The week's big news, and how's it's being spun.
July 13 1997 3:30 AM

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William Saletan William Saletan

Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. He’s the author of Bearing Right.

Update on the campaign-finance scandal hearings: 1) Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., disclosed that the $50,000 check that scandal figure Johnny Chung handed to Hillary Clinton's chief of staff in the White House was funded by a transfer from the Bank of China. NBC called the news "an apparent direct hit." 2) Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., summarized John Huang's compensation package at the DNC as "No raise money, no get bonus." Brownback used no accent and immediately said that he had meant "no slight." The DNC called Brownback's remark "completely racist." 3) Committee Chairman Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., announced that he had evidence of a Chinese plot to infiltrate the United States, but couldn't say more because the evidence is top secret. 4) The committee is considering John Huang's offer to testify in exchange for partial immunity. The Washington Post pronounced the hearings "a cultural bust." The New York Times agreed: "Partisan Fencing Draws No Blood." For Slate's take, see Jacob Weisberg's "Dispatch."(7/11)

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NATO troops arrested a Bosnian Serb war criminal and killed another who resisted arrest. British and U.S. officials said more arrests will follow. Analysts speculated that NATO wants to gauge the Bosnian Serbs' reaction (e.g., possible assaults against NATO troops) before deciding whether a full-scale roundup of war criminals is worth the risk. Media coverage was generally enthusiastic, with several commentators celebrating the bust as an overdue outburst of courage. President Clinton managed to get credit for it without risking a single American soldier, since the United States provided logistical support. Skeptics argued that NATO is only picking at the little fish because more senior war criminals are too well guarded. (7/11)

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NASA landed a robot on Mars and began exploring the surface. Scientists are steering the 2-foot-long, 23-pound robot by remote control (from 119 million miles away) and downloading the video and geological data it collects. Evidence of ancient flood water (which might now be frozen at the poles or beneath the planet's surface) and signs of repeated melting and crystallization of the planet's crust indicate that Mars is much more like Earth than was previously thought. Newt Gingrich's reaction: "It's going to be a bummer if Mars turns out to be like us."(7/11)

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Best story from the NATO summit: In a chat with fellow prime ministers, an open mike caught Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien ragging on President Clinton and U.S. politicians. Chrétien said: 1) Clinton's NATO policies are motivated by domestic politics, not statesmanship (specifically, pushing to include the Baltic states in order to win ethnic votes in Chicago). 2) Chrétien has a "policy" of defying Clinton. He boasted that this is great domestic politics in Canada. Specifically, he said he enjoyed defying Clinton's policy against commerce with Cuba. 3) When Chrétien helped resolve the U.S.-France dispute over NATO expansion this week, Clinton confided, "Jean, you saved my bacon." 4) If Canadian or Belgian lawmakers emulated their American counterparts, "all the politicians would be in prison, because they sell their votes." White House aides said Clinton found the remarks "funny," but the leader of a Canadian opposition party demanded that Chrétien apologize to the United States. (7/11)

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Miscellany: The government confirmed the first known case of HIV transmission through French kissing. The report explained that although saliva is a poor carrier of the virus, in this case both partners had gum disease, which evidently allowed blood-to-blood transmission. The House voted to dismantle the National Endowment for the Arts, but 1) the margin was a single vote, 2) the NEA has more support in the Senate, and 3) Clinton will veto the bill if necessary. Clinton also rejected a clause in the big tobacco settlement that would restrict the Food and Drug Administration's authority to regulate cigarettes. Pundits wondered whether this will kill the deal. Betty Shabazz's grandson pleaded guilty to deliberately setting the fire that burned her to death. Since he's just 12 years old, the maximum sentence is 18 months in detention. ValuJet is escaping its past by marrying another airline and changing its name to AirTran. Apple CEO Gil Amelio resigned, prompting several newspapers to ask whether the company is headed for extinction. (7/11)

