popular established service out there will boost that figure, it hopes. (Sources: [CNBC](, [Gizmodo]() Toxic Court Hits Britney’s Dad One More Time Hand it over. That’s the order from a Los Angeles judge to Britney Spears’ father, Jamie, after the pop star’s legal team requested a tranche of documents in the ongoing fallout from her yearslong conservatorship. The order means Jamie Spears must produce all documents related to electronic surveillance of his daughter, and sit for a deposition within 30 days. His legal team has pushed for Britney to be deposed as well, saying she made ​​“incendiary allegations” on social media. “He should get on with his life, instead of continuing to litigate against his daughter,” Britney’s lawyers said after the hearing. (Sources: [Variety](, [Page Six]() Bottoms Up! New Hampshire Turns a Bad Case of Crabs Into a Party Defending the East Coast against one of the U.S.’s most invasive species? We’ll drink to that. New Hampshire’s Tamworth Distilling produces a crab whiskey that’s “a briny and better Fireball,” it brags. With around a pound of crabs used per bottle, they’re doing their part for the coastline. Green crabs have wreaked havoc on the local ecosystem, researchers say, and rising temperatures don’t help. Second-time buyers are easy, the distillery says — it’s convincing drinkers to try it that’s hard: “If you can get them to taste it, they totally change their tune for the most part,” they said. (Source: [The Smithsonian]() Longest Race UK Police Launch Marathon Investigation Into Mo Farah Trafficking Audiences across the U.K. were stunned by the four-time Olympic champion’s revelations in a documentary aired earlier this week, and Metropolitan Police specialist officers have launched an investigation. Farah was just nine when he was trafficked from Djibouti to London after fleeing civil war in Somalia. He accused a married couple of forcing him into domestic servitude and threatening he would never see his family again if he told anyone. Separately, the Home Office rejected any question Farah, now 39, would face charges. “No action whatsoever will be taken against Sir Mo and to suggest otherwise is wrong,” a spokesperson said. (Source: [The Guardian]() Catch the Newest Episodes of The Carlos Watson Show, Season 4! COMMUNITY What else are you curious about? 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