Good morning. It's Thursday, July 29, and we're covering the emerging infrastructure deal, a major fossil find, and much more. Have feedback? Let us know at [email protected].

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NEED TO KNOW

Breaking news: A tsunami alert was issued for the Alaskan coast this morning after an 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck just off the state's southwestern peninsula.   

Infrastructure Deal

A bipartisan group of senators announced yesterday an agreement on the top-level details of a broad-ranging physical infrastructure package. Led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and White House officials, the legislation cleared a procedural vote last night by a 67-32 vote.

The deal would cost $974B over five years, about $579B of which would be new spending. Early reports suggest $312B of the new spending will fund transportation projects like roads and bridges ($110B), mass transit ($39B), electric vehicle infrastructure ($7.5B), and more. The other tranche of money would fund power grid upgrades ($73B), broadband internet infrastructure ($65B), and water infrastructure ($55B), among other items.  

The package is separate from the Biden administration's $3.5T "human" infrastructure plan, a bill Democrats are expected to try to pass via a party-line budget reconciliation vote in the coming weeks.

Earth's Oldest Animal Fossils

Geologists may have found the oldest animal fossils discovered to date, according to results published yesterday. The specimen, believed to be the remains of an ancient sponge, was uncovered in Canada's remote Northwest Territories—a region that was a rich marine ecosystem roughly a billion years ago. The find is more than 300 million years older than the current earliest confirmed sponge fossil. 

If confirmed, the 890-million-year-old fossil would suggest prehistoric animals arose before conditions on Earth were considered hospitable to complex life (see timeline). It would also mark the first direct evidence of animal life prior to an oxygenation event that culminated roughly 540 million years ago and led to an explosion in animal diversity. 

While animals evolved relatively recently (in geological terms), bacteria have been around much longer—the oldest-known bacterial fossil has been dated to 3.5 billion years ago.

Vaccine and Testing Mandates

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced yesterday New York state employees must either be vaccinated against COVID-19 by next month or undergo mandatory weekly testing for the virus. The announcement followed a similar decision by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) regarding city workers. Cuomo also said patient-facing healthcare workers in state-run facilities must be vaccinated. 

At the federal level, President Joe Biden is expected to announce a requirement that roughly 2 million civilian federal employees receive COVID-19 vaccinations or submit to similar testing measures. In the private sector, Google delayed a return to in-person work until October and said all on-campus employees must be vaccinated. 

New US COVID-19 cases continue to rise, with the current average at 63,000 new cases per day (see data). Daily deaths have risen at a slower pace, currently hovering near 300 per day. 

Overseas, the United Kingdom said vaccinated travelers from the US and European Union may enter the country without quarantine. To the surprise of health officials, cases in the UK have made a sharp decline over the past two weeks. 

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In partnership with The Motley Fool

SELF-DRIVING REVOLUTION

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IN THE KNOW

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

Brought to you by The Ascent

> Olympics: US women win gold in Olympic debut of 3-on-3 basketball (More) | See predictions for track and field competition, beginning tonight (More) | See complete schedule of today's events (More) | Updated medal count (More)

> Dusty Hill, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and founding member of ZZ Top, dies at 72 (More) | Iconic infomercial pitchman Ron Popeil dies at 86 (More)

> The 2021 NBA Draft will be held in-person tonight (8 pm ET, ABC/ESPN) from Barclays Center in Brooklyn (More) | See complete two-round mock draft (More)

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Science & Technology

> Astronomers make first observation of light originating from behind a black hole; predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity, the black hole warps space-time such that traveling light bends all the way around it (More)

> France suspends prion research after second lab worker is diagnosed with a fatal brain disease (More) | Read more about the infectious misfolded proteins (More)

> Scientists turn pure water metallic by dropping a thin layer onto liquid alloy droplets; pure water also behaves as a metal under extreme pressure, such as at the center of large planets (More)

Business & Markets

> Federal Reserve holds interest rates near zero, states the US economy continues to grow despite pandemic worries (More)

> Facebook tops revenue and earnings expectations, but warns Apple iOS updates limiting ad targeting could negatively impact future earnings; shares down 3% in after-hours trading (More) | Robinhood prices initial public offering at $38 per share, raising near $2B and valuing the free stock trading company at approximately $32B; will start trading on Nasdaq today (More)

> Boeing posts quarterly profit after six consecutive unprofitable quarters; revenues grow as airplane deliveries return following pandemic-induced travel slowdown (More)

Politics & World Affairs

> Line of near-hurricane force storms moves through Chicago and Midwestern states this morning (More) | More than 30 million people in the central US under heat emergency (More)

> Chinese officials reportedly meet with Taliban leaders; analysts say the move is an effort to fill the power vacuum left by the US withdrawal (More)

> Wisconsin judge finds probable cause to charge former police officer Joseph Mensah in the 2016 shooting of Jay Anderson Jr.; decision overrules prosecutors who previously found Mensah acted in self-defense (More)

IN-DEPTH

'Take Him to the River'

AP News | Jason Dearen. A foiled 2015 murder plot revealed insight into the nature and operations of a modern Ku Klux Klan cell. (Read)

A History of Gymnastics

Smithsonian Mag | Meilan Solly. Tracing the dramatic evolution of the sport from its roots in ancient Greece to the 2020 Olympics. (Read)

SHARK TANK AGREES

In partnership with The Motley Fool

Recently, an exciting new technology was pitched on ABC’s "Shark Tank" … and the sharks ate it up. Seeing its immense potential in the self-driving vehicle space, one investor made one of the biggest investments in the show’s history.

And The Motley Fool thinks this technology will soon go mainstream. They’ve created a report, “One Stock for the Self-Driving Revolution,” to help Stock Advisor members make sense of this technology. Read it today.

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ETCETERA

Six takeaways on the state of the news media.

Simone Biles said she got the "twisties"—what does that mean?

When you find a $39M lotto ticket lost in your purse.

Scientists create a magnet just one atom thick.

Watch Cassie the Robot run a 5K.

Another beautiful clip of a powerful microburst.

Cartoonify yourself for your next Zoom call.

A mind-boggling audio hallucination.

Clickbait: Find happiness by contemplating death.

Historybook: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini born (1883); RIP Vincent van Gogh (1890); NASA is established (1958); 750 million people worldwide watch wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (1981); RIP Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dorothy Hodgkin (1994).

"I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."

- Vincent van Gogh

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