Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Tuesday, September 21 2021:
VAX FOR KIDS
Pfizer says its Covid vaccine is safe and highly effective in 5 to 11 year olds, paving the way for the company to seek an emergency-use authorization for that age group in the coming days. Should that go smoothly, the first young children could start getting vaccinated in about a month. Trial results for kids younger than 5 are not expected to come until later this year, at the earliest. STAT
U.S. BACK OPEN
The White House will allow fully-vaccinated travelers from abroad into the country starting in November. International travelers will have to prove they’ve been vaccinated and test negative within three days of their departure. The lifting of the travel ban comes as President Biden heads to NYC today for the UN General Assembly. He is hosting a virtual Covid summit on the sidelines of the UN tomorrow, where he was expected to hear an earful from European leaders who had been frustrated by the administration’s hesitancy to scrap the travel ban that has been in place for 33 countries since March 2020. AXIOS
GABBY PETITO LATEST
FBI agents in Florida were seen entering the family home of Gabby Petito’s fiance, Brian Laundrie, who remains missing and a person of interest in Petito’s likely death. Laundrie’s family says he left a note on his car before he disappeared last week, asking that the car be removed. Meanwhile, a 911 caller who reported a domestic dispute between Laundrie and Petito in August saw him “slapping” her. The police officer who responded to that call says she warned Petito that the couple’s relationship seemed “toxic” and advised her to leave Laundrie. DESERET NEWS
TRUDEAU HANGS ON
Justin Trudeau will remain prime minister of Canada for a third term, fending off a challenge of his own making after he called for early elections as a way to consolidate power in Canada’s parliament. Trudeau’s gamble didn’t exactly pay off, as his Liberal Party fell short in its bid to form a majority government. His small margin of victory means he will still need to work with opposition parties to govern. CBC
STOCKS TANK
Stock futures are rebounding this morning after Wall Street had its worst day since May, with the Dow and S&P each falling nearly 2%. There are a number of factors at play in the latest sell-off. For one, September is usually a bad month for stocks to begin with. There’s also a growing fear that the Chinese property market is in big trouble and could spark a contagion effect around the world (a huge property developer in China is on the brink of default, and it’s unclear if Beijing is going to step in to bail it out). CHEDDAR
CHEVY BOLT FIX
General Motors will start to replace the batteries in Chevy Bolts that were recalled over a fire risk, though many Bolt owners will have to wait months for the fix. GM was forced to recall more than 140,000 of those electric cars after 13 confirmed reports of their batteries spontaneously catching fire. GM has said until the batteries can be replaced, Bolt owners shouldn’t charge their batteries above 90% or let them drain to within 70 miles of range. CNN
SCREEN TIME CAPS
TikTok owner ByteDance has started instituting mandatory curbs on screen time for young Chinese users of the ultra-popular app. Douyin, as TikTok is known in China, will become inaccessible between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. for users 14 and under. Outside those hours, kids will only be allowed to access the app for 40 minutes a day. The screen time caps are part of a push by the Chinese government to reduce the influence of the country’s tech giants. Beijing also recently issued strict new rules for the amount of time kids can spend playing video games. THR
'DWTS' NEW CAST
Olivia Jade Giannulli made her debut on the 30th season opener of Dancing With the Stars, where she introduced herself saying she’s “probably best known for being an influencer.” Her parents, Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli, recently served time for their roles in the college admissions scandal -- a fact that had DWTS fans taking to Twitter to say they’ll boycott the show until she is voted off. The pop star JoJo Siwa also made TV history as the first female celeb to be paired with a female pro dancer on the competition show. YAHOO ENT
SPOTTED...
...a brilliant Harvest Moon -- the last full moon before the autumnal equinox -- rising behind 1WTC in Manhattan: SEE PIC
...Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in NYC for the UN, forced to eat pizza on the sidewalk because he isn’t vaccinated: SEE PIC
...Tom Hanks, his emotional-support dog, and a robot, trying to outrun a climate catastrophe in the trailer for Finch, coming to Apple TV+ in November: WATCH
LEFTOVERS: TACOS FOR TATS
Back in 1998, a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco offered free tacos for life to anyone who got its logo tattooed on their body. The tacos-for-tattoos promotion went viral the old fashioned way, with a handful of people who got the tattoos becoming brief media celebs. Now, more than two decades later and long after the Casa Sanchez taco chain closed its doors, they say the free food was never the point. SF GATE
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