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🚨 Breaking: President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump began a "quarantine process" after being tested for COVID-19 late Thursday following news that Hope Hicks, a top White House advisor, tested positive for the virus.

California To Create Reparations Task Force

California’s legislature passed a bill - signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday - to establish a task force to develop a plan for reparations to Black Americans, the first U.S. state to do so. The text of the bill calls for the nine-member task force to “study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans, with special consideration for descendants of persons enslaved in the U.S.”

More: Newsom also signed legislation on Wednesday requiring the boards of California-based publicly traded companies to have at least one racially, ethnically, or otherwise diverse (i.e. LGBTQ+) director by 2021. This follows a 2018 mandate requiring at least one female director on all corporate boards in the state. LC | RC

NY Catholic Diocese Declares Bankruptcy

The Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, citing “the increasing burden of litigation expenses” stemming from over 200 pending sexual abuse lawsuits. It becomes the largest Roman Catholic diocese in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy, joining more than 20 dioceses who have reportedly done so over the past 16 years.

More: Watch the official statement.

EU Begins Legal Proceedings Against The UK

The EU began legal proceedings against the UK on Wednesday, citing the country’s failure to remove sections of its Brexit divorce deal before a previously imposed deadline. The legislation in question, the Internal Market Bill, lays out post-Brexit trade rules for the UK.

More: What is Brexit? Here’s all you need to know.

📚 Bonus Read: CNBC interviewed five participants in late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trials. They reported symptoms that were uncomfortable (and at times, intense) but subsided after one day.

Jobless Report Card

Another 837k Americans filed for unemployment insurance last week, slightly lower than the week before (revised up by 13k to 850k). In the EU, unemployment rose for the fifth consecutive month to 8.1%.

More economy news: U.S. consumer spending rose by 1% in August and earned income rates dropped by 2.7%. Dig deeper.

Quantum Quest

Tech startup IonQ unveiled what it claims is “the world’s most powerful quantum computer” on Thursday. Though the company hasn't yet released detailed specifications of its new system and its research needs to be verified, this achievement would put it on par with other projects from Google, IBM, Honeywell, Intel, and Microsoft.

Tech Talk

The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously voted yesterday to authorize subpoenas forcing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai to testify before Congress. The committee, which has not yet set a date for the testimony, cited the need to review Section 230, a provision that grants internet companies legal immunity in managing content on their sites.

More: All three executives (plus Apple CEO Tim Cook) previously testified before the House Antitrust Subcommittee in July.

🧪 Case In Point… Amazon recorded 19,816 presumed or confirmed COVID-19 cases between March 1 and September 19, according to data published yesterday by the company.

💻 New Product Launch: Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Go on Thursday. The laptop, which features a 12.4-inch display, starts at $549 and will be in stores on Oct. 13.

Significant Otters

An Asian small-clawed otter at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, England, was recently left single after his partner of four years passed away. Harris the Otter, who was brought to the sanctuary in 2016 after being abandoned by his family, once again faced isolation and little hope of finding a new mate, as introducing otters to one another is notoriously difficult.

Eager to find Harris a new love-interest, the sanctuary’s staff created a Tinder-style dating profile for the otter (pictured here) and sent it out to local wildlife facilities. The veterinary team was ecstatic when they received a response from SEA LIFE Scarborough, a facility that had found a match for Harris – a female named Pumpkin. Harris has now been introduced to Pumpkin’s habitat, where things are progressing nicely.

Saved By The Bell

When young Cavanaugh Bell of Gaithersburg, MD, drove through the Native American reservation of Pine Ridge, CO, during a road trip in 2018, the five-year-old boy was struck by the community’s physical isolation. After learning that nearly all of the people in Pine Ridge live below the poverty line and experience health problems, Cavanaugh decided that he wanted to help.

Two years later, at age seven, Cavanaugh founded the nonprofit Cool and Dope, which collects hygiene products, food, and clothes to send to Pine Ridge, where 97% of the population makes less than $3,500 a year. This July, the second grader’s organization delivered a trailer full of COVID-19 supplies to Pine Ridge and is currently preparing another shipment with winter gear to be distributed this fall.

An Admiral-ble Act

David and Heather Stevens of Cardiff, Wales, founded their car-insurance company Admiral in 1991 and quickly grew it into a successful business. Starting with 57 employees, the husband and wife team grew their operation to 11,000 people, expanding their presence to more than seven countries, including the U.S., Spain, and India.

After almost thirty years, David – who serves as the company’s chief executive – is retiring, and recently announced a $12.7 million gift to his employees as a sign of his gratitude. As a result of the generous gift, each full-time employee will receive $1,270, while part-time workers will get $635.

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