The (Week)End Is Near

CA Proposes Ban on Gas-Powered Cars

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Wednesday that calls for the state legislature to ban ownership of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. Newsom said his decision was due to the state’s ongoing “climate crisis,” referencing the mass wildfires that have consumed 3.6M acres across the state in 2020.

Nearly 500 Whales Stranded In Australia

Since Monday, Australian officials have discovered about 470 whales stranded on the country’s Tasmanian coast. At least 380 of the stranded pilot whales have died in what experts are calling the largest mass-stranding event in Australian history.

Saudi King Addresses The UN

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz addressed the UN in a prerecorded message on Wednesday, marking the second time a Saudi king has given a speech to the international assembly. In the address King Salman spoke about the role of Iran in the Middle East, potential attempts to mediate peace between Israel and Palestine, and more. View the full speech (16:51).

Worth Noting: Official commemorations of late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg began Wednesday at the Supreme Court (video). Ginsburg will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on Friday.

🌐 Safety Net… the DOJ submitted a proposal to Congress on Wednesday that seeks to curb long-standing legal protections provided to internet companies such as Twitter, Google, and Facebook. Dig deeper.

💉 Hit Us With Your Best Shot… Johnson & Johnson began a 60k person trial for its COVID vaccine candidate on Wednesday, becoming the fourth such effort to enter Phase 3 testing in the U.S.

Launch Party

Blue Origin will launch an uncrewed test flight of its suborbital New Shepard rocket system at 11 a.m. ET this morning, the Jeff Bezos-founded company announced on Wednesday. The New Shepard capsule is designed to one day take paying passengers on flights to the edge of space, allowing them to experience weightlessness. Watch the launch live.

Tesla’s Dis-App-earing Act

Tesla reportedly suffered a network outage for about an hour Wednesday morning that left hundreds of owners unable to connect their vehicles to the company’s mobile app, which controls essential vehicle functions. Per TechCrunch, the outage was caused by an internal break of their application programming interface (API).

Phony Pedal Peddler

Exercise gear maker Echelon unveiled its new $500 EX-Prime stationary bike on Tuesday, calling it “Amazon’s first-ever connected fitness product” that was “developed in collaboration with Amazon,” causing shares of exercise bike maker Peloton to fall as much as six percent. On Tuesday evening, however, Amazon denied it was involved with Echelon or the Prime bike, and told the company to rebrand its product. Peloton shares hit a record high on Wednesday.

The latest in the Tiktok saga: TikTok filed for a preliminary injunction on Wednesday against President Trump’s executive order banning the app.

🏈 RIP Gale Sayers… Chicago Bears’ Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers - known as the “Kansas Comet” - passed away on Wednesday at the age of 77. (His greatest on-field moments)

🎥 Good Things Come To Those Who Wait… Disney delayed the release dates of ten upcoming films, including Black Widow, Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story, and another Marvel spinoff, Eternals.

Giving It His Best Shot

Billionaire Charles Feeney is an American businessman who made his fortune by founding Duty Free Shoppers, a luxury airport retailer. Despite his immense financial success, Charles found that it was giving away money that brought him the most satisfaction, rather than gaining it. Thus, the offbeat billionaire set an unprecedented goal for an enterprising business person – he wanted to go broke.

Charles is an advocate for a philosophy known as “Giving While Living,” which urges wealthy philanthropists to donate their money while they are still alive, rather than waiting to distribute their fortune through a foundation after their death. This month, the 89-year-old achieved his ambition after giving away nearly the entirety of his $8B net worth to various education, human rights, and social change campaigns.

Truly Wonderful, The Mind Of A Child Is

Earlier this month, Carver, a five-year-old boy from Oregon, was shopping with his grandmother for essential items to donate to the community’s firefighter supply drive when a particular item on the shelf caught his eye – a Baby Yoda toy. The young boy recognized that the brave emergency workers - currently battling some of the worst wildfires the West Coast has ever experienced - could use a friend to hold and hug during their demanding fight against the flames.

After pleading with his grandmother to buy the doll – which is based on the character from Disney’s The Mandalorian – Carver brought the toy home, attached a handwritten note to it, and donated it to the supply drive. Now, the adorable Baby Yoda travels between Oregon’s faithful firefighting teams, touching the hearts of the soot-covered first responders.

Under The Bridge

On Sunday, bridge inspector Craig Jenkins of Natchez, MS, performed a routine analysis of a bridge along the U.S. Route 84 over the Mississippi River when he discovered a dog stranded on a beam under the road -- 120 feet above the surface of the water. Determined to deliver the marooned canine from danger, lead technician Ryan Nataluk called the police for backup and began scaling the structure.

Once Ryan reached the out of place hound, he assessed her for injuries. Finding none, Ryan proceeded to fashion a makeshift harness out of rope, tie it around the dog, and return to the road where he lifted her to safety (video). It remains unclear how the dog reached such a precarious position.

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