Tuesday, November 17 top news briefs
Hello! I’m Renca. I will take Alex’s place for today’s top news stories. Today is Tuesday November 17th, ready for our top news?
US withdrawing thousands of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq
Today, the US Department of Defense has confirmed that they will pull out troops from Afghanistan and Iraq by mid-January. There are currently 4,500 troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iran. The US will pull out 2,500 troops from each country.
Acting US Defense Secretary Chris Miller said that President Donald Trump has already set a policy that he would bring troops home so he is acting on this before he leaves office. Miller said “All wars must end. Ending wars requires compromise and partnership. We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now it’s time to come home.” There was a peace deal that was signed between the US and the Taliban earlier this year.
The Secretary-General of the Nato Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg has warned of a “high price” if US and allied forces leave too quickly.
Back in September, President Elect Biden did express his support of pulling out the troops, but had concerns about the terrorism problem.
President Trump mentioned that he wanted “all” troops to come home before Christmas.
Covid-19 updates
Yesterday (Tuesday) there were about 166,000 new cases of Covid-19 in the U.S. There were 796 new deaths. The U.S. is now averaging over 150,000 new cases every day.
Ohio will go into a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for three weeks starting on Thursday. All retail businesses will close.
There are also curfews in place in New Mexico and Puerto Rico.
New Orleans said they will cancel Mardi Gras parades, which was scheduled in early February, because of coronavirus concerns.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said he predicts that life will get back to normal by fall 2021 if at least 75% of Americans get a vaccine.
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Update on Hurricane Iota
This is an update on Hurricane Iota. Hurricane Iota arrived in Nicaragua last night as Category 4 (was supposed to be Category 5 but has reduced). It seems to be weakening now, but flooding and mudslides caused by heavy rainfall are still the biggest concerns for people in Central America. Many people are devastated because most of their homes were damaged from Hurricane Eta two weeks ago and now Iota.
Elon Musk to become world’s 3rd richest person
Elon Musk (49), co-founder and CEO of Tesla and founder of Space X (remember the launch story we shared yesterday?), is going to become the 3rd richest person in the world. According to the Dow Jones Data Market Group, Musk’s net worth is $117.5 billion.
Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos is number 1 and Warren Buffet comes in 2nd.
Twitter’s new feature: Fleet
You might recognize Facebook and Instagram’s feature of the “stories”- where you would see small circles on top of the page and they disappear after 24 hours. Well, Twitter is now offering that feature and it’s called “Fleet.”
Twitter said they are adding this feature because they believe it will help reduce the pressure around tweeting and allow users to express more opinions, thoughts, and feelings with the 24 hours stories platform. Twitter said they will also add the stickers or emojis to the creator.
You will not be able to “like” or “retweet” the Fleets. That is the same idea as you are not able to share people’s 24 hours stories on Facebook and Instagram. Twitter hopes that with Fleet, it will promote a safe and healthier culture of having conversations.
That is all for today. I’ll see you later. Stay with the light.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54980141
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pentagon-expects-order-reduce-troop-levels-afghanistan-iraq/story?id=74237780
https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/coronavirus/?id=74229011&cid=clicksource_4380645_4_three_posts_card_hed
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2020-11-16-hurricane-iota-forecast-landfall-central-america
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/elon-musk-to-become-3rd-richest-person
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/17/21570368/twitter-fleets-disapeating-tweets-stories-launch-available-now