promoearn: Alien experts on the Area 51 saga 👽

The Short List

Wednesday, July 17

Alien experts on the Area 51 saga 👽

Plus: A bid to impeach Trump is dropped, and FaceApp kind of maybe looks sketchy.

In honor of World Emoji Day, here's a preview of some of today's Short List: 🇺🇸👮👵🌞. Now let's get to Wednesday's news.

But first, can you really raid Area 51? The USA TODAY Network made contact with two Area 51 experts to find out. 👽

Dem-controlled House kills bid to impeach Trump

The House voted Wednesday to kill a measure seeking to impeach President Donald Trump – the first such vote since the release of Robert Mueller's Russia report. The majority of Democrats voted along with Republicans to kill the measure – a win for conservatives and the president. The articles, filed Tuesday, declare Trump is "unfit to be president." The measure would have required Democrats to go on the record about whether they support ousting Trump from office.

Kevin Spacey groping case ends over accuser's 'unavailability'

Prosecutors announced Wednesday they are dropping the charge that Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted a teen boy in the summer of 2016. Last week, the accuser, William Little, 21, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination while being questioned about the mysterious disappearance of his cellphone and whether he or his mother had deleted texts from the night in question. Thus ends the only criminal case brought against Oscar-winning Spacey since he became one of the first Hollywood figures to be accused of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct beginning in November 2017.

'El Chapo' gets life in prison –if he doesn't break out again

Notorious drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán was formally sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after leading a decades-long life of brutal and lucrative crime. Guzmán, 62, a former leader of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, gained infamy by twice breaking out of high-security prisons in his native country. Convicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges in February, Guzmán was sentenced to 30 additional years and ordered to forfeit $12,666,191,704.

Authorities escort Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Guzman, who was convicted in February 2019 on multiple conspiracy counts in an epic drug-trafficking case, will be sentenced in a New York courtroom on July 17, 2019.

United States Law Enforcement, AP

The people have spoken: Trump's tweets were 'un-American'

A clear majority of Americans say President Donald Trump's tweets targeting four congresswomen are "un-American," according to a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll. More than two-thirds of those aware of the controversy, 68%, call Trump's tweets offensive. Among Republicans alone, 57% say they agreed with tweets that told the congresswomen to "go back" to their countries (though they are all U.S. citizens). That finding may help explain the reluctance of GOP leaders to condemn the president's comments. Only four Republicans joined House Dems Tuesday in passing a resolution condemning Trump's comments as "racist."

Eric Trump claimed 95% of Americans agree with his dad's message to love or leave the USA. Where he got his polling was not immediately clear.

What everyone's talking about

•	A Florida man allegedly cut off the penis of a man he suspected of sleeping with his wife, then fled with the severed appendage.
•	New emojis are on the way to a device near you: Interracial couples, a sloth, waffles and people with disabilities.
•	Would you prefer a four-day workweek? Some companies turn to shortened weeks to reduce burnout.
•	"Baby Shark," the popular and awful children's hit song, is being used to drive homeless people away from a Florida park.
•	Here's how much you should put in your 401(k) each month to retire with $2 million.
•	A toilet night light? Sold. Amazon sold some pretty weird things on Prime Day.

90 degrees or warmer for nearly 90% of Americans

Tens of millions of Americans will swelter through summer's hottest weather over the next few days as a record-breaking heat wave builds across the central and eastern USA. More than 104 million Americans live where some level of heat alert is in effect, according to the National Weather Service. It's going to be brutal for Chicago, Detroit, New York City and Washington. Heat waves are no joke: About 400 people die each year from exposure to excessive heat, according to the CDC. Stay safe, look out for each other and know the signs of heat exhaustion.

Real quick

•	House voted to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt.
•	Is "The Big One" next? California was shaken with six earthquakes of 3.5 or greater.
•	A 6-year-old girl died after being struck with a golf ball hit by her dad in a "horrible accident."
•	New York businesswoman Scherie Murray launched a campaign to unseat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
•	Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley brought up the topic of rookie Zion Williamson's weight.
•	The brother of a child killed in the Sandy Hook massacre is running for Connecticut state Senate, saying politicians haven't done enough.

FaceApp: Everybody's doing it, but maybe you shouldn't

Everyone's posting aged photos of themselves to social media, including the Jonas Brothers and Carrie Underwood. They are using FaceApp, a program with filters that can make you look younger or older, or even more masculine or feminine. Some privacy experts worry that users granting the Russia-based FaceApp access to photos on their smartphones is a grand giveaway of privacy. The company's Terms of Service give FaceApp "perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free" access to pretty much everything "in connection with your User Content." Should you be concerned? Yep, cyber experts say.

The old age filter on photo-editing app FaceApp is taking over the internet.

GETTY

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