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Cambodia's second prime minister staged a successful coup against the country's first prime minister. The victors began looting, and hunting down the new leader's political rivals, two of whom have already been executed. Analysts foresee two possible outcomes: brutal tyranny (the optimistic scenario) or bloody civil war. This follows Cambodia's history of: 1) massive genocide; 2) a decade-long civil war; and 3) billions of dollars in foreign aid to restore democracy, which now seem to have been wasted. (7/9)

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Mexico's ruling party lost control of the national assembly for the first time in 68 years. It was the longest-reigning political party in the world. Reasons for the defeat: 1) Voters were sick of the country's lousy economy; 2) they were sick of the ruling party's tradition of rigging elections; and 3) this time, the ruling party neglected to rig the election. President Ernesto Zedillo executed one of history's most impressive post-election spin jobs, portraying his party's defeat as proof of the climate of freedom and democracy he has fostered. Now that the party has lost its grip, analysts foresee a wave of opportunistic defections by politicians, as happened to Southern Democrats in the United States. (7/9)

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Boxing regulators revoked Mike Tyson's license to fight and fined him $3 million for biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear. Tyson can apply for reinstatement in a year. Optimists called the penalty stiff and predicted that it would restore some standard of decency to the sport. Pessimists pointed out that Tyson gets to keep $27 million he earned from the fight and can take his services overseas. Fans rated the bite the most disgusting offense in the history of sports. (7/9)

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Sports news: Cleveland Indians catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. won baseball's All-Star Game for the American League with a two-run, seventh-inning home run in his team's ballpark. Martina Hingis and Pete Sampras won the women's and men's tennis championships at Wimbledon. Sportswriters lionized Hingis as a Wunderkind (she's 16, the youngest Wimbledon champ in a century) and Sampras as arguably the greatest player ever (he's on track to shatter the record for men's grand slam titles). Women's runner-up Jana Novotna choked away a third-set lead in the finals for the second time but managed (unlike last time) not to cry on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent. (7/9)

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Doctors reported that fenfluramine and phentermine, a popular diet pill combination, may cause severe heart-valve disease. The story is all over front pages and the TV news because the pills are prescribed about 20 million times a year. The Food and Drug Administration is sending warnings to thousands of doctors. The news cycle on drug scares has become so fast that the backlash (accusing the new report of over-hyping the heart-disease link and ignoring the benefits of reduced obesity) is already underway. (7/9)

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The British finally relinquished Hong Kong to China. Pundits agreed that capitalism will continue to flourish there even if democracy doesn't: The New York Times' Tom Friedman noted that replicas of the "Goddess of Democracy" (erected in 1989 by protesters in Tiananmen Square), which were being peddled by Hong Kong demonstrators, were "Made in China." The first bad omen: On July 10, Hong Kong's new Chinese-run government said textbooks must remain neutral in their descriptions of the Tiananmen Square massacre. (7/7)

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More Miscellany: NATO formally admitted Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The United States successfully pressured its allies to postpone a similar decision on Romania and Slovenia until 1999. The investigation of Michael Kennedy's alleged affair with his kids' teen-age baby sitter is being dropped because the baby sitter won't cooperate. Hawaiian legislators decided to give domestic-partnership benefits to gay couples instead of letting them marry. Lockheed Martin announced its purchase of Northrop Grumman, completing the defense industry's consolidation into two camps (Lockheed vs. Boeing). The British company that recently won fame for cloning a sheep is reportedly on the verge of deriving human blood plasma from sheep and cows. A new scientific report claims that puberty begins as early as the age of 6. A woman in North Carolina was charged with murdering her son by whacking him with a computer keyboard. (7/9)

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Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum, and Charles Kuralt died. Hollywood pundits contrasted Stewart (the idealistic gentleman) with Mitchum (the hard-living rogue) and juxtaposed both of them--"the last of the giants of Hollywood's golden era," said the Los Angeles Times-- with today's mediocre movie stars. Cultural commentators paired Stewart with Kuralt as champions of virtue and the common man. Television journalists ceaselessly glorified Kuralt's television journalism. (7/7)