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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: From Putin to Prime Day: Let’s Break Down Everything You Need to Know This Week [Watch (HLS stream): From Putin to Prime Day: Let’s Break Down Everything You Need to Know This Week](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VhG6HDld.m3u8) (14:52)  _Published 2018-07-18. The Helsinki summit, student debt that’s weighing down a generation, Alabama’s QB battle, and Amazon Prime Day’s dominance._ --- Jul 28, 2023 12:17 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [From Playoffs to Midterms: Let’s Break Down Everything You Need to Know This Week](/video/TWz4B2Eb/) ### From Playoffs to Midterms: Let’s Break Down Everything You Need to Know This Week [From the Longest Day to Draft Long Shots: Let’s Break Down Everything You Need to Know This Week](/video/q8LMKAKF/) ### From the Longest Day to Draft Long Shots: Let’s Break Down Everything You Need to Know This Week [From Tariffs to Tech: Let’s Break Down Everything You Need to Know This Week](/video/UCjzyRoQ/) ### From Tariffs to Tech: Let’s Break Down Everything You Need to Know This Week --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Welcome to the Breakdown, I'm your host, [ UNKNOWN ] Joy, and we're here with the top stories of the week from Time, Money, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune Now this week, breaking down the Helsinki Summit and the aftermath we have what happened and the backlash. Then a look at the student debt that's weighing down a generation. What's Saban's approach to Alabama's QB battle and how Amazon's Prime Day dominance impacts the retail landscape. So let's dive in. [ MUSIC ] Set against the backdrop of Helsinki, Finland, this week's meeting between Trump and Putin was the seventh official summit between leaders of the United States and Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The two leaders have met before international gatherings, like the 2017 G20 summit and have spoken at least eight times over the phone. What began with a handshake and an apparent wink in front of the eyes of the world continued with an unprecedented, off the record meeting with just Putin, Trump, and their translators for two hours. After later bringing in their top aides for joint talks, the two leaders reemerged side by side in a news conference that rattled many across party lines in the US. Do you hold Russia at all accountable for anything in particular? Yes, I do. I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish, I think we've, All been, fully. Trump's remarks were in sharp opposition to the Justice Department's decision to charge 12 Russian intelligence officers for their interference in US elections, this past Friday. The indictment charges, 12 Russian military officers by name for conspiring to interfere with the twenty sixteen presidential election. And just hours after the Trump / Putin press conference, American prosecuters charged a Russian woman for trying to influence U. S. lawmakers. My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin He just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. But Trump backtracked from his original remark clarifying at a recent press conference this. I accept our intelligence Community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. There's a lot of people out there. I said the word would instead of wouldn't. And the sentence should have been I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia. Sort of a double- negative. Still Trump's original comments on his own country's intelligence, in alignment with Russia, was met with swift furious reactions from many. Former CIA director John Brennan called Trump's performance treasonous. Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, nominated by Trump Said we have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling. Former 2008 Republican Presidential candidate John McCain said it was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American President in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump's naivete, egotism, false equivalence and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate but it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake. Tragic mistake. Commentators on Fox news often supportive of the President had a critical response to Trump's behavior too. This was the time and the place for the President to look Putin squarely in the eye and said you will be punished for what you did in 2016 and don't ever think about doing that again. And that's what made it disgusting. A US President on foregin soil talking to our biggestest enemy or Adversary or competitor, I don't know how we define them these days, is essentially letting the guy get away with this, and not even, [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Offering a mild criticism. I- That sets us back a lot. Trump was interviewed by Fox's Sean Hannady, after his meeting with Putin, and shared succcesses he beleived to be overshadowed I think it's a shame. We're talking about nuclear proliferation, we're talking about Syria and humanitarian aid, we're talking about