Monday, February 17th, 2020
Cruise Ship Evacuation, NBA All-Star Tributes & Facebook’s Hobbi
All the news you need in less than 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by www.Blinkist.com/news
Story Summaries
All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want perusing the latest happenings...
Cruise Ship Evacuations:
The U.S. evacuated hundreds of Americans who were stranded on a quarantined cruise ship. That said, more than 40 Americans on the ship who tested positive for the new coronavirus, COVID-19, will stay in hospitals overseas. Even those healthy enough to be flown back to the U.S. will be quarantined again at U.S. military bases for two more weeks.
Read more: NPR, Washington Post, USA Today, AP, USA Today
U.S.-Taliban Deal:
The U.S. and Taliban agreed to a temporary seven-day truce, and if it works out, it could lead to a larger peace deal to help bring American troops home. But we're not there yet. There are still doubts about negotiating with and trusting the Taliban, though others say they're cautiously optimistic.
Read more: AP, The Hill, FOX News
Record Mississippi Flooding:
Historic flooding is possible today in and around Mississippi's capital city as Pearl River could crest at a record high. The governor declared a state of emergency over the weekend.
Read more: NBC News, CNN, Weather Channel
Presidents' Day:
Today is Presidents' Day! The federal holiday is observed the third Monday in February each year. It means most banks, government offices and some schools will be closed. Don't expect to get your mail today.Read more: Fox News, History.com
Trump at Daytona 500:
President Trump took part in the pre-race ceremony of NASCAR's biggest race of the year: the Daytona 500. The race was ultimately postponed until today due to rainy weather.
Read more: Sports Illustrated, USA Today
NBA All-Star Game:
The tradition to bring the NBA's superstars together for a good time and good cause had several tributes this year to the late Kobe Bryant, his daughter and the other victims in last month's helicopter crash. As for the game itself, it was a close one but Team LeBron won 157-155. Two community-based organizations won thousands of dollars thanks to the charity event.
Read more: ESPN, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports, AP
Delta Goes Carbon Neutral:
Delta Airlines says it'll be the first carbon neutral airline in the world. Delta will kick off its initiative next month and then plans to spend $1 billion over the decade to essentially cancel out its future emissions.
Read more: CNN, The Guardian, CNBC
Facebook “Hobbi” App:
Facebook is testing out a new Pinterest-like app, called Hobbi. It's meant to be a place you can organize and track your personal projects and hobbies, but it doesn't have much of a social component at this point. For now, it's just a test. We'll see if it lasts.
Read more: Mashable, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch
HQ Trivia Game Shut Down:
The once-popular live trivia game app, HQ Trivia, is now shutting down. It started to lose popularity and money, and the company said an expected investment didn't come through.
Read more: Engadget, The Verge
Box Office:
Sonic the Hedgehog raced into the record books so far this holiday weekend with the biggest debut ever for a video game based movie.
Read more: Variety, USA Today
Money Monday: Money Magazine provides tips for how to choose a travel rewards credit card and even provides a list of what it considers the best ones for 2020. Read more: Best Travel Credit Cards