Birthday Party

Coronavirus Updates

Global cases rose past 7.08 million yesterday, with more than 406,100 deaths. The number of confirmed U.S. cases rose above 2 million, with 112,469 confirmed deaths.

• Arizona reported its highest daily increase of COVID-19 cases (1,579) and emergency room visits (718) on Friday. See how cases are changing in your state.
• The Michigan Supreme Court unanimously sided with Karl Marke - the barber who reopened his shop early (May 4) during lockdown - ruling against Gov. Whitmer’s shutdown orders.
• NYC begins phase 1 of reopening today. See where your state stands on restrictions.

Nationwide Protests

• The White House ordered the National Guard to withdraw from Washington, D.C. Sunday morning after three straight days without an arrest.
• Fifty-nine percent of all voters — including 54 percent of whites, 65 percent of Latinos, and 78 percent of African Americans — say they’re more troubled by Floyd’s death and police actions than they are by recent protests that have occasionally turned violent. (NBC News/WSJ poll)
• Minneapolis banned the use of chokeholds by police on Friday. A majority of Minneapolis city council members together announced plans to disband their police department Sunday afternoon.

Biden Secures Democratic Nomination

Joe Biden officially clinched the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday night. Biden surpassed the winning delegate threshold of 1,991 after final votes were tallied from last Tuesday’s primaries, and will be officially voted in at the Democratic National Convention in August.

More: The Democratic National Convention will take place from August 17-20, with the Republican National Convention set to occur from August 24-27.

Protests & The Coronavirus Effect

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a surprising May jobs report on Friday, significantly beating analysts' expectations - though a "misclassification error" makes last month's unemployment rate up to three points higher.
• Reddit co-founder and former CEO Alexis Ohanian - husband of tennis star Serena Williams - announced his resignation on Friday, and committed to using his future stock gains to help the black community.
• UK drugmaker AstraZeneca approached U.S. biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences about a potential merger last month, according to Bloomberg.
• How movies and sports plan to make a comeback after coronavirus.

Starship Is Meant To Fly

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told employees to consider the Starship program the "top SpaceX priority" in a company-wide email sent Sunday. The program aims to create a fully-reusable Starship rocket that can launch as many as 100 people at a time to missions on the Moon and Mars.

More: Just over one week ago, SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft (which then docked with the ISS), marking the first human-crewed commercial spaceflight in history.

I (Ji)O U

Jio Platforms announced its third major investment in the past few days on Sunday.

• UAE state-owned investment firm AIDA agreed to buy a 1.16% stake in Jio for $750 million yesterday.
• UAE sovereign firm Mubadala agreed to pay $1.2 billion for a 1.85% stake in the Reliance Industries subsidiary on Thursday.
• U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake agreed to pay an additional $600 million on Friday to increase its stake in Jio to 2.08% (up from 1.15% for ~$750 million).

More: Owned by India's most valued firm (Reliance Industries), Jio Platforms has now secured nearly $13 billion from seven different investors - including $5.7B from Facebook - over the past month, valuing the company at roughly $65 billion.

Five Star Service

Around the world, public spaces have sat eerily empty as stay-at-home orders advise citizens to remain at home. For people experiencing homelessness - who ordinarily find shelter in outdoor areas - such measures present a complicated dilemma as they seek refuge from the spread of the virus.

The Fownes Hotel in Worcester, England, is providing room and board to over 45 displaced persons during the shutdown, as well as resources to help them overcome addiction and financial insecurity. To show their gratitude for the hotel staff’s hospitality, the dispossessed guests perform odd-jobs around the property, cleaning rooms, gardening, and even building brick walls and patios.

Welcome To The Group(er)

When the Cairns Aquarium in Queensland, Australia, was forced to close in early March due to COVID-19, the facility’s resident grouper stopped eating and began hiding in the dark corners of his habitat. The ordinarily friendly fish was in a funk – he missed seeing the sea of faces that typically wander past his tank each day.

A group of first-graders from the Torbanlea State School recently sent a care package filled with letters and self-portraits to the aquarium – addressed to Chang the Lonely Grouper. The aquarium staff hung the cheerful mail on the glass of Chang’s tank, and the contented fish has since resumed eating regularly.

Exceptional Acceptance

The Harvard Diversity Project is an Atlanta-based initiative that selects motivated high school students of color to participate in a prestigious summer program at the university. Each spring, the competitive project hosts a magnificent ceremony to reveal the names of the students who have been chosen – a tradition impeded this year by the pandemic.

Determined to give the selected students a proper surprise, program founder Brandon Fleming spent three days driving around Atlanta to notify and congratulate each member of the 2021 class in person. Fleming traveled more than 200 miles to deliver the life-changing news to the ecstatic students.