10 things you need to know today: July 15, 2013

Trayvon Martin supporters stand in front of a lighted American flag in Times Square after marching from a rally for Martin in Union Square on July 14.

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. OBAMA CALLS FOR CALM AFTER ZIMMERMAN'S ACQUITTAL

President Obama on Sunday called for "calm reflection" after George Zimmerman's acquittal in the racially charged killing of Trayvon Martin. Obama said Martin's death last year was a tragedy, but added, "We are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken." Zimmerman's supporters expressed relief at the trial's result, saying he shot the unarmed Florida teen in self-defense. The NAACP called on the Justice Department to open a case against Zimmerman for violating Martin's civil rights. [USA Today]

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China's economic growth slowed over the April-to-June period thanks partly to weak demand for the country's exports overseas, and tighter credit at home. The country's GDP grew at an annualized rate of 7.5 percent, down from 7.7 percent in the first quarter, China's slowest growth since the 1990s. China pumped cheap money into the economy during the 2008 global slowdown, and the government recently decided to end the stimulus program as bad loans mounted. [BBC News]

Edward Snowden has complete "blueprints" detailing how the National Security Agency's surveillance system works, journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has reported Snowden's leaks in Britain's Guardian, told The Associated Press on Sunday. Greenwald said that the former NSA contractor, who is holed up in a Moscow airport evading U.S. espionage charges, has "literally thousands of documents" that add up to "basically the instruction manual for how the NSA is built." [Associated Press]

Asiana Airlines said Monday that it would file a lawsuit against an Oakland, Calif., TV station — KTVU — that used bogus and racially offensive names for four pilots on the plane that crash-landed in San Francisco earlier this month. The phony names phonetically spelled out phrases such as "Something Wrong" and "We Too Low." An Asiana spokesman said the report damaged the company's reputation. An intern at the NTSB mistakenly confirmed the names, but the airline decided not to sue the agency. [CNN]

Greece's prime minister, Antonis Samaras, faces a new series of protests this week as his government tries to pass a bill necessary to get the next tranche of aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. If the measure passes as expected Wednesday, 4,200 civil servants will be furloughed until late July. Municipal authorities are on strike, and two leading unions are calling a general strike for Tuesday, under the slogan "We are people and we will not become numbers." [Agence France Presse]

A tribunal investigating Bangladesh's 1971 independence war convicted Ghulam Azam, the 91-year-old former leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, of crimes against humanity on Monday. He was sentenced to 90 years in prison. Tens of thousands of people died in the war, many killed by Islamist militias. Prosecutors called the verdict historic; an attorney for Azam, who denied inciting and planning the crimes, called the judgment "perverse." [Wall Street Journal]

Former President George H.W. Bush is attending a White House ceremony Monday in which President Obama will present the 5,000th Daily Point of Light Award. Bush established the program in 1990 to honor volunteer service, and distributed more than 1,000 of the awards before leaving office in 1993. The name was inspired by Bush's 1989 inaugural speech, in which he described Americans serving each other as "a thousand points of light." [Associated Press]

Police found a pellet gun in the car of a man arrested Sunday after diplomatic security officers spotted him taking a picture of a window at Secretary of State John Kerry's Boston home. The man was charged with possession of an open container of alcohol. Kerry has been in Boston for most of the past week as his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, recovers from a seizure. Kerry was visiting his wife at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital on Sunday. [CNN]

Baltimore Orioles slugger Chris Davis hit his 37th home run of the season on Sunday, tying Reggie Jackson's 1969 American League record for the most homers before the All-Star break. The Major League Baseball record — 39 — was set by Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants in 2001. The only other player to hit 37 before the All-Star break was Mark McGwire, who did it in 1998. Both McGwire and Bonds are widely suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs. [Sporting News]

Three top sprinters — including American Tyson Gay and Jamaican Asafa Powell, a former world record holder in the 100 meters — revealed Sunday that they had tested positive for banned substances. The news marked the latest in a string of doping revelations that has embarrassed the world of track and field. Gay, who holds the U.S. record in the 100-meter dash, promised to cooperate with investigators and "take whatever punishment I get like a man." [New York Times]

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.

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