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| All your news in a single email. We scour 100+ sources so you don't have to. Culture, science, sports, politics, business, and more - all packaged in a 5-minute read below. |
| Need To Know. |
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| Climate Policy Overhaul. |
| The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to roll back key provisions of the Clean Power Plan today, a set of Obama-era regulations meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions from large-scale power plants. The plan focused on the electricity sector - which accounts for about 30% of US greenhouse gas emissions - requiring states to meet reduced targets through energy efficiency measures or use of lower emitting sources like natural gas or renewables (deep dive here). The new plan loosens rules around coal-burning power plants, allowing them to compete with cleaner burning fuels. Despite the Obama-era rules never fully going into effect due to entangling lawsuits, power sector emissions dropped by 5% in 2016 - and over 15% since 2012 - led primarily by cheaper natural gas, which emits about 50% less carbon dioxide than coal. |
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| Separated Korean Families Meet. |
A number of Korean families divided by the North and South Korean border were permitted to meet briefly yesterday. In many instances the families had been separated for over six decades, since fighting ended in the Korean War in 1953, and will be allowed to meet face-to-face for a total of 11 hours over three days. Millions of people were separated by the war, after which the 155-mile-long, tightly-controlled Korean demilitarized zone (see 101) was established preventing unchecked travel between the two countries.The meetings are not uncommon - the two countries have arranged about 20 over the past 18 years - but it is the first since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's pivot to a more diplomatic stance earlier this year.
See emotional photos of the reunions here. |
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| Venezuela's Last-Ditch Effort to Save Economy. |
Venezuela devalued its currency, the bolivar, by 96% in a dramatic attempt to stem runaway inflation. The plan was announced last week and went into effect yesterday, and amounts to slashing five zeros from the price of consumer goods (meaning if a product cost 10 million bolivars last week, it now costs about 100 bolivars). The country has been in the grips of a devastating 5-year economic downturn, and the value of the national currency has plummeted - as of this March a kilogram of rice cost 220,000 bolivars (or about $4.40). Socialist president Nicolás Maduro also announced a 3,000% hike in the minimum wage, corporate tax increases, and pegged the country's exchange rate to its vaguely-defined digital currency, the petro.
The move comes just weeks after the embattled Maduro survived a failed assassination attempt carried out by drone. |
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| In The Know. |
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| Sports, Entertainment & Culture. |
| > Alabama ranked #1 in AP preseason poll, Clemson & Georgia round out top 3 (More) | Former NFL MVP Adrian Peterson signs 1-year deal with Washington Redskins (More) |
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| > Singer Camila Cabello wins Artist, Music Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards; see full list of winners (More) | Madonna gets backlash for tribute of the late Aretha Franklin (More) |
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| > The Eagles greatest hits album surpasses Michael Jackson's Thriller as best-selling album of all time; Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 is 38x platinum (38 million albums sold) (More) |
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| Science & Technology. |
| > NYU to apply Facebook AI algorithms with the goal of reducing MRI times by 90% (More) |
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| > Researchers develop system to track ingestible implants using wireless sensors; could replace some invasive surgeries in the future (More) |
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| > Modeling of Stone Age tool production suggests the modern human grip came about around 500,000 year ago (More) |
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| Business & Markets. |
| > Greece officially exits the last of its bailout loans, totaling $330B over 8 years (More) |
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| > Meet the 57 companies from Forbes' 2018 Change the World list (More) |
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| > Tyson Foods to acquire Keystone foods - a supplier of protein to fast food restaurants including McDonald's - for $2.16B (More) |
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| Politics & World Affairs. |
| > China signals it will continue to import Iranian oil despite US reinstating sanctions (More) |
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| > Pope Francis addresses Pennsylvania Church sexual abuse scandal (More) | See full letter here (More) |
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| > Microsoft uncovers new Russian hacking operation targeting two conservative organizations (More) |
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| In Depth. |
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| Doomsday Investor. |
| New Yorker | Sheelah Kolhatkar. A profile of Paul Singer and his company Elliot Management. Singer was once coined by Bloomberg the “most feared investor in the world” - with a knack for aggressive activist investing in companies where he detects weakness. As one former CEO put it, learning Elliot has become a major shareholder is like “Googling this thing on your arm and it says, ‘You’re going to die.’” (Read) |
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| How Heroin Came for Middle-Class Moms. |
| Marie Claire | Hayley Krischer. Suburbia may not seem like the most natural setting for street drugs like heroin, but prescription opioids are easily at home here. It's only when the prescriptions run dry - and otherwise well-adjusted people realize a bag of heroin is half the cost of a single Percocet pill - that the real problems begin. (Read) |
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| Etcetera. |
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| How Americans and Western Europeans differ on key social and political issues. |
| A surprising source of pollution? Your contact lenses. |
| Ugh Millennials: You're about to be passed by Generation Z in terms of world population. |
| People will spend $72B on pet products this year - including this new fitness tracker for animals. |
| Woman survives ten hours at sea after falling overboard on a cruise ship. |
| Nun displays a nasty curveball as she throws the first pitch at a White Sox game. |
| Two goats disrupt the morning subway commute after wandering on the tracks. |
| British museum livestreams a display of a piece of the infamous Fatberg that clogged London sewers last year. |
| Clickbait: Looking to adopt a pet? Meet Bruno, the overweight feline with extra toes who stands upright. |
| Historybook: Nat Turner leads slave rebellion (1831); Mona Lisa stolen from Louvre, is found 2 years later (1911); HBD Wilt Chamberlain (1936); Hawaii becomes 50th US state (1959); HBD Usain Bolt (1986). |
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