Tuesday, September 1st, 2020
Candidates Tackle Unrest, Airlines Ditch Change Fees & ‘Fresh Prince’ Reunites
All the news 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 to read the latest happenings...
Trump to Visit Kenosha
President Trump is set to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin today to show support for law enforcement. However, there are fears this could be another turbulent day for the town which has already seen two contentious shootings in the last nine days. Kenosha’s mayor and Wisconsin’s governor are worried the president’s visit will stir up more heated emotions, so they asked him to reconsider his trip. A White House spokesman says President Trump is looking forward to the visit and “helping this great city heal and rebuild.”
Read More: ABC News, Politico, AP, CNN
Biden ‘Law and Order’ Speech
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says President Trump is partly responsible for the recent tensions and violence in Kenosha. During a speech in Pennsylvania, Biden said “Donald Trump has failed to protect America, so now he’s trying to scare America.” The president fired back, calling the whole speech “strange.” On Twitter, Trump wrote that Biden was “blaming the police far more than he’s blaming the rioters, anarchists, agitators and looters.”
Read More: WaPo, FOX News, Axios
Trump/Lawyer Defend Kenosha Gunman
Investigators are still looking into a deadly shooting that happened at a Kenosha protest. Remember, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested for shooting into a crowd, killing two protesters. Now, the teenager’s lawyer and President Trump say there’s more to the story. They say Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense, that before the shooting, he was chased by a mob and someone lunged at him, which is why he opened fire. So far, authorities haven’t commented on that version of events.
Read More: Reuters, USA Today, CNN, FOX News
New CDC Report on COVID Deaths
A new coronavirus report from the CDC shows 94% of the people who died from COVID-19 in the U.S. had contributing health conditions. The CDC included a long list of what those have been. They include diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, Alzheimers, and more. To clarify things, one epidemiologist explained that even if COVID-19 wasn’t the only factor in these deaths, it was still the main underlying cause in most of them. Only in 5% of deaths was coronavirus listed as a “contributing” cause, instead of the main one.
Read More: Axios, CNN, CDC, Epidemiologist Post, Johns Hopkins
Trump Medical Adviser Pushes Herd Immunity
President Trump’s new medical adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, is reportedly urging the White House to consider a “herd immunity” approach. Without a vaccine available yet, that means he would let COVID-19 spread through most of the population so healthy people could build a resistance to it. At the same time, he’d want to protect vulnerable groups by applying lockdowns only to them. However, by some estimates, to reach a 65% immunity threshold, 2.1 million Americans would have to die.
Read More: WaPo, Business Insider, The Week
Another Vaccine Starts Stage 3 Trials
Another possible coronavirus vaccine is entering the final phase of testing in the U.S. AstraZeneca is the third company to enroll at least 30,000 volunteers. They’ll be rolling up their sleeves for an injection starting today. Moderna and Pfizer have already started these final trials. The Trump administration is counting on at least one of the vaccines to work and get approval for the public by early next year.
Read More: NBC News, Reuters, Bloomberg
Airlines Drop Change Fees
A few of the largest U.S. Airlines are getting rid of change fees. Delta, American, and United Airlines announced they will no longer charge passengers for changing plans on most domestic flights. That change fee would typically cost travelers about $200. The airlines are reportedly making changes to convince people who have been nervous about flying a pandemic to travel again. However, it’s not just a pandemic-era change. The new no-change-fee policy will reportedly be permanent at all three airlines.
Read More: NPR, CNBC, WSJ, United, Delta, American
FAA Approves Amazon Drone Delivery
The FAA approved Amazon’s “Prime Air” service. Amazon has drones that can deliver packages and with the FAA’s blessing, the company will start testing them out. The drones can reportedly carry packages about five pounds or less. So far, Amazon hasn’t said when or where testing will begin, but eventually, it wants to do drone deliveries worldwide.
Read More: CNN, USA Today, The Verge, Engadget
Netflix Free Content
Netflix is letting people watch some original content for free. Movies are available in full, but for TV shows, people will only be able to watch the first episode of the first season. After that, they’ll have to subscribe to watch more. It’s available to anyone worldwide using a Windows PC, Mac, or Android device.
Read More: Gadgets 360, TechCrunch, Netflix
Boseman Movies Dominate Charts
Movies starring the late actor Chadwick Boseman are again topping charts. Black Panther, and the action movie 21 Bridges were among the top five Amazon best sellers yesterday. It was similar on Apple’s iTunes. Boseman died on Friday from colon cancer at 43 years old.
Read More: CNN, Variety, Amazon Bestsellers
‘Fresh Prince’ Reunion
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is hosting a reunion special. The show is celebrating its 30th anniversary. All the big stars will be involved, like Will Smith, Tatyana Ali, Alfonso Ribeiro, and DJ Jazzy Jeff. The cast will reportedly reunite for an unscripted taping later this month. Then, the special will debut on HBO Max around Thanksgiving.
Read More: Variety, Deadline, People
Trivia Tuesday
Q: September comes from the Latin word 'septem' which means what?
Play along on today’s Instagram Stories Quiz. We’ll also have the answer right here next week.
Last Week’s Trivia Tuesday Answer
Q: Who would win in a long-distance race: a greyhound dog or a cheetah?
A: A greyhound
Read More: ThoughtCo, Psychology Today