Thursday, July 22nd, 2021
Historic Opioid Deal, Lifespan Drops & Clubhouse Open to Everyone
All the news you need in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.com/newsworthy and Rothys.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 to peruse the latest happenings...
States Reach Opioid Settlement
States reached a historic settlement with the nation’s three biggest opioid distributors and a pharmaceutical giant worth $26 billion. The distributors are McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health, and the drugmaker is Johnson & Johnson. The distributors have been accused of allowing massive amounts of addictive painkillers to go into illegal channels, while Johnson & Johnson has been accused of downplaying the addiction risk when it markets opioids. They have always denied the allegations, but now say they’re committed to being part of the solution. The money is supposed to go to addiction treatment, family support, education, and more.
Read More: WSJ, CNN, WaPo, Reuters
U.S. Keeps Mexico, Canada Border Restrictions
It’s going to be a little longer before you can host your friends or family from Mexico and Canada for a visit here in the U.S. The U.S. government extended its border restrictions for at least another month. This means all nonessential travel will have to be put on hold through August 21st at the earliest. The U.S. has renewed these restrictions every month since March of 2020, but in the past, the United States, Canada, and Mexico have mostly been on the same page. Now, Mexico doesn’t have any restrictions on U.S. citizens coming in and Canada says it’s going to lift its restrictions on fully-vaccinated Americans on August 9th.
Read More: USA Today, CBC, NY Times, WaPo
Canada Passes U.S. in Vaccinations
Canada is reporting big progress on vaccinations. It leads developing countries in their vaccination rate. About 80% of eligible Canadians have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine compared to about 66% of eligible Americans. This is a big turnaround since Canada got a late start in its vaccination efforts. Millions of Canadians were still in lockdown a few months ago as they watched their American neighbors get their shots and return to normal life. Now, the country is seeing fewer new COVID-19 cases each day than the U.S.
Read More: Bloomberg, NY Daily News, Canada Public Health Agency, CDC
Havana Syndrome Task Force
The U.S. intelligence community has a new panel of experts looking into what’s known as Havana Syndrome. Beginning in Havana, Cuba, dozens of American diplomats and support staff say they started hearing strange sounds, felt pulses of pressure in their heads, and had some other unusual physical sensations. They were left with nausea, headaches, and vertigo. A new panel is tasked with finding out what’s causing these health incidents. An undercover spy from the CIA is going to be leading the task force. The rest of the panel is made up of other intelligence leaders as well as scientific and medical experts.
Read More: WaPo, WSJ, Reuters, ABC News, CNN
Republicans Block Infrastructure Bill
A bipartisan infrastructure plan faced a setback on Capitol Hill. A group of Republican and Democratic Senators agreed on it last month. The roughly $1 trillion proposal focuses just on physical infrastructure like roads, rails, and bridges. However, yesterday, every Republican in the Senate voted against it. Their issue is the bill isn’t totally written yet. For now, it’s just an outline that Democrats put to a vote to get the legislative process moving, and Republicans say they just don’t want to vote on something that’s not ready. Lawmakers are back to negotiating. A more complete proposal will likely go up for another vote next week.
Read More: Politico, Reuters, NPR, Fox News
PG&E Burying Power Lines
Utility company PG&E has a new plan to stop its equipment from sparking wildfires. It’s going to start burying 10,000 miles of power lines in fire-prone areas. This project is expected to cost anywhere from $15 billion to $30 billion. A lot of PG&E customers say they’re worried the company is going to start charging them more, though the company hasn’t said yet how the work will be paid for. PG&E says the changes are needed to save lives. It told California officials malfunctions with one of its utility poles may have caused the Dixie fire that is now burning through more than 140 square miles in northern California.
Read More: AP, WSJ, NY Times, Axios, PG&E, Cal Fire
Life Expectancy Fell in 2020
American life expectancy dropped last year to its lowest level in nearly two decades. The CDC says the average lifespan in the U.S. is now about 77 years old. That’s a year and a half less than it was in 2019, and the sharpest single-year drop since World War II. The decline was even worse for Black and Hispanic Americans. They now live, on average, three years less than they used to. Officials say COVID-19 was responsible for nearly two-thirds of the decline. Drug overdose deaths also rose by about 30% last year. Experts say it’s not yet clear when the downward trend might reverse itself.
Read More: Reuters, Axios, WSJ, AP, CDC
2032 Olympics City Chosen
Olympic organizers are already looking ahead to future summer games. They announced this week that Brisbane, Australia will host the summer games in 2032. This will be the third time Australia has hosted the Olympics. Before that, we have to get through this year’s summer games in Tokyo, then in Paris in 2024, and then in Los Angeles in 2028.
Read More: Axios, WaPo, AP
Tumblr Paid Subscription Tool
Tumblr is the latest social media platform to help users earn money from their accounts. The blogging site launched a paid subscription service this week called Post Plus. It will let writers put some of their content behind a paywall. They can choose how much they want to charge readers for access. Subscriptions could cost anywhere from $4-10 a month, and Tumblr will keep 5% of the profits. For now, only a handful of creators can access Post Plus. The feature will be more widely available this fall.
Read More: WSJ, The Verge, TechCrunch
Clubhouse No Longer Invite Only
The social platform Clubhouse is becoming more inclusive. When the live audio app launched, you had to be invited by a member to access the chats. However, Clubhouse dropped the invitation requirement this week so anyone can sign up at any time. About ten million people had reportedly been on a waitlist to join the app.
Read More: The Verge, 9to5Mac, Reuters, TechCrunch
Next Kennedy Center Honors Nominees
The next class of Kennedy Center honorees was revealed this week. The people chosen for the lifetime achievement awards include singer and actress Bette Midler, Motown Records creator Berry Gordy, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, opera singer Justino Diaz, and folk music singer Joni Mitchell. The Kennedy Center Honors recognize artists and performers who have made a lasting contribution to American culture. Last year’s ceremony was delayed several months because of the pandemic, but organizers say this year’s ceremony will go back to its normal weekend in December.
Read More: WaPo, NY Post, Vulture, Variety, AP
Thing to Know Thursday: Breakthrough COVID Cases
You’ve probably seen headlines about so-called “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19. That term refers to people who are fully vaccinated against the virus but get infected anyway. Out of the 162 million fully vaccinated Americans, more than 5,000 have ended up in the hospital or died from COVID-19. This means less than 1% of vaccinated people have gotten a severe case. Officials say most vaccinated people who test positive have either mild or nonexistent symptoms and it seems they’re less likely to pass the virus onto someone else. More research is still being done to learn more about transmission rates and breakthrough cases in general.
Read More: NPR, AP, ABC News, WaPo