theNewsWorthy: Friday, June 14th, 2019
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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 perusing the latest happenings...
White House Round Up: Press Secretary Sarah Sanders will be leaving the White House at the end of this month. President Trump made the initial announcement on Twitter but has not said who will replace her. In the meantime, Trump is under pressure to fire White House Advisor Kellyanne Conway for violating the Hatch Act, which bans federal employees from engaging in campaign politics at work. The White House calls it politically motivated. Trump is also taking heat for saying that he would consider hearing dirt on one of his opponents, even if it came from a foreign government. And one more thing: today is Trump’s birthday. He turns 73.
Read more (Sanders Leaving): The Hill, NPR
Read more (Conway Gone Too?): CNN, NYT
Read more (Trump’s Comment): Washington Post
Oil Tanker Attacks: The U.S. is blaming Iran for attacks on two oil tankers near the Persian Gulf. Crews from both tankers – one owned by Japan, and the other by a Norwegian company – abandoned ship and were rescued. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says all signs point to Iran, but Iran denies any involvement. It happened near a vital oil shipping route, so oil prices have gone up as people worry the conflict could continue. Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have been rising since Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and put sanctions back on the country.
Read more: AP, BBC, CNBC, NYT
Sudan Crisis: The U.S. is stepping in after dozens of people in Sudan were killed and hundreds were hurt as the military turned violent against protesters. The country’s dictator, who ruled for three decades, was overthrown in April. The military took charge, and protesters want them to hand the power back to the people. The U.S. appointed a special envoy to meet with officials from both sides.
Read more: BBC, NBC News, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Cosmo
Flint Charges Dropped: After three years, prosecutors in Michigan have dropped the charges on eight city officials and plan to restart the investigation into the water crisis in Flint. They think the investigation was badly managed by the former attorney general’s office. The new attorney general plans to look over new documents to make sure nothing was missed. People in Flint are outraged, but prosecutors say the officials could be charged again in the future.
Read more: AP, USA Today
Flag Day: Today is Flag Day, which marks the anniversary of the day the American flag was officially adopted by the U.S. Though it’s not an official national holiday, people still hold celebrations, including parades. Also, illusionist David Copperfield will perform an illusion in honor of Flag Day at a naturalization ceremony at the Smithsonian.
Read more: Hollywood Reporter, USFlag.org
NBA Champions: The Toronto Raptors are the new NBA champions! They beat the Golden State Warriors last night in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. The final score was 114-110. This is the first time the Raptors have won a championship in franchise history, and it's also the first time any non-U.S. franchise has won the title.
Read more: CBS Sports
Cryptocurrency News: Researchers have found that Bitcoin gives off the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions as a city the size of Las Vegas. Experts say each Bitcoin transaction gives off several hundred times more carbon dioxide than a regular credit card payment. Also of note: Facebook plans to unveil a new digital currency as soon as next week and already has big companies like Visa, PayPal and Uber signing on to invest.
Read more (Bitcoin): AP
Read more: (Facebook): WSJ
#InstagramDown: The Instagram app went down yesterday. The outage was reported more than 75,000 times around the world and became the number one trending topic on Twitter. Instagram didn’t say what caused the problem, but it should be back to normal now.
Read more: CNET, Gizmodo
Two Hours Outdoors: We all know it's good to get outside, but now a new study found how much time we should be spending with mother nature for maximum benefits. The study recommends getting outside for at least 120 minutes (two hours) per week for better physical and mental health.
Read more: NYT, Scientific Reports
Father’s Day: Sunday is Father’s Day! Budweiser has created some buzz with a new advertisement in honor of the holiday. The commercial follows three older children who surprise their stepfathers and ask to be adopted. Also, check out the links below for some tech gift ideas or restaurant chain deals happening this weekend. Happy Father’s Day!
Read more: Today, USA Today, PC Mag