Joe Biden announced he will not seek reelection on Sunday, ending weeks of speculation about his future following a disastrous presidential debate against Donald Trump nearly a month ago.

“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” the president said. The decision comes amid relentless pressure from Democratic leaders, political pundits, and the least popular Batman. Now the 81-year-old will do his best disgruntled Gen Z employee impression and quiet quit serve out his first and final term in the White House.

Biden and numerous influential Dems—but not Barack Obama, who has stayed out of the nomination process since 2016—endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to receive the nomination when the Democratic National Convention takes place August 19–22 in Chicago. She is not, however, guaranteed to be the nominee.

How will the nomination process work now?

That’s a question with no definite answer, which is one of the real drawbacks of living through unprecedented and interesting times. Biden was the presumptive nominee and cruised through the primary process, leaving several possibilities for a path forward.

• DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement that the party will take a “transparent and orderly process to move forward” to choose the nominee, which could mean anything.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called on Democrats to use “neutral polling” to choose a candidate in order to better learn who has the best chance of defeating Trump.

The initial news sounds mostly positive for Harris, who would become the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead the ticket of a major political party should she receive the nomination. Speculation is already rampant about who she’d pick as her VP nominee.

Legal challenges could be incoming: Republicans have contended that the Democrats changing their nominee would bring the matter to court in some states. On ABC’s The Week yesterday, Speaker Mike Johnson said, “Every state has its own system, and in some of these, it’s not possible to simply just switch out a candidate.”

How will the markets react? Several investors who spoke to Reuters are expecting at least some volatility now that Trump returning to the White House no longer appears to be a foregone conclusion and there remains uncertainty about who will be the new Democratic candidate.—DL

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The Secret Service is in the hot seat. Director Kimberly Cheatle will testify today before a House committee on her agency’s failure to prevent an assassination attempt on former President Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. Congressional Republicans have been pushing for her to resign, and Speaker Mike Johnson pledged the hearing would be “must-see TV.” Over the weekend, the Secret Service reportedly admitted to denying requests for additional personnel for Trump’s security team for two years, a 180 from a statement given shortly after the failed assassination. Requests were not made for the Butler, PA, rally.

Bangladesh backs off of jobs quotas following deadly protests. The country’s Supreme Court scaled back a quota system on government jobs after student-led protests resulted in clashes that led to the deaths of 139 people. Under the previous rule, 56% of government jobs were reserved for groups such as war veterans and their descendants, a system that university students said was unfair and restricted their opportunities. Now, due to the court order, just 7% of civil service jobs will be reserved for these groups. The quota policy was abolished in 2018 before it was reinstated this year, sparking the student protests that embroiled the country last week.

One year after poor showings from a third Ant-Man, fifth Indiana Jones, and seventh Mission: Impossible signaled that sequels were killing the movie industry, sequels are back to save the movie industry.

Twisters, the follow-up to 1996’s Twister, grabbed an impressive $80.5 million at the North American box office this weekend, making it the latest summer sequel to find success and opening the door for a third Twisterses in the future. It’s more evidence that audiences are craving familiar storylines after Hollywood had its worst Memorial Day weekend in 43 years just two months ago.

• Inside Out 2 has made $1.4 billion globally since its release in June, making it the second-highest-grossing animated film ever.
• Despicable Me 4 has earned $574 million worldwide since it debuted three weeks ago.

This trend is sure to continue this Friday, when Deadpool & Wolverine premieres. The third installment of the superhero saga has already set presales records.

Sequels still have work to do: The domestic box office is still down 17% year over year, per Comscore. But there could be more help on the way. Gladiator 2, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (you can just call it Beetlejuice 2), and Joker 2 are among the sequels hoping the nostalgia formula still works later this year.—DL

Annual percentage yields for high-yield savings accounts are currently reaching rarely seen highs. So what does that mean for you? If you don’t have your savings in a high-yield account right now, you could be missing out on earning practically free money every single month. FinanceBuzz is even seeing banks allowing clients to earn up to 5.00% APY* (and even higher) on every dollar. Read about which ones FinanceBuzz recommends.

The massive IT outage that ruined the world’s weekend travel plans didn’t impact as many computers as you may have expected. On Saturday, Microsoft disclosed that the faulty software update from CrowdStrike affected 8.5 million Windows devices, which is fewer than 1% of all Windows devices. But the companies using those devices are so crucial to the economy that the infinitesimal number was enough to devastate airports, hospitals, banks, and many other businesses fundamental to modern commerce. Issues persisted throughout the weekend, especially at airports, while global cyberdefense agencies warned about an uptick in phishing attacks exploiting the outage.

Let the Paris Games begin: The opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics will take place on the Seine on Friday, with organizers hoping the nearly four-hour visual feast will spur enthusiasm for the Olympics, which hasn’t been seen in quite some time. While certain people on your social media timeline are sure to spend two weeks portraying themselves as die-hard trampoline fans, US ratings have been down for recent Olympics, which have taken place during the heart of a pandemic and at inconvenient hours for American viewers. Some performers for the ceremony have yet to be announced, but it will be hard to top Mr. Bean in London in 2012.

Hungry for earnings reports? You’re about to feast on them. This week, about one-quarter of S&P 500 companies will release their Q2 financials, including *takes deep breath* Alphabet, Coca-Cola, Tesla, UPS, Visa, Chipotle, Comcast, GM, and Southwest Airlines. And if you have room for dessert (economic data), the government will release its first estimate of Q2 GDP on Thursday and an important inflation gauge on Friday.

Trump headlines bitcoin conference. Former President Trump will deliver the keynote address at the Bitcoin Conference, which begins Thursday in Nashville, highlighting his recent love affair with the industry. He’s also holding a campaign fundraiser on the sidelines of the conference: The priciest ticket is $844,600 per person.

Everything else…

• Keanu Reeves wrote a book, and it’s coming out Tuesday. The collab with science fiction author China Miéville is about an 80,000-year-old warrior who can’t be killed but longs for death.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address Congress on Thursday. Dozens of Democrats are planning to boycott his speech, and law enforcement will increase security around the area ahead of expected protests.
• Comic-Con 2024 runs from Thursday through Sunday in San Diego. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman will appear on a panel to hype up Friday’s release of Deadpool & Wolverine.