Here’s the biggest news you missed this weekend.
UAW strike
The United Auto Workers continued to strike through the weekend as negotiations continued with the Big Three carmakers. The union said Saturday its talks with Ford were “reasonably productive,” but UAW President Shawn Fain lashed out at all three companies, saying they have threatened to lay off nonunion workers as a tactic to get members to settle sooner for less.
A number of legislators showed their support for the striking workers, and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., joined the picket line Saturday.
President Joe Biden dispatched a team that plans to be in Detroit “early in the week” to help resolve the strike, an administration official told NBC News on Sunday.
The president named White House adviser Gene Sperling and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su to help end the walkout. The administration official said their goal was not to serve as mediators or to intervene but to “help support the negotiations in any way the parties feel is constructive.”
Auto workers’ demands
- One of the top goals of the United Auto Workers is to eliminate “tiered” compensation at the Big Three. The union argues that the arrangements leave many employees with steeper climbs up the wage-and-benefits ladder than some of their colleagues.
Drew Barrymore reverses course on talk show
Drew Barrymore’s plans to bring her daytime talk show back amid the dual Hollywood strikes have been scrapped. After days of criticism, Barrymore said she’s decided to press “pause” after receiving blowback from her decision.
“I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt,” Barrymore posted to Instagram Sunday, “and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today.”
Barrymore received criticism from fellow actors and the Writers Guild of America, and the National Book Foundation rescinded its invitation for her to host its annual book awards.
Lee makes landfall
Atlantic storm Lee made landfall Saturday afternoon as a post-tropical cyclone near the U.S.-Canada border, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, slightly less then hurricane strength.
Thousands were without power Saturday as New England and Canada were hit with heavy rain, strong winds and coastal flooding, with a high surf advisory in effect for much of Maine’s coast through Sunday morning.
As of Sunday morning, Lee was still bringing torrential rains to the region, but according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, “gradual weakening is forecast during the next couple of days” and the storm could dissipate Tuesday.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton acquitted of corruption charges
The Texas Senate acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton of 16 articles of impeachment Saturday, thwarting an effort to remove him from office over allegations of corruption.
The articles of impeachment accused Paxton of accepting bribes from a campaign donor, improperly firing employees who reported his actions to federal authorities, lying about his actions, misusing government funds to dispute their allegations and more.
While House Republicans’ investigation was largely done in secret, state senators faced months of political pressure leading up to the trial and former President Donald Trump made it clear he was backing Paxton.
Meet the Press
Kristen Welker made her debut as the new moderator of “Meet the Press” on Sunday, featuring a lengthy interview with former President Donald Trump that touched on everything from war in Ukraine to why former first lady Melania Trump has been absent from the campaign trail.
Welker pressed Trump on the four indictments he’s currently facing and asked him at one point, “When you go to bed at night, do you worry about going to jail?”
“I don’t even think about it,” Trump responded. “I’m built a little differently I guess, because I have had people come up to me and say, ‘How do you do it, sir? How do you do it?’ I don’t even think about it.”
Other newsworthy moments from the interview included Trump criticizing Republicans pushing for complete abortion bans, not ruling out pardoning himself if he wins in 2024 and saying he ignored legal advice from attorneys who told him the election had not been stolen.
You can watch the full interview here, and read NBC News’ fact-check of claims the former president made.
Politics in Brief
Hunter Biden indictment: President Biden’s allies are increasingly worried that his son Hunter’s legal troubles could divide his attention at a time when he needs to be fully focused on 2024.
Zelenskyy at the Capitol: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in Washington on Thursday for a meeting with all 100 senators. He’s also expected to meet with Biden at the White House.
Abortion in Ohio: NBC News spoke with more than a dozen state and local party officials, volunteers and voting activists, along with more than 20 Ohio voters, about how abortion shaped their perspectives on upcoming elections.
Food stamps: Food benefits for millions of Americans are once again in the crosshairs of congressional Republicans, who are seeking to curtail the program as part of a wider fight over government funding that expires at the end of the month.
China talks: White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met secretly in Europe this weekend with China’s foreign minister, according to U.S. officials, a significant step in efforts to repair deeply strained relations with China.
Hispanic Heritage Month
Generations of Americans have been shamed for not speaking their parents’ or grandparents’ native language correctly, especially by fluent speakers.
We spoke with young Latinos identifying as “no sabo kids,” a phrase that has become synonymous with not being fluent in Spanish.
They’re using TikTok and social media to push back on this age-old language debate, poking fun at themselves in videos that have gone viral — and defining their identity and heritage on their own terms.
In case you missed it
- British comedian and actor Russell Brand is denying allegations of sexual assault against him published as a result of a joint investigation Saturday. After the reports were published, Brand’s management agency terminated all its professional ties to Brand.
- Two people have been arrested on murder charges after a 1-year-old died at a New York day care enter and three other children were hospitalized following suspected opioid exposure, police said.
- The death toll from the unprecedented flooding in northeastern Libya has risen to at least 11,300 people, according to the United Nations. Another 10,100 are missing in the devastated city of Derna.
- A Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy was “ambushed” and killed Saturday night while in his patrol car by an unknown suspect, authorities say.
- Rolling Stone magazine co-founder Jann Wenner was removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation’s board of directors after an interview with The New York Times in which Wenner defended not including interviews with women and people of color in his new book, “The Masters.”
- A constant stream of hacks against companies that hold Americans’ data, coupled with a few states’ data notification laws, have led to a situation in which practically everyone gets free credit monitoring services. But experts say those services do little while raking in huge sales.
- NBC News talked to people in Arizona and Texas, two of the states that were hit the hardest by extreme heat this summer, about how soaring temperatures affected their day-to-day lives. Here’s what they said.
- Mahsa Amini’s death can still be felt a year later in Iran, where many women now choose to walk the streets without a headscarf, defying the state, and in the dozens of foreign cities where thousands marched in her memory on Saturday.
- A spy in Parliament? Fears about Chinese espionage grip the U.K., raising questions about America’s allies and the balancing act they are trying to play between courting and censuring China.
- A new draft proposal controversially concluded that N95 masks are equivalent to looser surgical masks in certain hospital settings. Clinicians and researchers are pushing back.
