Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Tuesday, July 6, 2021:
FLORIDA PREPS FOR ELSA
Rescue operations have resumed after demolition experts rushed to implode the remaining part of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Fla. over the weekend ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa’s landfall. Four more bodies have been found in the rubble, bringing the death toll to 28. More than 100 people are still missing. Meanwhile, Elsa is tracking up through the eastern Gulf today and over the western Florida coast before an expected landfall near Tampa tomorrow -- sparing Miami from a direct hit. TRACK
COVID-19 LATEST
President Biden used the July 4th holiday to declare that the U.S. was “closer than ever to declaring independence from” COVID-19, with 67% of the adult population at least partially vaccinated (just short of his goal of 70%). Across the pond, British PM Boris Johnson announced that England will lift most of its restrictions on July 19 even as the country is seeing a surge in new cases driven by the Delta strain. That’s not the only variant of concern out there. Health officials in Latin America are keeping a close eye on the Lambda variant first detected in Peru, where the mortality rate is highest in the world. Lambda has an unusual mutation that may make it easier to evade the vaccines, though scientists stress that more research needs to be done. FT
MANHUNT
Police in Georgia are trying to figure out who killed three men, including a professional golfer, whose bodies were discovered on the grounds of an Atlanta-area country club. Gene Siller, who worked as the golf pro at the Pinetree Country Club, was found shot to death on the 10th hole where he went to check out a white pickup truck that had driven onto the course. Police believe the driver of the truck shot Siller before fleeing the scene. Two other bodies were discovered in the truck’s bed. The shooting was one of more than 400 in the U.S. over the holiday weekend that left at least 150 people dead. CNN
POPE RECOVERING
Pope Francis is alert and breathing on his own after successful colon surgery, according to the Vatican. The 84-year-old pontiff is expected to stay in the hospital for about a week as he recovers from the scheduled procedure. After he was admitted, following his usual Sunday appearance in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said Francis was diagnosed with a stenosis, or narrowing of the large intestine. It’s not clear if the decision to remove part of the colon was made before or after he underwent surgery. GUARDIAN
RANSOMWARE ATTACK
Two weeks after President Biden warned Vladimir Putin about cyberwarfare, a group of Russian-linked hackers executed what appears to be one of the biggest global ransomware attacks in history. Kaseya, a software provider for thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, says hackers were able to infiltrate its systems on Friday and that only a “very small number” of customers were affected. The problem is that those customers are mostly IT service providers, which have hundreds or thousands of customers themselves. Among them, the Swedish grocery chain Coop that had to temporarily close 800 stores because the attack took its cash-register computers offline. The hackers are said to be demanding $70 million in Bitcoin. CNN
NEW AMAZON CEO
Amazon is under the leadership of a CEO not named Jeff Bezos for the first time in its history. Bezos officially handed over the reins of chief executive on Monday, 27 years to the day since he founded the company. Andy Jassy is the new boss, but he won’t need a lot of debriefing. Jassy has been with Amazon nearly as long as Bezos, starting in 1997 when it was still a niche online bookseller. He’s led Amazon Web Services since it launched in 2003. Bezos is sticking around as executive chairman. THE VERGE
WIMBLEDON
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have advanced to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, while Coco Gauff ‘s run came to an end in the 4th round at the hands of former champ Angelique Kerber of Germany. The tournament’s most exciting storyline also ended in disappointment when Emma Raducanu of Britain was forced to retire after she had difficulty breathing on the court. Raducanu, an 18-year-old wild card entry, made it to the fourth round in her Grand Slam debut. EUROSPORT
CANNES RETURNS
If you’re a movie star, the south of France is the place to be this week as the Cannes film festival comes back after a year’s hiatus. But the glitzy event is off to an anything-but-glitzy start due to France’s COVID protocols. French law requires anyone gathering indoors to show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test. The problem is that the app that checks vaccination status is only compatible with the EU’s tracking system -- so anyone coming from outside the bloc who’s been vaccinated still has to spit in a tube every time they want to enter the festival grounds. VARIETY
SPOTTED...
…J. Lo and Ben Affleck, taking a walk in the Hamptons: SEE PICS
...Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, tying the knot at Shelton’s Oklahoma ranch after six years of dating: SEE PICS
...Pete Davidson and Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor, making their first public appearance as a couple at Wimbledon: SEE PICS
...Matthew McConaughey, delivering a 4th of July message to fans amid polls that show he is neck-and-neck with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in a hypothetical matchup: WATCH
LEFTOVERS: LET YOUR FREAK FLAG FLY
Mark Zuckerberg has been trying to “take back control of Facebook’s battered image,” as one report put it in May, by getting himself out there more in the public eye. Over the long weekend, Zuck took it to a new level with a video he posted showing him zooming across a lake on an electric hydrofoil surfboard, holding a gigantic American flag as John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads plays. The internet’s been split: is the video a cursed new level of cringe from an out-of-touch billionaire, or just a good old-fashioned display of patriotism? DECIDE FOR YOURSELF
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