Wednesday, May 11th, 2022
Inflation Blame Game, RIP iPod & Brady’s Broadcast Deal
All the news you need in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by Indeed.com/newsworthy 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…
Biden’s Inflation Speech
President Biden promised that tackling inflation is his “top domestic priority.” He pointed to three big causes: the war in Ukraine, supply chain issues caused by the pandemic, and Republicans in Congress blocking his Build Back Better economic plan. Biden says his plan would help inflation. Republicans say it would make inflation worse. Some Republicans also say Biden has failed to come up with new ideas to fix the problem, and they say he is overstating how his efforts so far might help.
Read More: NY Times, Axios, WSJ, AP, Fox Business, White House
Gas Prices Hit All-Time High
Once again, gas prices hit an all-time record. The national average for a regular gallon of gas is now $4.37/gallon. That’s up 47% from a year ago. Diesel prices also hit a record. That average is up to $5.55/gallon. One AAA spokesperson says we could see a slight drop in gas prices next week since oil prices have gone down recently. However, in the long run, prices aren’t expected to get back to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon.
Read More: WSJ, USA Today, Fox Business, CNN, AAA, GasBuddy
US Spy Chief on Ukraine War
The war will likely keep raging in Ukraine for a long time. That’s what America’s top intelligence official told lawmakers this week. The U.S. spy chief said Russia is preparing for a “prolonged conflict” and that Russian President Putin still plans to achieve goals beyond eastern Ukraine, even though that’s where most of his troops are now. She also said the U.S. thinks Russia will keep up its nuclear threats to try to scare western officials away from giving more help to Ukraine’s military. However, she said Putin wouldn’t actually authorize a nuclear attack unless he thought Russia or his presidency was in peril.
Read More: Politico, Axios, NY Times, WSJ, Reuters
Highest Gun Deaths Ever Recorded
Deadly gun violence is hitting new highs in the U.S. The CDC put out a new report that found murders with guns rose 35% in 2020, compared to just one year earlier. That means gun homicides reached their highest level in more than a quarter-century. In some ways, the findings were consistent. The report says homicide rates went up in every region of the country and in age group. There were still some disparities, though. For example, the CDC found homicide rates went up more in areas with higher poverty levels.
Read More: WaPo, WSJ, CNBC, ABC News, CDC
Gov’t Report on Contractor Quality Control Issues
A longtime government contractor is under fire for how it handled ingredients for Covid-19 vaccines. U.S. House Democrats released a new report that said Emergent BioSolutions hid evidence of quality control problems from FDA inspectors. The report also says 400 million doses had to be destroyed between March of 2020 and February of this year. None of the contaminated doses were released to the public, but the bad news is that they went to waste. Either way, Emergent says a lot of the report is wrong. A company spokesperson said it did not knowingly mislead the FDA and that it’s hard to know how many doses ended up in the trash.
Read More: ABC News, NY Times, The Hill, Politico, House Dems Report
Teachers in Space
Two teachers will soon get to take a ride to space. Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin donated two seats on one of its space flights to benefit a nonprofit in New York City. It was a “buy one, give one” donation with the second seat going to a New York City public school teacher. Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin put in the winning $8 million bid in the auction for the nonprofit. Then, he said his ticket to space should go to a teacher, too.
Read More: CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, Insider
Musk Could Undo Trump’s Twitter Ban
Elon Musk says he will allow former President Trump onto Twitter if his deal to buy the platform goes through. Musk called Twitter’s decision to ban Trump a “morally bad” one. He said permanent bans should be “extremely rare” and only used on accounts that are bots, scams, or spam. Remember, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube banned Trump after the January 6th Capitol riot last year. The social media companies accused the president at the time of inciting violence, and Trump hasn’t been allowed back on any of the platforms so far.
Read More: Fox Business, NPR, WaPo, CNET, YouTube/FT Live
Apple Discontinues Last iPod
Say goodbye to the iconic iPod. Apple is officially discontinuing the device that helped reshape the music listening experience over the last two decades. The iPod was first introduced in 2001. It was promoted as a way to hold 1,000 “CD-quality” songs. The iPod touch came in 2007. Now, the last remaining model of the iPod touch will be sold in stores while supplies last. After that, there will be no more.
Read More: BBC, CNN, NBC News, Fox Business, Apple
Google I/O Preview
We can expect some big announcements from Google. The tech giant’s annual conference for developers starts today. It’s often the time the company debuts new or updated products and software it plans to release over the next year. Rumor has it that we may get an early look at the next version of Google’s mobile operating system and Google’s first wearable: a Pixel watch. There could be a new pair of wireless earbuds, too, along with other potential surprises.
Read More: The Verge, Engadget, Wired, CNET, Google
FIFA-EA Partnership Ends
One of the video game industry’s most iconic partnerships is coming to an end after nearly three decades. Soccer’s global governing body FIFA and the video-game maker EA Sports have been in tense negotiations for months over a licensing deal. Now, they’ve ended without an agreement. Still, EA Sports says it will keep making soccer-themed video games, and it will still have most of the teams and players that have made its games popular. FIFA says it’s going to develop new games too with other studios and publishers.
Read More: Bleacher Report, AP, CNN, NY Times, FIFA, EA
Tom Brady to Join Fox Sports
Fox Sports says seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady will join the network as its lead NFL analyst when his playing career ends. The New York Post reports Brady and Fox agreed to a contract worth $375 million. That’s reportedly more than Brady has made in his entire 22-year playing career, and it’s the most lucrative deal in sports broadcasting history. The legendary quarterback confirmed the deal on Twitter, but he also said he still has “a lot of unfinished business on the field with the Buccaneers.”
Read More: NY Post, ESPN, AP, Fox Sports, Tom Brady
Work Wednesday: Study: Remote Meetings Hurt Brainstorming
A recent study found brainstorming is more diminished during video meetings than it would be in person. Researchers watched hundreds of engineers in five different countries try to come up with creative ideas. Outside experts found the ideas that came out of in-person meetings were more creative. The researchers say it’s because when people are on video calls, they are so hyper-focused on the face in the box that their eyes and minds don’t wander as much. The study author says she turns off her camera when it’s time to brainstorm in a meeting.
Read More: AP, CNN, Nature
Work Wednesday: Study: Remote Work Increases Happiness
Research has also found some big plus sides to working from home. A separate study found the ability to work remotely is strongly tied to happiness at work, and that tends to correlate with overall life happiness. In jobs where remote work is possible, employees say they enjoy the perks like no commutes, lunch breaks with their families, and having their pets around for company.
Read More: Forbes, Tech.Co, ADP, Tracking Happiness