Wednesday, December 8th, 2021
2 Years of Covid, Hawaii Weather Warnings & Top TikTok Trends
All the news you need in about 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 about the latest happenings…
Two Years Since First COVID Cases
Exactly two years ago today, the first cases of what we now know as Covid-19 popped up in Wuhan, China. Since then, there have been more than 267 million confirmed Covid-19 cases around the world and about 5.3 million deaths. There have also been huge strides to fight the virus over the last couple of years with social distancing, mask-wearing, contact tracing, quarantines, and vaccines. So, how will the pandemic end? Most scientists agree the pandemic will likely become endemic. This means it’s likely the spread of Covid-19 will look and feel more like the seasonal flu. But, it is currently unclear exactly when that might happen.
Read More: Axios, The Guardian, CNN, CDC, Johns Hopkins
Youth Mental Health Crisis Warning
The U.S. surgeon general issued a rare public health advisory over a youth mental health crisis. In his report, Dr. Vivek Murthy said mental health issues among kids were already widespread in the spring of 2020, but the pandemic made them much worse. He cited big increases in kids reporting they’re depressed or anxious and the rise of emergency room visits for suicide attempts. The surgeon general’s advisory calls for more resources address mental health challenges. In a crisis, call the suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK. Other mental health resources can be found in the links below.
Read More: NY Times, LA Times, The Hill, NBC News, HHS
Resources for Young People: How Right Now, Youth Engaged 4 Change, JED Foundation, National Council for Mental Wellbeing, NAP, NAMI, One Mind PsyberGuide, SAMHSA
Biden-Putin Summit
President Biden had a two-hour video call with Russia's Vladimir Putin this week. Most of that time was spent on a potential conflict with Ukraine. President Biden said Russia would face tough economic penalties should President Putin call for a Ukraine invasion. Putin brought up his concerns about western influence in Ukraine and asked for guarantees that NATO wouldn’t expand its membership to include Ukraine. Even though there didn’t seem to be any big breakthroughs to ease tensions, the White House still called it a “useful meeting.” The two leaders also talked about cybersecurity concerns as well as Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Read More: CNN, AP, WSJ, NY Times, Reuters, White House
Hawaii Flooding
Hawaii has been getting hammered by unusually severe weather this week. More than a foot of rain has fallen in parts of the state over the last three days, and more rain is expected today. Flash flood warnings and flood watches are in effect through this afternoon. Thankfully, reports don’t say anyone was seriously hurt in the storms. However, roads were washed out, homes were damaged, and trees came crashing down. Thousands of customers are without power this morning. The governor has declared a state of emergency to get resources to people who need them, and four shelters are now open in Honolulu.
Read More: USA Today, NY Times, NBC News, WSJ, NWS, Gov. Ige
Traffic Changes in U.S. Cities
Before the pandemic, drivers wasted nearly 100 hours a year stuck in traffic. Now, a new study found it’s not that bad anymore. Although, it is starting to creep back up from last year. A new analysis found, on average, U.S. commuters are on pace to spend 36 hours in traffic in 2021. That is about 10 hours more than in 2020, but 63 hours less than before the pandemic in 2019. Experts say traffic likely isn’t back to “normal” because many workers are still not going back into the office full-time. The transportation research firm INRIX looked at data from October in more than 1,000 cities for this traffic study.
Read More: Reuters, WSJ, Axios, Ars Technica, INRIX
5G Flight Diversions
5G may cause flight delays. That's because pilots rely on radio altimeters to tell how high they are above the ground when they can’t see, helping them land safely. These guided and automatic landing systems are needed in poor visibility. But, the FAA says nearly 7,000 planes and some helicopters in the U.S. can’t use those systems at certain airports because of 5G interference. Already, AT&T and Verizon agreed to delay the launch of their 5G expansion plans until January 5th because of the FAA’s concerns. Still, the FAA says 5G will safely co-exist with aviation, and updated guidance is expected in the coming weeks.
Read More: The Verge, Reuters, 9to5Mac, FAA
Amazon Web Services Outage
An outage at Amazon Web Services caused problems for big chunks of the internet. People had trouble getting onto Amazon’s website, and they couldn’t access some of their Amazon products. Warehouse and delivery workers also say the apps that keep track of packages and tell them where to go went down. But, it didn’t just affect Amazon. Since AWS is the world’s largest cloud computing platform, there were reports of outages on many well-known websites. The issues mostly impacted people on the east coast who started noticing problems at around 11 am ET yesterday. As of last night, Amazon said most services had been recovered.
Read More: CNBC, The Verge, WaPo, Reuters, AWS
Instagram’s New Features
Today, the head of Instagram is expected to get grilled about the app’s effects on its youngest users. Adam Mosseri is set to testify before Congress for the first time. Lawmakers will likely want to know what Instagram knows about any harm the app causes young people and what the company plans to do about it. Just one day before the testimony, Instagram began rolling out a new set of safety features for teen safety. For example, a feature rolled out this week called Take a Break asks users to stop using the app after 10, 20, or 30 minutes of scrolling. Instagram says more features should be available to all users by early next year.
Read More: NPR, CNBC, WaPo, CNN, Meta
2021’s Most Popular TikTok Videos/Trends
A lot of this year’s biggest trends came from the video-sharing app TikTok. And this week, TikTok released a top ten list that includes dance moves, recipes, fashion, cute animals, and lifestyle hacks. The platform says the number one post of the year was a drone-recorded video of a man dancing to the song “Stay” by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber. TikTok says all its top videos are those that “make up some of the year’s biggest moments” and have LIKE counts in the millions. As of September, TikTok said it has one billion users every month.
Read More: Insider, Newsweek, 9to5Mac, Mashable, TikTok
Work Wednesday: Pay Raises for 2022
A lot of American workers can expect raises in the new year. A new Conference Board survey says companies are setting aside an average of 4% of their total payroll for salary increases. That’s the biggest jump since 2008. But, it could mean higher prices for consumers since some companies may try to compensate for pay increases. Inflation has already been a key concern for a lot of Americans. Just last week, the Federal Reserve chairman said inflation will linger into the new year. The Fed has promised to address inflation in 2022.
Read More: WSJ, The Hill, Business Insider, Conference Board