Monday, June 20th, 2022
Baby Vaccines Ready, Bitcoin Meltdown & Biggest Golf Payout
All the news you need in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by Rothys.com/newsworthy and kiwico.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 to review the latest happenings...
Another US Heat Wave
Once again, millions of Americans are facing an intense heatwave. The National Weather Service says the plains and the southeast will get temperatures between 10 to 20 degrees above normal for this time of year. That’s on top of the already high humidity. We’re seeing a lot of triple-digit temperatures already from the gulf coast to Minnesota. It hit 102 as far north as Fargo, North Dakota yesterday. Tomorrow is the first day of summer.
Read More: ABC News, NY Times, NBC News, USA Today, NWS
Shots OKed for Youngest Kids
Starting today, some American babies, toddlers, and preschoolers will be able to start getting Covid-19 shots for the first time. Over the weekend, the FDA authorized Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines for children as young as six months old. Then, the CDC recommended them, saying they give kids strong protection against the most serious cases of Covid-19. Both options come in kid-sized doses. The Moderna one requires two shots, spaced one month apart. The Pfizer option comes in a total of three shots given over 11 weeks. Most states will have shots available today or tomorrow.
Read More: CBS News, Stat, CNN, NBC News, CDC, FDA
Smaller Long Covid Risk with Omicron
It looks like people who get what’s now the most common variant of Covid-19 have a lower chance of getting long-term symptoms. That’s according to the first large-scale study about the omicron variant and what’s known as long Covid. In this study, long Covid meant that people were still dealing with symptoms a month or more after getting infected. What researchers found was that people had a 4.4% chance of getting long Covid if they had omicron, compared with almost 10.8% in people who got the delta variant.
Read More: NPR, NBC News, SciTechDaily, The Hill, The Lancet
Thousands of Flights Canceled/Delayed
Several thousand flights were canceled or delayed over the holiday weekend, and flights that did take off were especially crowded. TSA says last Friday was the most popular air travel day so far in 2022. The numbers were almost equal to those of the same day in 2019 before the pandemic hit. However, airlines and airports say they’re still short-staffed, and industry experts say they probably will be for a while. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the government will be keeping a close eye on 4th of July weekend travel, and if flight disruptions continue, airlines could be fined.
Read More: Axios, AP, CNN, USA Today, Bloomberg, FlightAware, TSA
Verizon, AT&T Delay 5G Again
The biggest wireless carriers in the U.S. are pushing back part of their 5G rollout near airports again. The FAA says Verizon and AT&T agreed to another delay. Originally, the expansion was supposed to happen in January, but it got pushed back to July. Now, it’s going to be another whole year. The delays have been happening since the FAA warned the 5G frequency could interfere with certain airplane devices and that it could impact safety near some airports. Still, the FAA says 5G and flight safety can co-exist. Planes just have to be retrofitted with new equipment, and that’s been taking a while.
Read More: Reuters, AP, CNN, The Hill, FAA
Bitcoin Drops Below $20K
Over the weekend, the value of the most popular and well-known cryptocurrency, bitcoin, plunged nearly 10% in less than 24 hours, dropping below $20,000 for the first time since 2020. Compare that to its all-time high of nearly $69,000 last year, and you can see that bitcoin has lost more than 70% of its value since its peak. Other digital currencies are also seeing drops. It’s part of a larger market downturn due to inflation, rising interest rates, the war in Ukraine, and more.
Read More: AP, CNN, CNBC, WSJ
China Assessed US TikTok Data
A new report says China has had access to American TikTok users’ data many times. Buzzfeed News cited leaked audio recordings of 80 internal meetings between late last year and early this year. The report says TikTok in the U.S. didn’t have access to much of the user data, so when they had to understand information about American user data, they leaned on their colleagues at TikTok’s Chinese parent company, Bytedance. That company is required to share its data with the Chinese government. Now, TikTok is taking more steps for user privacy. It says it has moved its U.S. users’ information to servers at Oracle, and the data is stored in the U.S.
Read More: TechCrunch, Reuters, Fox News, CNN, Buzzfeed, TikTok
First Apple Union
An Apple Store in Maryland is now the first of Apple’s U.S. retail locations to form a union. About two-thirds of employees at the store in the Baltimore area voted to join. Apple has more than 270 retail stores in the United States, and union leaders say workers at a couple of dozen other stores have shown interest in unionizing, too. So far, Apple hasn’t commented. However, the company has said in the past it already pays more and offers better benefits than many retailers, and employee unions could hurt the company’s business.
Read More: WaPo, Reuters, TechCrunch, NY Times, IAM
World Swimming Bans Trans Athletes
Fewer transgender athletes are going to qualify for international competitions because of a new rule. It’s one of the strictest rules against transgender athletes in international sports. The world governing body for swimming, FINA, announced that from now on, transgender women won’t be able to compete against women who were born female. There are exceptions if they begin medical treatment to suppress testosterone before they either turn 12 or go through the early stages of puberty, whichever comes later. FINA’s rules only apply to international competitions like the Olympics and the world swimming championships.
Read More: ESPN, Axios, Fox News, NY Times, FINA
Matt Fitzpatrick Wins US Open
It was a close finish at the U.S. Open this year. English golfer Matt Fitzpatrick, who came into the tournament as the 18th-ranked player in the world, won by a single shot. With that, he earned his first professional golf tournament victory on American soil. It also means he’s going home a $3.15 million share of the $17.5 million total prize, the largest pot in major championship history.
Read More: CBS Sports, CNN, ESPN, NY Times, Fox Business, US Open
Money Monday: Record Home Equity
Homeowners now have more equity than ever. Home equity is calculated by taking the market value of your home and subtracting the balance you owe on your mortgage. According to the Federal Reserve, total U.S. home equity rose nearly 20% in the first quarter to nearly $28 trillion. That’s a record high. The data firm Black Knight says the average homeowner is sitting on $207,000 in tappable equity.
Read More: WSJ, Motley Fool