Friday, June 4th, 2021
Vaccines Headed Overseas, UFO Mystery Deepens & Avengers Theme Park
All the news you need in around 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by Noom.com/newsworthy and HelloFresh.com/NEWSWORTHY12
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 the latest happenings...
White House Vaccine-Sharing Plan
The White House laid out its framework for donating millions of COVID-19 shots. It said 75% of the first batch will go to the COVAX initiative, which was first put together by the World Health Organization last fall as a way to make vaccine access around the world more equal. The COVAX shipments are going mostly to Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. The other 25% of donated vaccines will go directly to places in need like India and Gaza. The U.S. plans to share at least 80 million vaccine doses with the rest of the world by the end of this month.
Read More: AP, Axios, NPR, Reuters, White House
Renaming Covid Variants
The World Health Organization has decided to assign different letters of the Greek alphabet to each new mutation of the coronavirus. Until now, most people have been referring to each new variant by saying where they were first discovered. However, the WHO says that kind of language can create a stigma about certain places and the people who live there. It also says it might make governments not want to report new strains. So far there have been ten letters assigned out of a possible 24.
Read More: NPR, USA Today, CNN, WHO
Biden Expands Chinese Company Blacklist
President Biden signed an executive order that blacklists multiple Chinese companies. It expands on an order from President Trump that listed 31 companies linked to the Chinese government. The new order nearly doubles that. The White House says the new list includes Chinese tech firms that make or deliver surveillance technology that’s used against Muslim minorities in China or protestors in Hong Kong. The investment ban will keep Americans from supporting these companies. Americans who already have stock in the blacklisted companies have one year to unwind those investments.
Read More: WSJ, NY Times, CNBC, Axios, White House
Justice Dept. Investigating DeJoy
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is under investigation. The FBI is looking into political donations tied to DeJoy’s former business, New Breed Logistics. Some New Breed employees claimed they were pressured to give money to Republican political candidates and were paid back through bonuses, which is illegal under federal law. A spokesperson for DeJoy says he doesn’t expect much to come of the new investigation as the Postal Service’s Inspector General has already investigated the issue and found DeJoy never knowingly violated campaign contribution laws.
Read More: WaPo, WSJ, NPR, Reuters
Govt. UFO Report
American intelligence agencies are set to release a highly-anticipated report about UFOs in American airspace this month. Senior officials who have seen the classified report say there’s no evidence of alien spacecraft. However, the report apparently doesn’t offer any other kind of explanation for unusual sightings either. Intelligence officials have been looking into more than 120 incidents over the past two decades.
Read More: NY Times, WaPo, ABC News, USA Today
New Treatment for Advanced Prostate Cancer
Scientists say they’ve discovered a new treatment to help patients with advanced prostate cancer live longer. The drug has a tracker in it, meaning it can target cancer cells in the body that doctors can’t see. In this study, advanced prostate cancer patients who received the experimental treatment lived about four months longer than those who received only standard care. The drugmaker plans to ask regulators to approve the drug in the U.S. later this year.
Read More: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Pill Shows Benefit for Breast Cancers
A new study found another pill helps keep certain breast cancers at bay. It was studied in patients with cancer-causing variants of BRCA genes who were already treated for cancer but were at risk of having it come back. Researchers found the pill reduced the recurrence risk by 42%. This drug is already sold in the U.S. for treating other kinds of cancer, but the new study shows it could help with early-stage breast cancer too.
Read More: Stat, AP, WSJ, NEJM
Twitter Debuts Subscription Service
Twitter unveiled a subscription service called Twitter Blue. It’s available in Canada and Australia for less than $5 a month. Subscribers can gain bonus features that include an undo button, a tweet-preview feature that gives users 30 seconds to preview and make changes to a tweet before it goes live, and more. There’s no release date for American users yet, but Twitter Blue will likely come to the U.S. soon.
Read More: CNBC, The Verge, Forbes, Twitter
Avengers Campus at Disneyland Opens
The new Avengers campus opens to the public today at Disneyland. It’s located within Disney’s California Adventure Park in Anaheim. The campus includes an interactive Spiderman adventure ride, performances by Marvel characters, and more. While everything is open today, visitors will still have to stay socially distanced and wear masks. The theme park is expected to lift some of these restrictions later this summer.
Read More: LA Times, AP, CBS LA, USA Today
Belmont Stakes Preview
The final horse race in the Triple Crown series is tomorrow. Taking place in Long Island, New York, the Belmont Stakes is the longest race in the series at one and a half miles long. A horse called Essential Quality is the odds-on favorite to win. Fans are betting his strongest competitor will be a horse named Rombauer, who is the horse that came from behind and won the Preakness Stakes last month.
Read More: CBS Sports, NBC Sports
Medina Spirit Drug Test Confirmed
Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit won’t be at the starting gate of the Belmont Stakes as his trainer, Bob Baffert, was banned from entering any races by the New York Racing Association. The group said it issued the suspension because several of Baffert’s horses have failed drug tests over the years. Just last month Medina Spirit failed a drug test after the Kentucky Derby, and this week, a second test confirmed those results.
Read More: Sports Illustrated, WaPo
National Donut Day
Today is National Donut Day. Several retailers are celebrating with discounts and freebies. Krispy Kreme is offering every customer one free donut, and if you bring and show your COVID-19 vaccination card, you can get two. Dunkin Donuts is giving a free donut to customers who purchase a beverage. Finally, some Walmart stores are giving out free coffee and donuts.
Read More: Thrillist, LifeHacker, USA Today
Feel Good Friday: Woman Donates Kidney to Husband’s Ex-Wife
A Florida woman is getting national attention for donating a kidney to her husband’s ex-wife. Debby Neal-Strickland began dating her now-husband Jim over a decade ago. She got to know his ex-wife over the years because she and Jim share two children. However, the women weren’t that close until the ex-wife got kidney disease. Debby offered to help, and she turned out to be a perfect match. The surgery was a success, and the two women now call each other “kidney sisters.”
Read More: AP