all of these different things, and we get questions on the witch hunt. And while there were no tangible results from the summit, the two Leaders are framing this as the first of many meetings to come. But after a contentious week abroad where Trump was also a polarizing force with NATO allies in Brussels, his apparent alignment with Putin and Russia has left the US political world unsettled [ NOISE ] Gracing the cover of Forbes 60 Richest Self Made Women, Kylie Jenner sits on a net worth of about $ 900, 000, 000 and is on track to dethrown Mark Zuckerburg as the youngest self made billionaire in history. But while Jenner stands as an entrepreneurial success story of her generation, most of her peers are saddled with student debt. Wit the US national average of student loads reaching a full $ 30, 301, the conversation and the burden of student debt has increasingly reached national consciousness. And I talked to people a lot who don't know how much they owed and are a little embarassed about having this noose around their neck and I think it helps them more that people recognize that it's really common now. About 70 % of students have to borrow to pay for college. It takes a little bit of the shame. There's even an entire game show on truTV called Paid Off, dedicated to solving this very practical dilemma. Contestants have the chance to battle each other over several rounds of trivia for a chance to pay off their student loans. And in the series' first season they gave away almost $ 500, 000. But that's just a drop in the bucket when you look at the full landscape. America's total student debt has ballooned from 260 billion in 2004 to almost 1. 4 trillion today. People who borrowed those loans are having trouble paying them back. More than 6 million are on alternative repayment plans to lower their monthly bills, meaning it will take them longer to pay it off. and Brookings found that almost forty percent of borrowers who entered college in two thousand and four are likely to default on their loans by twenty twenty three. Defaulting can be really, really serious. The federal government has a lot of means to collect that. So they can take it out of your paycheck or out of your tax return, they can withhold it from your social security when you're in retirement. [ MUSIC ] While defaulting on loan payments is the most extreme scenario, a lot of people are struggling. Millennials are well on their way to become the most educated generation to date, but also the worst paid. The average salary for adults between the ages of 18 to 34 between 2009 and 2013 was 33, 880 dollars, the lowest since 1980. And the burden of student debt limits choices as well as opportunities with many young people stunted in their ability to buy homes or start families of their own. So a good rule of thumb is that you shouldn't borrow more for your four years or your five years than you expect to earn in your first year. So that's obviously gonna be really different for somebody who's studying say enginering or business than somebody who might be studying journalism. We can talk more freely about The effects it's having on our monthly budgets, and hopefully find better solutions for it. [ MUSIC ] The annual SCC Media Day kicked off on July 16th and it's still unknown who will be the starter quarterback at Alabama this fall. The reigning college football champs have yet to choose between last year's starter Jalen Hurts And rising star Tua Tagovailoa to fill that vaunted QB1 slot. As Bama mounts another potential championship run, all eyes are on Coach Nick Saban for an update on who will be running his offense. > The controvery began at last year's national championship game. Coach Saban facing a 13 to nothing deficiet against Georgia, decided to bench Hurts during half time and have Tagovailoa take the reigns. The freshman proceeded to propel the Crimson Tide to a thrilling 26 to 23 overtime victory. But in this two seasons, as Bama's starting QB, [ UNKNOWN ] brought some serious game. He's lead Alabama to a 26 and 2 record and to two consecutive national championships. However, that success doesn't guarantee his QB spot for next season. [ UNKNOWN ] is notes for his mobility and improve decision making. [ UNKNOWN ] lowest arm is a a serious asset for Alabama. Meanwhile Saban has cemented his status as one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. In his twelve years at the University of Alabama, Saban made it to the National Championship nine times, and has won five titles. Many attribute this success to his elite recruiting and rigorous game planning and with that kind of gold standard, one's bound to end up with too much of a good thing. NFL vet Tim Tebow knows a thing or two about college quarterbacking, and has a unique solution for Saban. During his time with the Florida Gators, Tebow was one half of a two QB system that saw tremendous success, he thinks the same thing can work for Alabama. Get both of them on the field. I'd put Jalen as a quarterback, as halfback, as wildcat back, as h- back. I'd move him around. He can be so versatile. He can turn it into a zone read. He can turn into a receiver. He can do so many