| | | A standoff was averted when the U.S. Senators voted to temporarily extend the country's debt ceiling, less than two weeks before the deadline. The Delta variant is causing infections to swell in the United States among young, pregnant, and unvaccinated women. And the January 6th Panel finds astonishing evidence that Trump tried to get his Justice Department to undermine the election. | | |
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| IMPORTANT | | | 1 - No Default US Senate Votes to Temporarily Extend Debt Ceiling A standoff was averted when U.S. Senators voted to temporarily extend the country's debt ceiling, less than two weeks before it was due to be reached. In a 50-48 vote on Thursday, the temporary measure raises the US debt ceiling to $480 billion. Although permitting the government to cover its expenses through early December, the agreement does little to address the crux of the partisan stalemate. Sources: (BBC, NYT) |
| 2 - Pregnant and Unvaccinated Spike in Severe Illnesses and Death The Delta variant is causing infections to swell in the United States, as hospitals react to the soaring rate in critically ill patients who are: young, pregnant, and unvaccinated. At least 171 have died, including 22 in August alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week, along with issuing an urgent health advisory recommending vaccination. Sources: (WashPo, Scientific American) |
| | | 3 - Relentless Pressure Keep Trump Accountable On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats exposed the vast extent to which Donald Trump urged the DOJ to corroborate widely unfounded claims of election fraud. In their report examining the events surrounding the Capitol Riots, they found that Trump tried a stunning nine times to get his Justice Department to undermine the election. But will Trump be held accountable for his actions? That’s the question yet to be answered as it plays out in the legal and political arena. Sources: (NYT, WashPo, CNN) |
| 4 - Dream or Headache? El Salvador's Bitcoin Experiment One month after the surprising announcement that El Salvador had adopted bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency as legal tender, its citizens unwittingly became a part of an unlikely experiment of a global technological transformation. The jury is still out, as many technical problems continue to plague the government’s cryptocurrency app, as well as irregular transactions and identity theft attempts. Uptake of use by commercial businesses has also been slow. Sources: (NYT, NBC News) |
| 5 - Left Behind Economic Fallout of the Pandemic The data is in. While Americans with college degrees fully recovered all pandemic job losses by May, Americans without college degrees remain 4.5 million jobs below pre-pandemic levels. Irrespective of education level, Black women are still the least recovered. Economists predict a return to full employment around late 2022. But the unevenness of the gains so far and the hardships that Black women, in particular, continue to face are a reminder that the nation has to watch carefully in the coming months to ensure certain groups aren’t left behind. Source: (WashPo) |
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| INTRIGUING | | | 1 - Fake Ballers Former NBA Players Run 3-Year Insurance Scam Federal authorities Thursday charged 18 former NBA players, including Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Sebastian Telfair, with defrauding the league’s health-care plan out of nearly $4 million, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in New York. Sources: (WashPo, CNN, NYTimes) |
| 2 - Dating App Bandit Serial Killer Lures Women on Dating App, Sentenced to 160 Years A serial killer who used dating apps to lure and kill three women in 2016, was sentenced to 160 years in prison on Wednesday. With the help of friends of one victim, investigators were able to catch him. Those describing him say he ‘Absolutely lacks remorse’. Source: (WashPo) |
| 3 - Children in Crisis Reeling from the Impact of Pandemic-Related Deaths of Parents An estimated 140,000 children have lost a parent or primary caregiver to COVID-19 and the related effects of the pandemic, says a new report. The study published in Pediatrics endeavors to quantify the enormous hole left by these deaths, estimating that roughly 140,000 children under 18 may have lost parents or caregivers from March 2020 to June 2021 due to covid or other causes classified as pandemic-related. Sources: ( WashPo, NPR ) |
| 4 - Farmers of the Future New Technology Gives Boost to Farming Industry in France With over half of France’s farmers over the age of 50 and looking ahead to retirement, a new, innovative school is revolutionizing the farming industry. The fledgling company, Hectar, hopes to recruit 2,000 diverse young people to move French farming to the future. Source: (NYT) |
| 5 - Justice at Last Nazi Trial of 100-Year Old SS Guard in Germany Seventy-six years after the end of World War Two, a former concentration camp guard has gone on trial for assisting in the murder of 3,518 prisoners at Sachsenhausen near Berlin. Source: (BBC) |
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