Good morning. It's Friday, June 4, and we're covering a looming jobs report, a reckoning in Canada, and much more. Have feedback? Let us know at [email protected].

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NEED TO KNOW

Jobs Report Due

An estimated 385,000 Americans filed initial jobless claims last week, down more than 20,000 from the previous week. It marks the first time such claims have fallen below 400,000 per week since the beginning of the pandemic. The prepandemic average was around 225,000 new claims per week (see data).  

Roughly 15.4 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment benefits. The number is projected to drop, with at least 25 states ending a $300-per-week unemployment boost, citing difficulty by businesses in hiring workers. When combined with regular unemployment—which varies strongly by state—benefits exceeded an hourly equivalent wage of $15 on average. 

The May jobs report is due this morning. Analysts estimate around 637,000 new jobs were created last month, with unemployment dropping from 6.1% to 5.9%. Payroll processing firm ADP estimates employers hired 970,000 workers in May, the biggest gain since last June. The April jobs report showed just 266,000 jobs added, far below expectations of 1 million.

Mass Graves in Canada

The Canadian government is facing calls to search the country's former network of residential schools for evidence of mass graves. The mounting pressure follows the discovery of at least 215 First Nations children buried under the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in western Canada. 

The country's residential school system was a government-run network of institutions meant to aggressively assimilate children of Indigenous communities—now referred to as the First Nations—into Canadian culture. Former attendees long accused school officials of abuse and neglect, often which led to the deaths of children who had been removed from their families. Between 3,000 and 6,000 children are believed to have died at the schools over the years, with officials omitting their deaths from the official record and allegedly disposing of bodies in unmarked mass graves. 

About 60% of the schools were operated by the Catholic Church, with the last shuttered in 1996. Read more about the Kamloops discovery here.

California Drought 

Officials in California are warning this year is shaping up to be one of the driest yet, with possible ripple effects impacting agriculture, fisheries, power production, and other industries. Monitors report the state's 1,500 reservoirs have water levels 50% lower than the historical average. A quarter of the state is in extreme drought (see map); 95% of the state is under severe drought or worse.

2020 saw the third-lowest level of precipitation on record, and the conditions are likely to exacerbate the state's wildfire season, which typically starts mid-summer. Hydroelectric power, which relies on sufficient water reservoirs, makes up 11% of the state's power mix. Officials worry some plants may be forced offline during the hottest part of the summer, leading to rolling blackouts.   

The broader US southwest is believed to be in the grips of a megadrought, fueled by a long-lasting La Niña weather pattern (see 101), weak summer rains, and longer-term climate change effects.

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IN THE KNOW

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

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> F. Lee Bailey, celebrity attorney who defended OJ Simpson, Dr. Sam Sheppard, and Patricia Hearst, dies at 87 (More)

> 2021 Cannes Film Festival (July 6-17) announces its official selection lineup; Jodie Foster to receive honorary Palme d’Or for career achievement (More)

> Phoenix Suns knock defending champs Los Angeles Lakers out of playoffs (More) | United States Football League to return in spring 2022 after 36-year hiatus; first season will include several of the original USFL franchises (More)

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Science & Technology

> US Justice Department to raise investigations of ransomware attacks to the same priority level as terrorism; move follows a wave of crippling hacks, including against Colonial Pipeline and meat-producing giant JBS (More)

> Ancient shark populations experienced a dramatic die-off roughly 19 million years ago, ocean sediment analysis reveals; cause of mass extinction currently unknown (More)

> Study finds cancer stem cells in the gut secrete molecules that promote mutations in neighboring normal cells, accelerating the spread of cancer-causing mutations (More)

Business & Markets

> US stock markets slide (S&P 500 -0.4%, Dow -0.1%, Nasdaq -1.0%) as investors await release of May jobs report this morning (More) | "Meme stock" AMC Theatres raises $571M in share sale, company trades down 18% (More) 

> United Airlines to purchase 15 ultrafast planes from startup Boom Supersonic; planes are expected to cut flight times in half but are not projected to be commercially viable until 2029 (More)

> Bitcoin 2021—world’s largest cryptocurrency conference—kicks off in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood (More)

Politics & World Affairs

> US COVID-19 cases drop to 15,000 per day, the lowest since last March; average daily deaths remain above 530 per day, totaling 596,434 (More) | Roughly 60% of Americans over 12, and 63% of those over 18, have received at least one vaccine dose (More)

> President Joe Biden signs executive order barring American investment in 59 Chinese companies linked to the country's military and surveillance operations (More) | Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accuses National Institutes of Health of interfering with State Department probe of coronavirus origins (More)

> South Carolina couple charged with four murders, suspected in a fifth, in multi-state crime spree (More)

IN-DEPTH

The First Wave at Omaha Beach

Atlantic | SLA Marshall. (From 1960) Sunday marks the 77th anniversary of D-Day—read this gripping account of Allied troops landing on the shore of Normandy. (Read, $$)

Dawkins is Wrong

Tortoise | Simon Barnes. The parent of a child with Down syndrome takes aim at one of biologist Richard Dawkins' recent controversial statements. (Read)

The mRNA Revolution

Wired UK | Stephen Buranyi. The coronavirus was the coming out party for a vaccine technology decades in the making. (Read)

Tiananmen's Tank Man

CNN | Kyle Almond, Jeff Widener. On the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, read the story behind the iconic "Tank Man" photo. (Read)

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ETCETERA

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Historybook: US Congress passes 19th Amendment, granting suffrage to women (1919); Battle of Midway starts (1942); HBD Angelina Jolie (1975); Hundreds killed at Tiananmen Square protests (1989); RIP basketball coaching legend John Wooden (2010).

"Make each day your masterpiece."

- John Wooden

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