In an interview with MSNBC on Monday, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced all public schools in the city will resume full in-person classes this fall with no remote option for students.

From the NYT: “During the mayor’s news conference, the city’s schools chancellor, Meisha Porter, said there would be ‘no Covid-related accommodations,’ signaling that teachers and school staff will no longer be granted medical waivers to work from home.

• The city’s school system is currently planning for masks to be required in school buildings, Ms. Porter said. Schools would also follow the C.D.C.’s social-distancing protocol, which currently recommends elementary school students remain at least 3 feet apart in classrooms. Both those policies could change by the fall.”

🇺🇸 Across the U.S.
Over the past month, officials from Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington have said they will require schools to offer full-time, in-person education for students this upcoming school year.

• They join 13 other states that have already issued orders requiring schools to fully reopen. (Map)
• Many state legislatures have opted not to weigh in at all on school operations, instead leaving the decisions entirely to local school officials.

⏭️ What’s Next?
Earlier this month, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told MSNBC he expects “all schools” to fully reopen in the fall.

• A survey conducted in March and released by the Education Department this month found 54% of public schools below high school were providing full-time in-person learning (up from 46% in January).

⚖️ Epic vs. Apple: Closing Time

Closing arguments were held yesterday in Epic Games v. Apple Inc., concluding an antitrust trial that could reshape the multi-billion dollar mobile app market ($154.05 billion in 2019).

• Epic Games is suing Apple over the way it runs its App Store - specifically, its unavoidable 30% commission on in-app payments - which Epic argues is monopolistic and anti-competitive.
• Apple contends its rules around the App Store ensure the safety and reliability of apps for users, saying its fees are similar to other video game distribution platforms. (More on the arguments.)

More: U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is expected to take weeks, if not months, to make a ruling.

Meet Greater Springfield, the site of a former forestry operation transformed into a masterplanned $68B Australian city with its sights set on Silicon Valley.

• “The world has learned a lot from Silicon Valley,” founder Maha Sinnathamby told CNBC. “We said: that’s 85 years old. Let’s design the latest version.”
• The city is designed around the pillars of tech, health, and education, aiming to create a modern business hub of innovation.

Currently boasting 46,000 residents, 16,500 homes, 11 schools, a national university campus, a hospital, and a railway line connecting it to neighboring Brisbane, Sinnathamby said the city is so far 25% complete after receiving $15 billion in private and state funding.

More: Greater Springfield is Australia’s first privately built city and the world’s tenth largest masterplanned city.

Image: CNN

Hector Guadalupe was only a kid when both of his parents passed away. Lacking guidance and support as he reached his teenage years, the NYC native turned to the narcotics trade to survive.

• Soon after, he was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Spending his twenties behind bars made Hector realize his life’s passion – exercise and fitness. Once out of prison, he hit the ground running to find work as a personal trainer, building a reputable name for himself brick-by-brick over the next four years.

• As he continued training others in fitness, Hector was also working around the clock to develop a different, more impactful training program.

The program in question: A Second U, a non-profit helping formerly incarcerated men and women get certified as personal trainers and build careers in the fitness industry.

Keep reading.

⚡ A Stroke Of GE-ness…

Image: GE

GE unveiled a new design for a system of floating wind turbines, a concept that could transform massive regions of deep ocean into offshore wind farms.

• Floating wind turbines have so far been deemed too costly and complex to deploy at a commercial scale, as they would need to be able to withstand rough surf and severe weather conditions without tipping over.

In GE’s new proposal, wind turbines would be placed on a “tension-leg platform” anchored to the seafloor with flexible “tendons,” and then monitored by a system of built-in sensors and computers adjusting the tendons in real-time to respond to strong winds and waves.

Keep reading.

In Victorian-era London, what word did people say before taking photos? (As opposed to the modern-day “cheese”)

A) Prunes
B) Wine
C) Peas
D) Tea

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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A) Prunes

“Etiquette codes of the past demanded that the mouth be carefully controlled; beauty standards likewise called for a small mouth. Accordingly, the first photo studio in London, established in 1841, adopted the locution 'Say prunes' to help sitters form a small mouth.” –Dr. Christina Kotchemidova, Why We Say “Cheese”: Producing the Smile in Snapshot Photography