Thursday, August 6th, 2020
Beirut Blast Arrests, Mail-in Voting Debate & Instagram Reels
All the news you need in less than 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by www.Blinkist.com/news.
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...
Beirut Explosion Investigation
The massive explosion in Beirut is now responsible for at least 137 deaths, including one American. Emergency workers are still digging through the rubble, so Lebanon’s president warned the death toll will likely go up again. The explosion caused billions of dollars worth of damage and Beirut’s governor says it left about 300,000 people homeless. The UN is promising to support overwhelmed Lebanese hospitals. Medical equipment has also been flown in from around the world.
Read More: AP, ABC News, WSJ, CBS News
75 Years Since Hiroshima
Today marks 75 years since the world’s first atomic bombing. It was on August 6, 1945, when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The city was destroyed and 140,000 people were killed. In Hiroshima this morning, survivors and their relatives got together for a small ceremony. Hiroshima’s mayor spoke to the crowd and urged world leaders to commit to getting rid of nuclear weapons.
Read More: WaPo, USA Today, NY Times, AP
Public Schools Adapting
The nation’s third-largest school district announced its back-to-school plan. Chicago schools will be online-only until at least November. Several other districts have made that same call, like in Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, and Washington D.C. High school football won’t happen until at least 2021 in states like California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Maryland. More colleges are expected to cancel their 2020 football seasons as well. UConn just made that call this week.
New Chicago Schools Reopening Plan: Chicago Tribune, CNN, Reuters, WSJ
High School Sports Status: CBS Sports, NFHS
UConn Cancels Football: AP, ESPN, NY Times, Axios, UConn
COVID-19 Current Outbreaks
COVID-19 is killing Americans at an even faster rate. CBS News reported a 24% increase in coronavirus-related deaths last week, compared to the week before. However, things could be getting better soon. During that same time, the U.S. saw a 9% decrease in the number of new infections.
Read More: Johns Hopkins, NBC News, CBS News
Mail-in Voting Debate
The Trump administration filed a lawsuit, hoping to stop Nevada from automatically sending all voters mail-in ballots. Nevada lawmakers approved that new plan this week because of the pandemic. However, President Trump says the post office will not be able to handle the traffic of mail-in votes. He also claims the move makes it harder for Republicans to win any race in Nevada. Even though Trump is against Nevada’s plan, he’s encouraging his supporters to vote by mail in the key swing state of Florida. There, voters must request the mail-in ballots as they always have.
Trump/RNC Sue Nevada: CNN, CBS News, AP, The Hill
Trump Encourages Florida Mail-in Voting: AP, NBC News, CBS News, Trump Tweet
Virginia Rolls out Pandemic App
Contact tracing technology from Apple and Google is finally being used in the U.S. Virginia is the first state using an app that works with the new tech. It’s free and available in Apple and Android app stores. Once someone downloads the app, it relies on Bluetooth to recognize when it comes close to someone else with the app. Then, if one of the smartphone owners gets sick, the app sends an alert to all the other phones on their log. The hope is this helps people isolate before too many others are exposed.
Read More: AP, Engadget, Reuters, Axios
Instagram Reels Launches
Instagram Reels has officially launched. It’s a new video feature that makes Instagram nearly identical to the TikTok app. It lets users create 15-second video clips, add effects to them, and set them to music. TikTok has called this a “copycat product,” but Facebook, who owns Instagram, says no two services are exactly the same. However, this gives people choices, which is good.
Read More: The Verge, NYT, WSJ, Instagram
Samsung Unveils New Phones
Samsung gave shoppers a look at its new products. They showed off three new smartphone models, the new Note 20, Note 20 Ultra, and Samsung’s foldable phone. They all start at $1,000. They come with some upgrades from the last models. For example, they have bigger screens and more powerful processors. Some of the products are up for pre-order starting tomorrow.
Read More: Reuters, Engadget, AP
PGA Championship Begins
Golf’s first major of the year, the PGA Championship, gets underway in San Francisco today. It will include some of golf’s biggest stars like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, and Justin Thomas. However, there won’t be any fans there because of COVID-19. People can still watch from home on ESPN. The championship starts this morning and wraps up Sunday.
Read More: CBS Sports, ESPN, CNN
Thing to Know Thursday: Antibodies
An antibody is a protein made by white blood cells. It’s used to identify threats, like bacteria, viruses, and parasites in the body. Once antibodies do that, the rest of the immune system can start working to knock out those invaders. Most of the time, the body makes them naturally. In modern medicine, vaccines nudge the process along, helping the body make and preserve the antibodies it needs.
Read More: Dictionary.com, Science Alert, Live Science, CDC