Friday, August 7th, 2020
Trump Targets TikTok, NRA Corruption Lawsuit & ‘A League of Their Own’ Reboot
All the news you need in less than 10 min:
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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 the latest happenings...
Trump Bans ByteDance Business
President Trump signed two new executive orders to ban U.S. companies from working with the Chinese parent companies for both the popular video-sharing app TikTok and the messaging app WeChat. The ban will go into effect on September 20th if an American company doesn’t buy the apps first. The president cited national security concerns for the orders. He says the apps give the Chinese Communist Party too much access to Americans’ data and the ability to run disinformation campaigns in the U.S. TikTok says that’s not the case.
Read More: NBC News, The Verge, WaPo, USA Today
U.S. Lifts Global Travel Advisory
The U.S. State Department has lifted its “do not travel” advisory five months after it was first issued. It was meant to discourage Americans from traveling anywhere overseas during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the U.S. wants to get more specific and release different guidelines for different countries, based on the current status of COVID-19 in each location. Still, the CDC recommends against non-essential travel in 200 different locations.
Read More: CNN, AP, Reuters, USA Today
How the U.S. COVID-19 Outbreak Compares
COVID-19 is more widespread in the U.S. than in most other countries. The U.S. has reported nearly 4.9 million cases and more than 160,000 deaths. That’s more than any other nation. However, when it comes to the number of deaths per-capita, the U.S. suffers the 8th worst outbreak in the world so far. The country with the most COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people is Belgium.
Read More: NPR, Newsweek, CNN, Johns Hopkins
WHO Chief on “Vaccine Nationalism”
The World Health Organization’s director-general is urging leaders to make plans now to share vaccines when they’re available. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told NBC News the spread of the virus will only end with global coordination. He said, "Sharing vaccines or sharing other tools actually helps the world to recover together, and the economic recovery can be faster and the damage from COVID-19 can be lessened.”
Read More: NBC News, Al Jazeera, Reuters
NY AG Aims to Dissolve NRA
New York’s attorney general is trying to take down the nation’s most powerful gun-rights lobby. Letitia James filed a civil suit against the National Rifle Association. She’s accusing the nonprofit organization of corruption, saying senior leaders illegally diverted millions of dollars into their own pockets to fund a “lavish lifestyle.” The NRA says none of that is true, so it’s counter-suing, accusing the state official of defamation.
Read More: NY Times, NBC News, FOX News, Reuters, AP
NOAA Hurricane Season Outlook
NOAA revised its earlier forecast, saying this is going to be an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season. It now says we can expect about 19-25 named storms this season. An average season brings about 12. The agency has never predicted as many as 25 in one season. One NOAA forecaster says 3-6 of them will probably be major hurricanes of category three strength or stronger. Typically, the season lasts through the end of November.
Read More: NY Times, CNN, Axios, WaPo
66 Players Opt Out of NFL Season
Dozens of NFL players have officially opted out of the 2020 season. They had until yesterday to make their final decision. 66 of them decided it was not worth the risk to play during the pandemic. Nearly half of them were lineman, which are usually in constant face-to-face contact with other players. All the biggest names in football, like Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes, are still in. The regular season is slated to start next month.
Read More: AP, ESPN, CBS Sports
Sturgis Rally Begins
A massive motorcycle rally kicks off in Sturgis, South Dakota today. The annual festival is expected to attract about 250,000 people. Some locals are nervous because South Dakota has been seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases. Also, bikers are expected to travel from all corners of the country to attend. Still, some business owners are happy it’s moving forward. As a precaution, Sturgis will offer virus testing to its residents once the rally wraps up on August 16th.
Read More: CNN, NY Times, WaPo, Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Twitter Labels Government Accounts
Twitter is adding new labels to government accounts. They’re going up on state-run media pages and the accounts of government officials. Its labels will tell you what country the page is associated with. For now, they’re going up on accounts affiliated with the United States, UK, Russia, China, and France. They’ll be expanded to more countries in the future.
Read More: Engadget, BBC USA Today, Twitter
‘E! News’ Canceled
After nearly three decades on the air, E! News got canceled. For many people, the show has been the go-to source for entertainment news since 1991. That’s not the case anymore. The pandemic has reportedly just taken too much of a financial toll. The show’s parent company also apparently wants to focus more on streaming projects.
Read More: CNN, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Instagram
New Releases to Stream
The iconic 1992 movie A League of Their Own is making a comeback as an Amazon series. An Amazon executive says the classic movie will be reimagined for a new generation with new characters and a modern vision for the story. Also, Disney is going to release its live-action version of Mulan on the streaming platform Disney+. It will cost $30 on top of the service’s monthly fee. That comes out on September 4th.
‘A League of Their Own’ Reboot: Variety, Bustle
‘Mulan’ Skips Theaters: Vox, WSJ
Feel Good Friday - 96-Year Old Graduates
At 96 years old, Giuseppe Paterno just graduated from an Italian university. Growing up, his family was poor, so he only received a basic education, but Paterno was an avid reader his whole life and had a passion for learning. So, he signed up for college. He took history and philosophy classes, and used a typewriter to complete his assignments. Last week, Paterno graduated first in his class with top honors.
Read More: Reuters, NY Times, People