Friday, June 11th, 2021
New Infrastructure Deal, Delta Variant Threat & Wedding Boom
All the news you need in around 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.com/newsworthy and Framebridge.com (Listen for the discount code)
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...
Tentative Infrastructure Deal
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been working to come up with a compromise on an infrastructure package. Now, a group of Republican and Democratic senators says they’ve made a deal. They haven’t released all the details, but say it focuses on physical infrastructure like roads, rails, and bridges. This plan wouldn’t need any new tax increases to pay for it, costing an estimated $1.2 trillion over eight years. For this proposal to become law, it still has to win support from a lot of lawmakers and the White House. Though top congressional leaders say they are open to the new proposal, they’ll have to read through all the details first.
Read More: WSJ, CNBC, Reuters, ABC News
Biden-Johnson Atlantic Charter
President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had their first face-to-face meeting this week. They signed an updated version of the historic Atlantic Charter. The original was signed in 1941 by then-President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. While that version was a blueprint for coming out of World War II, the new one lays out some more modern commitments. The countries promised to cooperate on things like climate change and technology, and both reaffirmed their support for the NATO alliance.
Read More: Politico, NPR, NY Times, Fox News, White House
G7 Vaccine Pledge
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he expects the Group of Seven (G7) will be donating a total of one billion vaccine doses to the rest of the world. The G7 includes the wealthy countries of the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and Canada. Half of the donated shots will come from the U.S. while 100 million doses will be from the UK. The G7 leaders have been facing pressure to share vaccines with poorer countries that have only vaccinated a small percentage of their populations so far. The World Health Organization has said the pandemic will only end once all countries have been vaccinated.
Read More: AP, Reuters, WaPo, Bloomberg
U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Down 90%
Americans have already been making big progress against COVID-19. Deaths from the coronavirus have dropped 90% since a peak in January. However, there are still hundreds of Americans dying from the virus every day. Experts say those numbers are driven by people who aren’t vaccinated, and they are trending younger. At the start of the year, the majority of American COVID-19 deaths were people over 75 years old, but that group was the first to be vaccinated. Now CDC data shows middle-aged Americans make up a much bigger portion of the death rate.
Read More: NY Times, Johns Hopkins
Delta Variant in the U.S
There’s a new reason experts say more people of all ages should get their COVID-19 vaccinations. That’s the Delta variant, which has been powering the huge COVID-19 outbreaks in India the last couple of months. The CDC says that strain now makes up more than 6% of all COVID-19 infections in the U.S. This one is especially concerning since it seems to be the most contagious variant detected so far. The good news is not everyone needs to worry about it as the vaccines already on the market in the U.S. seem to be working against it. So far, more than half of Americans over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated.
Read More: Stat, CNN, LA Times, CDC
Drop in Childhood Vaccinations
This week, the CDC released a report that says many American kids are now behind on their routine childhood shots, like ones for measles and whooping cough. Both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics are calling on parents to get their children up-to-date on those shots before school starts in the fall. Both groups say they think parents have been putting off the appointments because they didn’t want to go into doctor’s offices during the pandemic. Experts say they worry about new outbreaks spreading diseases like measles.
Read More: WaPo, Fox News, CNN, CDC
EA Source Code Stolen by Hackers
One of the largest video game companies, Electronic Arts, was hacked this week. Best known for the EA Sports game collection, the company says hackers broke into its online networks and stole gaming source code and gaming tools. Luckily, they say it doesn’t look like the hackers targeted player information. EA has already beefed up its online security and is working with law enforcement to figure out who the hackers are. They may already have a hint of who it is, as an online account with the name Leakbook posted about the stolen data on an underground crime forum this week and was offering to sell it.
Read More: CNN, Vice, ARS Technica, The Verge, WSJ
A Fifth Named Ocean
Most of the world now says there are five oceans in the world. Historically, there were only four: The Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. Now, the body of water surrounding Antarctica can be added to that list, being named the Southern Ocean. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says it has recognized this fifth ocean for more than 20 years, but scientists disagreed about what to name it or where to map the boundaries until recently. It connects the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. The Southern Ocean may be in the news more in regards to climate change since it helps to control climates all over the world.
Read More: NOAA, National Geographic, The Guardian, WaPo
U.S. Wedding Boom
It’s about to be a busy wedding season in the U.S. There are the people who delayed getting married last year due to COVID-19, those who did get legally married but are now looking to have a big reception, and those who recently got engaged. Vendors, venues, and wedding planners are seeing a boom in demand right now with some booking into 2023. The weddings are getting bigger, too. After a year of elopements, micro-weddings, and virtual ceremonies, people seem to be going in the opposite direction. One vendor in Austin, Texas, says he’s seeing most guest lists between 150 to 300 people.
Read More: AP, Fox Business, Time, Brides
Nadal vs. Djokovich at the French Open
Two of the best tennis players in the world will duke it out at the French Open today. Top-ranked Novak Djokovic faces defending champ Rafael Nadal. This will be the 58th matchup between Nadal and Djokovic, which is the most matches ever between two tennis pros on the men’s side. The winner of the match will play for the championship on Sunday against the person who wins another semi-final match that is happening today.
Read More: CBS Sports, Tennis.com, AP
Women’s Championship is Saturday
The final French Open match is already set for women’s tennis. It will be between two underdogs: Barbora Krejcikova from the Czech Republic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova from Russia. Both women were seeded below the 30th spot at the start of the French Open, but they seem to have defied all odds to make it to the finals. Their championship match is set for tomorrow morning.
Read More: BBC, NY Times, CBS Sports
Feel Good Friday: Boy Sells Pokemon to Save His Dog
A young boy in Virginia named Bryson has inspired a lot of people for his efforts to save his puppy, Bruce, who was diagnosed with a virus that if untreated could be deadly. The medical bills were more than his family could afford, so Bryson decided to sell his prized Pokemon collection to help out. He set up a table in his front yard and started selling his cards for $5 apiece. The community responded in a big way. People started dropping by the stand to donate cash and others online donated more. Overall, over $22,000 was raised to help Bryson and his dog. The family is donating the extra funds to help out other pet owners in similar situations.
Read More: WaPo, USA Today, Newsweek, GoFundMe