Your April 18 news briefing
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Stay up to date on the world's Headlines and Human Stories. It's fun, it's factual, it's fluff-free.
Shanghai plans a tentative reopening
Shanghai reported close to 25,000 cases on Saturday, and the city is in its third week of lockdown. Now, the city has outlined its plans on how businesses can reopen. But there was no timeline attached to these plans. Key takeaways include:
- Shanghai aims to stop COVID from spreading outside of quarantined areas by April 20.
- Tesla is looking to restart production as soon as this week.
- Company truck drivers must test negative within 24 or 48 hours of entry, depending on which test the driver uses.
- Companies with a lot of workers will have a makeshift hospital set up.
- Visitors will be tightly restricted.
Plane from deadly China crash is back in the air again
According to flight-tracking data, China Eastern, the airline involved in that plane crash last month that killed 132 people in Guangzhou, has restarted flights of the same plane model that was involved in the crash. That flight happened about a month ago, but there hasn’t been an official report on its cause yet.
Ukraine’s Mariupol encircled
Russian forces have encircled Mariupol, a large city in southeastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials. They said there could be airstrikes and a naval landing on the coastal city, but the city hasn’t fallen to Russia so far. Meanwhile, the crew of the Moskva (that Russian warship that sank because of attacks from Ukraine) has supposedly met with the head of Russia’s Navy. The ship sinking was a big loss for Russia, and the country had two choices – say Ukraine shot it down or say that breakdowns with the Russian Navy were the problem. It seems it’s going with the latter.
Musk-Twitter relationship update
Twitter’s board of directors isn’t thrilled about Musk’s offer to take over the company so that he can “unlock” its potential, so they issued a “shareholder rights plan” in place until April next year. In the finance world, it’s otherwise known as a poison pill. It essentially prevents hostile takeovers by giving other company shareholders a right to buy more stock if an outsider comes along and tries to take control of a company. Musk was critical of the maneuver, saying that shareholders have the right to vote on it because they own the company, not the board of directors.
We love the way zoomers talk, no cap
Whoever said zoomers weren’t creative obviously hasn’t witnessed their ingenuity on TikTok. Our team was sent some TikTok slang that current tweens and teens in the West are fans of.
Cheugy: Pronounced “chew-gee.” If you’re a millennial and binge-watch “Friends” or “The Office” in your Ugg boots while looking through minion memes or girl boss Instagram profiles – you’re officially uncool to zoomers. How do you use such a creative term? “Ew, that’s so cheugy, omg.”
In other news…
🇭🇰 Hong Kong saw 747 new COVID cases on Sunday.
🇨🇳 Xian, the Chinese city famous for terracotta warriors, is starting a partial lockdown. Earlier last week, Xi reminded everyone that China would continue pushing through with its zero-COVID policies.
🇬🇧UK Prime Minister Johnson is due to go to India to visit Prime Minister Modi. Trade, security, investments and Russia are expected to be big talking points.
🦠Omicron subvariant BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading through