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📝 Good afternoon and welcome to Notes on the News. Here’s what you should know today, Sept. 10: The White House is releasing billions in relief funding to health organizations, big businesses generally support President Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate, and the 20th anniversary of 9/11 will be commemorated tomorrow. Let us know what you think by replying to this email. Thanks for reading. |
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| Critical-care staff tended to Covid-19 patients last month in Gainesville, Ga. PHOTO: SCOTT ROGERS/ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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1. The White House is releasing more than $25 billion in relief funds to health organizations. Much of it will be directed toward uninsured patients as well as those with Medicaid and Medicare in rural areas. The move comes amid pressure from lawmakers concerned about resource-strapped hospitals as Covid-19 cases continue to surge. |
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2. Businesses largely applaud Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate, with caveats. Many executives and industry groups said they supported the goal of speeding up vaccinations, including the Business Roundtable, which counts the chief executives of dozens of the biggest U.S. companies as members. Some business leaders, unions and smaller employers voiced concerns about implementing the new policies, including around ramping up testing. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers broadly criticized the White House push, with some threatening lawsuits to block the measures—leading the Democratic president to respond Friday: “Have at it.” |
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3. Food-delivery companies are suing NYC over its fee-cap law. Doordash, Grubhub and UberEats, the three largest food-delivery companies, argue the law—which caps the amount of commissions apps can charge restaurants to use their services—constitutes government overreach. The companies say they have lost hundreds of millions of dollars since the limit was imposed. |
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4. Schools are rewriting Covid-19 rules as the Delta variant surges. Some districts are swapping mandatory temperature checks for mask requirements, or requiring vaccinations for in-person classes. As understanding of the virus’s behavior evolves, school officials are relaxing some policies while adding new restrictions to others. Districts are largely left to come up with their own rules. |
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5. Apple will have to loosen restrictions in its App Store. A federal judge ruled Friday that Apple’s prohibition against developers sending users to alternative ways of making in-app purchases was anticompetitive. That part of the verdict was a win for Epic Games, the maker of “Fortnite,” which had sued Apple. But the judge also said, “The Court does not find that Apple is an antitrust monopolist in the submarket for mobile gaming transactions.” |
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6. WhatsApp will offer encryption on cloud backups. The new feature will be part of a software update later this month, allowing users to create encrypted backups of their chats—including images, videos and audio—and store that data on Apple’s iCloud or Google Drive. |
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7. Ford will stop making cars in India. On Thursday, Ford said it would shut manufacturing operations in the country after accumulating more than $2 billion in losses there.The closures will affect 4,000 jobs, according to the company. |
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21 — The number of female students who showed up to the first day of school at Kabul’s Ghalib University, despite women accounting for 60% of the 2,400 students enrolled. The school has reopened under the Taliban’s regime, though coed classes are prohibited and many women fear attending. $5 billion — The funding set aside in the bipartisan infrastructure bill to help schools buy electric and low-emission buses. The White House estimates this should help get 24,000 electric buses to schools and pay for charging infrastructure, part of an effort to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions in transportation. $54,900 — The average value of federal loans held by students who recently earned a master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University. That is more than three times higher than the student debt levels of their undergraduate counterparts at the school, and comes even as a struggling news industry continues to shed thousands of jobs. |
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| What Everyone Wants To Know |
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| First responders at Ground Zero checked inside a vehicle after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. PHOTO: ALAMY |
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Children who lost parents in 9/11 are now adults. Nearly 3,000 children lost parents in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Now young adults or in their 30s, they describe the pain of their loss and the burden of being seen as victims, as well as pride in their resilience. |
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PHOTO: Elias Williams for The Wall Street Journal |
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Nicholas Gorki is a college sophomore studying computer science. His mother was pregnant with him when his father, a Deutsche Bank executive, was killed in the 9/11 attacks. “It’s become my legacy to try to make the best out of my life,” he said. “My father was insanely successful, so I want to live up to that.” |
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PHOTO: Elias Williams for The Wall Street Journal |
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Celia Rose Gooding, 21, is a Tony-nominated actress who was a toddler when her father, Calvin Gooding, a Cantor Fitzgerald securities trader, was killed. She says the performing arts have helped her process her heartbreak, and she takes her father’s wedding band everywhere with her. “My dad is making sure I’m in positions that bring me joy,” she said. |
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Health effects are still lingering for some 9/11 survivors. World Trade Center Health Program has identified some 70 forms of cancer afflicting first responders and other people who worked, lived and studied in lower Manhattan at higher rates and at younger ages. Nearly half a million people have shown earlier and more frequent incidences of cancer, pulmonary complications, sleep apnea, throat disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic disease, according to federal records. According to the CDC, some health conditions connected to debris from the attack can take many years to develop and might not appear related to 9/11. Programs like the World Trade Center Health Program and the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund aim to provide medical monitoring and treatment of covered health conditions for responders and survivors as well as compensation for those who were physically harmed. |
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See more of the Journal’s coverage on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 here. |
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Today's newsletter was curated by Alex Janin in New York, in collaboration with colleagues in New York. We hope you’re enjoying Notes on the News. If you would prefer to receive a different newsletter, please check out all your options to keep up with the latest on markets, economics, politics and more. For members, we recommend The 10-Point. |
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