Thursday, October 28th, 2021
Dems Drop Paid Leave, “Sputnik Moment” & Instagram Links
All the news you need in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by Indeed.com/newsworthy and BetterHelp.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...
Dems Drop Paid Leave from Spending Bill
Top Democrats on Capitol Hill are scrapping one of President Biden's top priorities from their social spending and climate bill. News reports say the package will no longer include paid family and medical leave. Democrats have also scrapped free community college, a program to push utility companies to generate more clean energy, and a series of tax increases. However, the package still includes other big initiatives like universal pre-K, low-cost housing aid, expanded Medicaid coverage, more affordable home care for seniors, and more. The final cost is expected to be $1.7 trillion, down from $3.5 trillion.
Read More: Politico, WSJ, CNN, NBC News, Fox News
Oil Companies to Testify on Climate Change
Today, lawmakers are set to grill executives from some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies. ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Shell are facing accusations that they spent millions of dollars on a disinformation campaign to make people doubt the science of climate change. However, for decades, scientists have been saying fossil fuels like oil and natural gas directly impact global warming. So far, the companies’ CEOs have said they never misled the public about climate change. This is the first time they’ll be pressed to answer questions about it under oath.
Read More: NY Times, Reuters, Newsweek, The Hill
Chinese Missile Tests
America's top general is raising concerns about China's new weapons system. Over the summer, China tested a hypersonic missile designed to make American defenses obsolete. Anti-missile technology in the U.S. is designed to take down warheads on predictable paths in outer space, but not hypersonic weapons that can zig and zag through the atmosphere and speed up toward a target. This week, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, spoke to Bloomberg TV saying, “it has all of our attention.” Analysts say this could inspire a new arms race for a different generation.
Read More: Bloomberg, NY Times, Al Jazeera
Latest Movie Set Shooting Details
More details are coming out about the weapon that killed a cinematographer on a movie set last week. Law enforcement officials now say they think a real bullet was loaded into the antique revolver Alec Baldwin was practicing with, even though the assistant director told Baldwin the gun was safe to use. It’s still not clear who put the live round in the gun. As The New York Times reports, live rounds are typically not allowed anywhere on film sets. On this set, though, sheriffs seized 500 rounds of ammunition including blanks, dummy rounds, and live rounds.
Read More: ABC News, NBC News, Reuters, Fox News, CNN
Antidepressant for Early COVID
An antidepressant that’s widely available and affordable could end up being a helpful treatment for Covid-19. Fluvoxamine is a pill that’s been prescribed for nearly 30 years for OCD and depression. But, in a recent, large trial out of Brazil, unvaccinated Covid-19 patients who took it were much less likely to go to the hospital than those who didn’t. Fluvoxamine costs about $4. Researchers presented this data to the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization, and they could decide whether to recommend the drug for Covid-19 soon.
Read More: AP, WSJ, NY Times, The Lancet
First X Gender Passport
For the first time, the U.S. has issued a passport with an ‘X’ for gender. The Biden administration had promised to do this to make passports more inclusive. The change comes after a federal discrimination lawsuit. An intersex and nonbinary U.S. Navy veteran sued the State Department over the issue. They are the first person to get a passport marked with an ‘X’ for gender. The State Department said it’s still working to update its systems and forms but that all passport applicants will have the ‘X’ choice by early next year.
Read More: WSJ, Fox News, NPR, State Dept.
Delta Testing Facial Recognition
There’s now the option at the airport to check your bags in seconds, go through security, and board the plane without ever getting out a boarding pass or ID. Delta Airlines is testing new technology using facial recognition in the hopes of saving travelers time from curb to gate. Right now, this is a pilot program in Atlanta. It’ll soon be available for travelers who signed up with Delta’s frequent flier program who have TSA pre-check and opt-in to do this. But, the airline says it’ll expand to more airports by the end of the year.
Read More: TechCrunch, ABC News, CBS News, Delta
Delete Underage Photos from Google
Anyone who is currently younger than 18 can now ask Google to remove their photos from search results. That means they won’t show up as thumbnails or in the images tab on Google. Any minor, their parent, guardian, or legal representation can request Google remove photos of them, just like Google does with photos containing personal information like social security numbers. The photo will still appear on whatever site it came from if that webmaster keeps it up, just no longer searchable on Google.
Read More: The Verge, CNN, NPR, Google
Remove Images of Minors: Google
Links Stickers for IG Stories
Instagram is now letting everyone share links in their stories with stickers. The platform used to have the option to swipe up on stories for links, but it was only available for verified accounts or those with at least 10k followers. Now, it doesn’t matter if you have just one follower or millions. Everyone can use a sticker. You can direct people to a different website to learn more about a product, read an article, sign up for a service, and more. Just select the sticker tool from the top of the navigation bar when you upload content to your story and add the URL.
Read More: TechCrunch, The Verge, Engadget, Instagram
Thing to Know Thursday: Braves Pitcher Broken Leg
The World Series is now tied up. The Atlanta Braves won game one, and the Houston Astros won game two. However, it’s going to be a big challenge for the Braves to come back and win the whole thing. They lost their ace pitcher this week. Charlie Morton took a 102-mph ball to his right leg during game one. He kept playing for a while, throwing 16 more pitches and recording three outs. However, the leg gave out in the next inning. Then, Morton found out his leg was broken. He’s going to miss the rest of the World Series. A rookie pitcher, Tucker Davidson, who has only played five games in the big leagues, was added to the World Series roster.
Read More: ESPN, CBS Sports, NY Times, AP, USA Today