Wednesday, April 6th, 2022
Russia's Veto Power, Payments Paused (Again) & Viral Reddit Art
All the news you need in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by kiwico.com (Listen for the discount code) and Zocdoc.com/newsworthy
Story Summaries
All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want reading about the latest happenings…
Zelensky at the UN
Ukrainian President Zelensky gave a passionate speech to the UN Security Council. He spoke about horrible atrocities he’s seen in his home country, saying, “It’s difficult to find a war crime the occupiers have not committed.” He demanded that Russian officials be brought to justice. However, Russia is a permanent member of the UNSC, so it can veto anything the council might try to do. Zelensky addressed that, too. He said, “The UN system must be reformed immediately, so the right of the veto is not the right of death.
Read More: AP, WSJ, NY Times, Politico, UN
Top US General Reax
Fighting is still happening inside Ukraine, and the highest-ranking American military officer says he expects the war to last years. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff gave his first testimony before Congress since Russia’s invasion began. He said, “the potential for significant international conflict is increasing.” To help, the U.S. has been shipping weapons to Ukraine and working with allies to send Ukraine the equipment it wants but that the U.S. doesn’t have.
Read More: CBS News, CNN, NY Post, WaPo, DOD
US, UK, Australia Hypersonic Missiles
The U.S. is teaming up with the U.K. and Australia to beef up its arsenal. The three companies announced they’re working together to develop hypersonic missiles and other high-tech warfare. Hypersonic weapons can travel up to ten times the speed of sound, making them much harder to detect and destroy than other missiles. Both Russia and China have shown off hypersonic weapons recently. Because of that, the U.S., U.K., and Australia say it’s more important to work together.
Read More: Politico, Reuters, Axios, White House
Latest Severe Storms
For the third week in a row, the southern U.S. is dealing with dangerous severe weather. Yesterday, powerful winds and tornadoes tore through several states, from Mississippi to South Carolina. Sadly, at least two people died. Homes and businesses were damaged, and trees and power lines were toppled. Today, there is going to be another round of storms that could bring more tornadoes, winds up to 80 mph, hail, and some flash flooding. 12 people have a good chance of getting hit. They include people in Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Read More: Accuweather, Weather Channel, USA Today, CNN, NOAA
Oklahoma Near-Total Abortion Ban
Oklahoma lawmakers just passed one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. It makes it illegal to get an abortion at any time during pregnancy unless there is a medical emergency that puts the mother’s life in danger. If abortion providers break that law, they could face up to ten years in prison. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk. In the past, Gov. Stitt has promised he would “sign any piece of pro-life legislation that came across my desk.” Abortion rights advocates say they plan to challenge the law.
Read More: WaPo, NY Times, WSJ, Axios, Reuters
ACA Fix
President Biden said his administration is adjusting part of the Affordable Care Act known as the “family glitch”. It left family members of people who get healthcare through their employer ineligible for certain benefits. The Biden administration says the fix will save hundreds of dollars a month for hundreds of thousands of families. However, White House officials didn’t say how much the expansion would cost.
Read More: Reuters, Fox News, USA Today, Axios, White House
Student Loan Pause Extended
It looks like tens of millions of Americans will have more time before they need to start paying back their student loans. Reports say the White House will extend the pause on federal student loan payments until August 31st. That’s an extra four months. Interest rates will reportedly stay at 0% during that time. Americans were first given the option to hold off on student loan payments two years ago when the pandemic first started. The pause was extended twice by the Trump administration and three more times under President Biden.
Read More: Politico, NY Times, AP, WSJ, Reuters, CRFB
World Billionaires List
The annual World Billionaires List from Forbes is here, and there’s a new number one. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has overtaken Amazon founder Jeff Bezos since last year’s Forbes list. Forbes now reports Musk has an estimated net worth of $219 billion. He’s one of 2,668 billionaires across the globe. Together, they have a total net worth of $12.7 trillion. The U.S. leads the world in having the most billionaires.
Read More: Forbes, Forbes (2), The Guardian, MarketWatch, Axios
Elon Musk Joins Twitter Board
Elon Musk is joining Twitter’s Board of Directors. The move was announced just a day after Musk disclosed he bought a 9% stake in the social media company last month, becoming the largest shareholder. Twitter’s CEO says Musk is both a passionate user and intense critic of the platform, which is what the company needs in the boardroom to become stronger. Musk tweeted that he’s looking forward to making “significant improvements.”
Read more: CNBC, NY Times, WSJ, Fox Business, Twitter
Twitter to Test Edit Button
While Elon Musk hasn’t said what changes he may push for as part of Twitter's Board, he has brought attention to one of the most common feature requests for the platform: an edit button. After Musk posted a Twitter poll on the topic, Twitter itself tweeted that an edit button has actually been in-the-works since last year. The company says it’ll start testing the new option in “the coming months.”
Read more: The Verge, TechCrunch, The Hill, Twitter
Amazon’s Rocket Deal
Amazon says it just signed the biggest rocket deal in the commercial space industry’s history in order to provide high-speed internet anywhere in the world. It’s partnering with three companies (including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin) who will send Amazon’s satellites into space. Together, they’ll launch more than 3,000 satellites over about five years, starting later this year or next year.
Read more: WSJ, CNBC, CNN, Reuters, Amazon
Reddit Collaborative Art
The social networking site Reddit united people all over the world for one art project. Millions of users have been collaborating on a forum (aka subreddit) that’s been functioning like an open canvas for four days at the start of this month. It let each user post a single, tiny, colored pixel every five minutes. This latest one has become a viral phenomenon. More than 6 million members placed nearly 72 million tiles on there. Other reddit communities teamed up to post things like a movie poster, logos, maps, and more. Users turned it back into a blank canvas, but there are several time lapse videos posted online.
Read more: : WaPo, The Conversation, Forbes, r/place
Work Wednesday: Best-Paid & Popular Internships:
This seems to be a good summer to be an intern, at least for those who want experience in tech. The careers website Glassdoor released its annual “Best-Paid Internships in America” report. Out of the top 25, 17 are internships at technology companies. Number one on the list is the online gaming company Roblox. The median pay for an intern there is nearly $10,000 a month. Rounding out the top five are Uber, Capital One, Salesforce, and Amazon. By the way: investment bank Goldman Sachs doesn’t even rank in the top 25, but internships received a record 236,000 applications from people all around the world.
Read more (Glassdoor’s list): MarketWatch, CNBC, NY Post, Glassdoor
Read more (Goldman Sachs record): Business Insider, NY Post, CNBC, Fortune