News stories from Sunday July 7, 1974

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

The Supreme Court will begin hearings tomorrow morning in a highly charged political atmosphere on two cases that will have profound legal and personal implications for President Nixon and his former aides, six of whom are accused of conspiring to cover up the Watergate burglary. The Justices -- there will be only eight because Associate Justice William Rehnquist has disqualified himself -- will consider two questions: Can President Nixon refuse to surrender 64 tape recordings subpoenaed by the Federal District Court on the ground of executive privilege? Can the Watergate grand jury name President Nixon as a participant in the conspiracy to defraud the United States by concealing the Watergate burglary, without its indictment charging him with a crime? [New York Times] Kenneth Rush and Herbert Stein, President Nixon's top economic advisers, warned that the administration might have to take drastic steps to combat inflation. Mr. Rush, the President's economic counselor, said in a magazine interview that "we may very well need again" some kind of voluntary machinery involving business, labor and the federal government to restrain excessive wage increases. Mr. Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said on television that Americans would have to undertake more disciplinary measures against inflation. [New York Times] Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who heads Canada's Liberal party, and his principal rival, Robert Stanfield, leader of the Progressive Conservatives, ended their campaigns with appearances in southern Ontario, a crucial region in Canada's parliamentary elections tomorrow. Last-minute polls and predictions indicated that the election will be extremely close. [New York Times] Early unofficial returns from Japan's national election showed the ruling Liberal Democratic party taking a commanding lead in its bid to hold the majority in the upper house of Parliament. In the heaviest voting on record for the upper house, the Liberal Democrats had won 53 of the 78 contests already decided. [New York Times] The Soviet press, more optimistic than some Western assessments of the talks between President Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev, emphasized what Pravda called the "weighty and constructive results" of the meeting. Pravda asserted that the complex of agreements signed in Moscow "signifies an essential movement forward on the path of strengthening peace and mutual trust," and added that the summit meeting was "an important new milestone in Soviet-American relations." [New York Times] Repulsing a fierce attack that lasted 89 minutes, West Germany gained a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands in the World Cup soccer final at the Olympic Stadium in Munich. In an electrifying atmosphere before a capacity crowd, including Secretary of State Kissinger and dignitaries from many other countries, the Dutch with overwhelming speed scored in the first minute of the game, but the Germans, shocked and con-fused, rallied and scored twice before the half was over and kept the Dutch scoreless for the rest of the game. The Germans will be the reigning soccer champions at least until the next World Cup tournament is held in Argentina four years from now. [New York Times]