And Now, Your Week is Ended

🏛️ D.C. Roundup

Several government officials submitted their resignations in the wake of Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol by pro-Trump supporters:

• Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
• Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, per the Wall Street Journal.
• Mick Mulvaney, former acting chief of staff for President Trump and current U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland.
• Stephanie Grisham, first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff and a former press secretary to the president.
• Matthew Pottinger, deputy national security advisor, per USA Today.
• A U.S. Capitol Police officer injured while responding to the riots has died, the force confirmed.
• Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund announced his resignation effective January 16. The House sergeant at arms resigned as well.

More: President Trump posted a video on Twitter Thursday evening conceding the election for the first time. (Watch it here)

Even More: President-elect Biden finalized his Cabinet nominations yesterday. See the full list.

🇺🇸 COVID Update

Image via the CDC.

• More than 132k Americans were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, an all-time high according to data from The COVID Tracking Project.
• More than 4k Americans died from COVID-19 on Wednesday per Reuters, the U.S.’ highest daily total of the pandemic.

🇮🇷🇰🇷 Iran Seizes South Korean Ship

A South Korean diplomatic delegation arrived in Tehran, Iran, on Thursday, to negotiate the release of a South Korean oil tanker and its 20 crew members that were seized by Iran three days earlier. Iran is claiming the tanker violated environmental regulations, which the ship’s owner has denied.

More: The move comes as Tehran demands South Korean banks release $7B in cash from Iranian oil sales that have been withheld since 2019 due to economic sanctions on Iran. Tehran denied that Monday’s tanker seizure was related to the withheld funds.

❌ Ban Plans

Facebook, and by proxy, Instagram, indefinitely banned President Trump’s account “for at least the next two weeks” according to a post by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, spanning the remainder of Trump’s time in office (Inauguration Day is January 20).

More: Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitch, and Shopify were among the other tech platforms to enact a ban on Trump’s account or implement other restrictions related to Wednesday’s riot.

💸 Boeing’s Fine Print

Boeing agreed yesterday to pay a $2.5B fine to settle a criminal probe with the Department of Justice into its 737 MAX airplane that was involved in two crashes claiming 346 lives (in Oct. 2018 & March 2019). As part of the settlement, the airline giant admitted it “deceived” the FAA about the capabilities of a flight-control system that was later implicated in the two crashes.

Separately… DOJ officials said the electronic filing system used by federal courts was likely compromised in the massive cyberattack that breached several government agencies (including access to non-public court documents).

💰 Rich Switch

Tesla CEO Elon Musk overtook Amazon founder Jeff Bezos yesterday to become the richest person in the world, according to some sources. Per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s net worth totaled $195B Thursday evening, roughly $10B higher than Bezos, after shares of Tesla rose 8% on the day. However, according to Forbes Real Time Billionaires, Bezos still held a ~$7B lead after market close Thursday.

More: Musk’s net worth was ~$27B at the beginning of 2020.

🍩 DONUT Holes

• Fintech startup SoFi announced plans to go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company backed by investor Chamath Palihapitiya.
• The price of Bitcoin rose above $40K for the first time yesterday, ending the day at ~$38.5K. The crypto market cap also rose above $1 trillion for the first time.
• Roblox closed a $520M round of funding valuing the company at $29.5B; announced plans to go public via direct listing rather than a traditional IPO.

📚 The Magic of Giving

Image via GoFundMe.

After being introduced to the magical world of Harry Potter, Katelyn Suter’s 7-year-old niece Emrie – who was born blind and began reading in braille at age four – was eager to get her hands on a set of the books designed for vision-impaired readers.

• “Unfortunately, we soon discovered that the Harry Potter books in braille are extremely expensive and not very accessible,” Katelyn wrote on GoFundMe, where she launched a campaign to buy one of the popular novels for her niece.

Katelyn’s GoFundMe campaign ultimately raised more than $4,000, enough for the accommodating aunt to buy five full sets of braille Harry Potter books – one for her niece and four to donate to local libraries.

Bonus: Emrie’s adorable reaction after receiving the book for Christmas.

Room for more sweet tidbits?

• Keith Walker, a 53-year-old Atlanta man who has been homeless since age 13, risked his life to save six dogs and 10 cats trapped inside a burning animal shelter.
• Julia Fetherman, a 24-year-old from Connecticut whose brother experiences autism and ADHD, developed an app called Making Authentic Friendships, which helps teenagers and adults with special needs meet and connect with one another.

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