Wednesday, July 14th, 2021

Voting Bills Showdown, Inflation Rising, & Historic Emmy Noms

All the news you need in about 10 min:

This episode is brought to you by Ritual.com/newsworthy and kiwico.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 Voter Rights Speech
President Biden is using some of his strongest words yet to condemn new voting laws around the U.S. At the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Biden called the fight against voting restrictions the “most significant test of our democracy since the civil war.” Voting issues have become a top priority for both parties this year. Republicans say changes they’ve pushed are meant to improve election security. Democrats say those changes aren’t necessary for security and they end up making it harder for Americans to vote. The president says he’s going to be asking Republicans to fight the restrictions and promised to help educate voters.
Read More: NY Times, WSJ, AP, Politico

Largest Price Spike in 13 Years
The Labor Department says consumer prices have shot up faster over the past year than in any other time since 2008. They’re up 5.4% which is even more than what economists expected. Used cars and trucks are responsible for about a third of the surge. Food is also more expensive at the grocery store, restaurants, and even in vending machines. Also, gasoline, clothing, plane tickets, hotels, rent, and home prices are all up. The Federal Reserve says it expects inflation will calm down over the next few months as the economy continues to recover from the pandemic and shortages are solved.
Read More: Reuters, The Hill, WaPo, Axios

Covid Cases Up Again
New data from Johns Hopkins University shows the number of new daily COVID-19 cases has doubled over the past three weeks. It’s now almost 24,000 a day. Health experts are pointing to the fast-spreading Delta variant as well as lagging vaccination rates. The nation’s largest outbreak is in southwest Missouri and northern Arkansas where new cases and hospitalizations are hitting levels not seen since winter. The White House is putting some star power behind its vaccination push. 18-year-old pop star Olivia Rodrigo will meet with President Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci today to record videos encouraging young people to get their shots.
Read More: CNN, AP, WSJ, NPR

Iraq Hospital Fire
For the second time in a matter of months, a deadly fire broke out at an Iraqi hospital ward specifically designed to care for COVID-19 patients. This time, at least 92 people died and all of them suffered severe burns. It’s not clear exactly what caused this fire. Authorities said an electric short circuit in a ventilator sparked it, but another official told the AP the fire started when an oxygen cylinder exploded. An oxygen tank also exploded in another Iraqi hospital back in April. Doctors have long complained about lax safety at Iraq’s hospitals and have described those oxygen tanks as ticking bombs. The Iraqi government has launched an investigation.
Read More: BBC, AP, Axios, WaPo

Western Wildfires Latest
Thousands of firefighters are now working together to battle tons of western wildfires. The National Interagency Fire Center says these fires now cover almost a million acres of land. The largest one is burning in the Fremont-Winema National Forest in Oregon. It’s not clear yet how it started, but it’s already destroyed dozens of buildings. Other large fires are burning in Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. Fire officials say above-average temperatures, high winds, and dry land are all making matters worse.
Read More: Weather Channel, AP, WaPo, CNN, NIFC

REvil Disappears
The Russian hacker gang REvil, who was responsible for some of the biggest ransomware attacks this year, seems to have disappeared. Last week, President Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the group. Biden said he expected the Russian government to put a stop to REvil or else the U.S. government would. It looks like someone did just that. Yesterday, REvil’s public website was down, as was its dark web portal, and the site victims use to pay ransoms. Since no one has taken credit for taking the sites down, it’s not clear whether the outage is temporary or if the group is operating under a different name.
Read More: Politico, CNBC, NY Times, CNN

United Airlines Buying Electric Planes
United Airlines is betting battery-powered planes will be ready to fly within the next few years and it’s putting money behind it. United says it’s buying 100 electric planes from a start-up called Heart Aerospace. The Swedish company has been working on an electric plane that can hold 19 passengers. It runs on an electric motor and batteries instead of traditional fuel. The aircraft is expected to be ready for commercial flights by 2026. Don’t expect cross-country flights anytime soon though, as the electric plane will only be able to fly about 250 miles at a time. United says it will just use these smaller planes for shorter, regional flights.
Read More: Fox Business, Reuters, United, Simple Flying

TikTok Bans Sponsored Financial Content
TikTok is banning sponsored posts related to finance. The video-sharing app now says its users are not allowed to share content that’s been paid for by investment services, trading platforms, cryptocurrencies, and others. TikTok already bans posts promoting weapons, alcohol companies, and gambling services. Financial services are now on that same list. The ban applies only to sponsored content though, so TikTok users can still post about money and financing if they want as long as they aren’t paid for it. TikTok may be trying to protect its users against bad financial advice or from getting duped by pyramid schemes.
Read More: Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, PYMNTS, Financial Times

Emmy Nominations
This year’s list of Emmy Awards nominations includes a few historic firsts. For example, M.J. Rodriguez is up for best actress in a drama for her starring role in the show Pose on FX, making her the first transgender performer nominated for a leading role at the Emmys. Comedian Bowen Yang is the first Chinese-American man nominated for best supporting actor for his work on Saturday Night Live. HBO and HBO Max led all the Hollywood studios with 130 nominations, while Netflix came in a close second with 129. The Emmy Awards are scheduled for mid-September. Cedric the Entertainer has signed on as the host.
Read More: WSJ, THR, NPR, Variety, NY Post

Work Wednesday: 4-Day Workweek
The idea of a four-day workweek is gaining traction around the world. More trials have found a shorter workweek benefits both employees and businesses. Iceland has been testing this theory over the last few years with a variety of workplaces. Workers put in about 35 hours per week over four days, but they were paid the same amount as before when they were working five days. Researchers called the trials an “overwhelming success.” Workers said they felt healthier and less stressed, and in most companies, productivity stayed about the same or even improved even though workers were putting in fewer hours.
Read More: CNBC, BBC, Forbes, The Atlantic

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Erica Mandy