Start Your Week Smart: "Barbenheimer," Alabama Congressional Map, Mexican Bar Fire, Greece Evacuations, Tony Bennett

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Do you have big plans for the coming week? If not, we encourage you to volunteer in your community. New research shows that volunteering late in life can protect the brain, leading to better scores on tests of cognitive function in older adults.

Here’s what else you need to know Start your week smart.

• It’s the biggest cinema weekend of the summer with the release of Christopher Nolan’s historical epic “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s technicolor “Barbie”. The films sparked a double-feature trend that could spark the best weekend at the cinema in years.
• Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey approved a new map of Congress with only one black-majority district, although a court order called for the redrawn lines to create two black-majority districts or “something reasonably close to that.” The card must now be approved by a federal court.
• Authorities in Mexico say they have arrested a man suspected of setting fire to a bar after he was sacked, killing 11 people near the Arizona border in Sonora state, Mexico. Among those killed were a 17-year-old and an American citizen.
• A major forest fire on the Greek island of Rhodes has forced thousands of tourists to evacuate their hotels, officials say. The blaze is the largest in a series of blazes in Greece, which is suffering from a protracted heatwave.
• Legendary singer Tony Bennett, best known for “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” died at the age of 96. In his eight-decade career, Bennett wowed Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra, performed live on MTV, had a cartoon cameo on The Simpsons, and won 19 Grammy Awards.

Monday
Foreign Minister Antony Blinken will travel to Tonga, New Zealand and Australia to discuss regional security and cooperation in the Pacific. Blinken will also be cheering on the USA women’s national team at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Wednesday
Federal Reserve policymakers will conclude their two-day rate meeting and another rate hike is widely expected. The central bank paused in June after ten straight rate hikes, but most economists have already budgeted for another hike. The bigger question, however, is whether the Fed will hike rates again at its next meeting in September in a bid to get it over with as soon as possible. The previous string of 10 straight hikes helped push mortgage rates to nearly 7% earlier this month — the highest since November 2022.

Hunter Biden is to plead guilty to two tax offenses at a Delaware court hearing. Last week, the House Oversight Committee heard testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who allege that the Justice Department had politicized the criminal investigation into the president’s son and that IRS investigators recommended charging him with far more serious crimes.

And a subcommittee of the House of Representatives will do it hold a hearing on unidentified abnormal phenomena — or as most people outside of government circles call UFOs. The hearing examines first-hand accounts of such phenomena and assesses the federal government’s transparency and accountability regarding potential threats to national security.

Thursday
The Commerce Department will release its first of three reports on economic conditions for the second quarter. Gross domestic product — the most comprehensive measure of economic output in the U.S. — rose at a 2% annual rate in the first quarter, beating the agency’s previous estimates. The latest figures for the first quarter showed that Americans are spending less on goods and more on services such as health care.

One: Why this heat wave is different
In this week’s One Thing podcast, CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir explains what makes this global heatwave so dangerous and how communities are adapting. Listen for more.