Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Monday, July 19, 2021:

COVID-19 LATEST

The United States is quickly falling behind in the global vaccination race. After a slow start, Canada has now overtaken the U.S. in terms of its percentage of fully vaccinated adults. The EU is also catching up after lagging far behind until recently. In the developing world, the picture is grim: just 1% of people in low-income countries have been even partially vaccinated. Some hospitals in under-vaccinated parts of the Midwest and South are reactivating their surge plans as the Delta variant drives up hospitalizations, which are back up to about 3,000 a day nationally. Deaths have also ticked up to 238 on the 7-day average. BLOOMBERG. 

VAX MISINFO

The White House and Facebook are engaged in a war of words over vaccine misinformation after President Biden said social media platforms were “killing people” by allowing falsehoods about the COVID vaccines to spread. Facebook immediately shot back that the president was “finger-pointing.” According to Facebook, 85% of users in the U.S. either want to or have been vaccinated and 2 billion people have “viewed authoritative information” about COVID and vaccines. The surgeon general added that whatever Facebook is doing to curb the spread of misinformation is “not enough.” NBC NEWS

WESTERN WILDFIRES

The Bootleg Fire in Oregon is now the size of Los Angeles, one of about 70 blazes currently burning in the West. A growing wildfire near Lake Tahoe has exploded in size, jumping a highway and leading to evacuations near the California-Nevada state line. Firefighters say the conditions they’re facing across the region are more typical of late summer or fall. GUARDIAN

AMERICA'S PASTIME

A shooting outside Nationals Park in D.C. during the Nats-Padres game on Saturday sent fans and players fleeing for cover in the bottom of the sixth inning. No one was injured inside the venue and police say the stadium was not the target. A night earlier, a 6-year-old girl was killed two miles away while riding her scooter. Those were just two of the dozens of shootings that occurred over the weekend across the country. In Philly, a 1-year-old boy was shot in the leg. In Chicago, 53 people were shot in 41 separate shootings. In Tucson, Ariz. police are investigating a deadly shooting rampage across three separate crime scenes. Several American cities are outpacing their 2020 homicide rates, which were already up 25% from the year before. CNN

OPEC OPENS SPIGOT

The world’s major oil producers have agreed to drastically increase the supply of crude oil over the next two years that would restore all of the cuts they made during the pandemic. The production agreement will add millions of barrels of oil to the market, which should help lower gas prices as well as inflation. WSJ

SMARTPHONE WARS

Apple has fallen from second to third place in global smartphone market share, according to a new research report. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is now in second place with 17% of the market, ahead of Apple’s 14% and behind Samsung’s 19%. Xiaomi’s strategy has been to undercut Samsung and Apple with devices that cost about 75% less than an iPhone and 40% less than a Galaxy. THE VERGE

COCO A NO-GO

Coco Gauff will sit out the Olympics after testing positive for COVID, meaning the U.S. tennis team will be without its two top stars after Serena Williams pulled out earlier. With less than a week to go until the Opening Ceremony, at least three people have tested positive while staying in the Olympic Village. Thousands of athletes are flying into Tokyo this week for the Games, raising fears that a virus outbreak will be hard to stop once it starts. Organizers are taking measures to keep that from happening, from the obvious -- testing athletes daily -- to the ridiculous -- making them sleep on cardboard beds that can only support the weight of a single person. Organizers say the beds are environmentally-friendly, but some athletes think the real reason is to keep them from hooking up. YAHOO NEWS

BRITNEY UNCENSORED

Britney Spears lashed out at her family over the weekend, taking to Instagram to blast not just her father but her sister, Jamie Lynn, for performing her music. Spears called out her “so-called support system” for failing her over the course of her 13-year conservatorship and wrote that she will not perform so long as her father continues to control her career. PEOPLE

SPOTTED...

… Adele, making a rare public appearance in the front row at the NBA Finals in Phoenix, where she watched the Bucks pull ahead of the Suns, 3-2: SEE PICS

LEFTOVERS: UNSTOPPABLE

A 14-year-old girl from China is being compared to the basketball great Yao Ming after her hoop skills went viral around the world. Zhang Ziyu is 7 foot 5 inches tall -- and growing -- and has been, unsurprisingly, dominating her under-15 league, where her closest opponent in height is two feet shorter: SEE HER

Listen to the N2K Podcast! Looking for more context and analysis on the big stories of the day? Check out our podcast! Hosts Jill and Carlo break down the headlines, every weekday morning Listen on Apple or Spotify, or watch on YouTube, and send us your feedback!

Share:
More In Culture
Why American License Plates Are Such A Mess
As of 2020, there were some 270 million registered vehicles in the United States, each one adorned with a mandatory license plate or two. And while plates appear standardized within states, when you zoom out to the whole country, the system get well, downright chaotic. European plates vary by country, but look similar. While that’s certainly less visually interesting, it's a whole lot more effective. Back here in the States, our lack of license plate standardization can cause real headaches
Spring Style Tips for an Appropriate and Comfortable Return to the Office
As life inches toward a post-pandemic world, many people are trying to navigate how to transition from their work-from-home look to a new back-to-office style for the first time in two years. Dina Scherer, the owner of Modnitsa Styling, joined Cheddar News to provide some styling suggestions for those returning to the office. 'I do hear this from a lot of my clients that they just have no idea how to transition from sweat pants, athleisure, into a work office environment outfit that's both appropriate and comfortable,' she noted.
Author Marci Hopkins on Breaking Cycle of Bad Habits for Alcohol Awareness Month
April is Alcohol Awareness Month, and while COVID-19 has not made it easy for people who deal with addiction, Marci Hopkins, the author of the upcoming "Chaos to Clarity: Seeing the Signs and Breaking the Cycles," joined Cheddar News to talk about ways people can break out of a bad cycle of bad habits. “Things that have helped me; move a muscle change a thought," she said. "If you start thinking about having that drink or whatever it is that you have turned to, get up. Move. That's really, really important," she said.
U.S. Stocks Turn Positive in Final Hour to Close Higher
U.S. stocks saw a jump in the final hour of Thursday's session, and ultimately closed slightly higher for the day. Tim Pagliara, Chief Investment Officer of CapWealth, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. "The markets have had to digest a lot of action from the federal reserve this quarter and it's affecting everything from mortgage rates to how they value stocks," he said.
Union Petitions on the Rise at Big Companies Across U.S.
Herold Meyerson, Editor at Large of 'The American Prospect,' joined Closing Bell to discuss the recent uptick in unionization efforts across the U.S. and what it might mean for large corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, where workers are increasingly pushing to unionize.
How Warner Bros. Discovery Might Further Streaming as New Media Giant
Seth Schachner, a digital business executive and the managing director of the consultancy Strat Americas, joined Closing Bell to talk all about the mega-merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, combining to form Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq: WBD), and what it means for the streaming space going forward. “I think unlike some of the other mergers that you've seen out there. I think this one has actually got a real chance to be successful and to really further the cause of streaming," he said.
Load More