Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Wednesday, August 11, 2021:
CUOMO RESIGNS
Andrew Cuomo has announced his resignation as governor of New York, effective in two weeks. The lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, will be sworn in as the first female governor in the history of the state. In his resignation speech, Cuomo highlighted his achievements over his three terms and maintained that he never acted improperly with any of the 11 women who accused him of harassment, saying he was the victim of a “politically motivated” controversy. The resignation marks one of the more shocking downfalls of a high-profile politician in modern history. NY TIMES
DELTA & KIDS
COVID cases among children are on the rise, now accounting for about 15% of newly reported cases nationwide as of Aug. 5. About 94,000 cases in kids were reported that week, up from 72,000 the week before and 39,000 the week before that. The big question -- is the Delta variant making kids sicker than the original strain -- remains unclear, though the data suggest that severe illness and hospitalizations are still very rare for children. NPR
SENATE PASSES INFRA
The Senate easily passed President Biden’s infrastructure bill, with 19 Republicans -- including Sen. Mitch McConnell -- joining all 50 Democrats in endorsing the $1 trillion package. That makes the bill one of the most bipartisan major pieces of legislation in decades. Separately, Senate Dems approved a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, setting the stage for inter-party negotiations to pass the bill without Republican support. The infrastructure bill now heads to the House, which is cutting summer recess short to take up the legislation. NBC NEWS
WILDFIRES
Wildfire smoke has reached the North Pole for the first time in recorded history, according to NASA. Soot from hundreds of fires burning in Siberia was recorded at the North Pole, blacking out the sun in parts of northern Russia that have seen record high temps and drought this summer. In the U.S., the Dixie Fire is now the largest single wildfire in California’s history. New satellite imagery shows how the inferno more or less wiped the town of Greenville off the map: SEE IT
SAKSWORKS
Saks Fifth Avenue will convert parts of its department stores into co-working offices in partnership with WeWork. Saks’ parent company Hudson’s Bay plans to open the first five spaces -- called SaksWorks -- in the NYC area next month. WeWork would staff and operate the offices. The strategy is two-fold: give remote employees a place to work that isn’t their house and put to use all that brick-and-mortar retail space that is becoming increasingly outmoded. WSJ
SPACESUIT DELAYS
NASA’s plan to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024 isn’t going to happen in that timeframe, the space agency said in an internal report. The reason: the spacesuits are still years away from being ready. NASA is spending $1 billion on the next-generation suits, but they are dealing with significant developmental delays due to COVID, among other things. Elon Musk quickly piped up to offer help getting the suits ready, tweeting that “SpaceX could do it if need be.” FUTURISM
MESSI TO PARIS
Lionel Messi is taking his talents to Paris. The Argentine soccer great has signed a two-year contract with Paris St. Germain, the Champions League powerhouse club financed by the state of Qatar. Messi will make about $41 million a season, which is actually less than he was making at F.C. Barcelona, where he played his entire career. But Barca couldn’t afford to keep him, and P.S.G. has among the deepest pockets of the big European superteams. ESPN
RETURN TO WHITE LOTUS
The sleeper hit of the summer will be coming back. HBO is renewing The White Lotus for a second season. The satirical show follows a group of wealthy vacationers and their interactions with the staff at an exclusive Hawaiian resort. The second season will have a new cast and location and will be penned by series creator Mike White. Season 1 was filmed on-site at the Four Seasons Maui during lockdown while much of the rest of the world’s production had halted. The results have made for one of the buzziest shows of the pandemic era, with its finale airing Sunday. THR
SPOTTED...
…Prince Andrew, arriving at the royal vacation estate at Balmoral to meet with the Queen after he was sued by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers, who has claimed that Andrew sexually abused her when she was 17: SEE PICS
...Leonardo DiCaprio’s Los Feliz home that he bought from Moby, on the market for $5.75 million. It’s not Leo’s main house -- that would be his $23 million Malibu estate: SEE IT
...Dodgers second-baseman Trea Turner, making arguably the coolest slide into home plate ever: SEE IT
LEFTOVERS: I AM MORON
One of the more prominent anti-vax memes circulating on social media is the claim that the COVID vaccines could turn people into the zombies from the 2007 movie I Am Legend. In that post-apocalyptic thriller, a genetically reprogrammed measles virus turns most of the planet into bloodthirsty zombie-vampires that stalk Will Smith around a desolate NYC. Now the film’s screenwriter wants to make clear that, in addition to having nothing to do with vaccines, the plot of the movie is fictional. Akiva Goldsman tweeted in response to a New York Times story that cited someone who said they wouldn’t get the vaccine out of fear of what happened in that movie: "Oh. My. God. It's a movie. I made that up. It's. Not. Real." YAHOO ENT
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