different things. But if one play caller is chosen over the other, the newly minted second stringer will probably take his talents to another program. Either way, Saban is remaining tight- lipped on the subject. He told ESPN the most important thing is to play the best guy. And it both guys can play winning football, it's not out of the question that we'll find a role in fairness to both. With rumors of Tua Tagovailoa's younger brother Talea aiming to play quarterback at Alabama, Saban is looking at a sea of QB riches for the foreseeable future. [ MUSIC ] For years, retailers have had to get creative to boost sales during their slower summer shopping months. Setting up sales around national holidays and long weekends to attract customers. But no brand has ever had the cultural dominance to come up with their own holiday Then entered Amazon. This Monday marked the Amazon's fourth annual Prime Day. Shoppers worldwide flocked to the site to find deals on over a million products. From video games to instant pots. And this year Prime Day hours were extended to a 36- hour discount extravaganza, the longest in the company's history. But only Amazon Prime members could reap these savings, with an annual fee of $ 119, the company reports that there over $ 100 million Prime members. And Morgan Stanley estimates that Amazon Prime subscribers will make up 51 % of the US population iin 2018. But its members only criteria hasn't deterred Amazon dominance Last year, Amazon Prime Day generated somewhere between $ 1 to $ 2. 8 billion for the company. And despite facing a website outage that left customers viewing puppies instead of discounts for several hours Bezos's primetime event was targeted to earn approximately $ 4 billion in sales this year. And while the success of Amazon's deal day may not be surprising, the way competitors have responded may be. Stores like Kohl's, Macy's, JC Penney, and Target are all offering special deals conspicuously timed around Prime Day's 36 hour period. And while none mention Amazon's holiday by its name, many of these competitors tout the fact that you don't need a membership to capitalize on their discounts. With Amazon's retail revolution forcing the industry to take notes, Phil Wahba, senior writer for Fortune, joins me to examine the company's strategy and what lies ahead for the state of retail. All right Phil. Thanks s much for joining us. Now talk to us a little bit about Prime Day. Why did Amazon decide to kick this off? So Prime Day goes back to 2015 when the company invented out o thin air a new shopping location in the middle of July one of the Slowest times of the year for shopping but the real goal here is not so much sales it's to get more people to sign for it's prime membership program which is essential for getting people hooked on shopping at Amazon and making Amazon their first online choice for shopping. Now there are 100 million members and growth has been slowing so they really want to rev that up Again. Now how have competitors responded to this? Well they came out with sales of their own, in some cases giving them names that were very similar. H & M called their event Prime Time. Macy's was more subtle. They talked about what you can get for $ 119 which happens to be the cost of a Prime membership. And others like JC Penney were a little bit less creative and just called it Cyber July. Target had a very big sales event, too. So everybody is trying to get a piece of this pie. Now, talking about prime date this year, what has worked for Amazon this year? What they focused on this year was this own brands. Now, that's a big push for the company. So their own products, things like the Echo device, but also their private- labeled Amazon branded clothing, which is a big, big, big priority for the company now. What hasn't worked? Well when the website was up things went pretty swimmingly, but they had outages and slowdowns, which caused a lot of irritation judging by what we saw on Twitter from customers that were really annoyed. And of course, Amazon never got around to apologizing to them. Okay. So Now, let's talk about, what does this year's Prime Day tell us about what lies ahead for possibly holiday shopping or spending? So, third party tech companies estimates that Amazon sales went up 24 %. So I think we can call it a success, even if we're not buying into all of Amazon's hype. What that tell us, plus the way the competitors have reacted, it's going to be a big fight once again for consumers dollars and price wars are going to break out around black friday during the holiday season, but more encouragingly for everybody, what this does show is that people are in the mood to spend and if you give them good products and good prices they are going to spend. So Things are looking up for a good holiday season, barring any trade war between now and December. We'll see once the holidays come up, right? Absolutely. Alright. Bill, thank you so much for joining us . >> Thank you. And that's the breakdown for this week. Until next Wednesday, I'm Naja Joy. And thank you for joining our round up of this week's biggest stories. 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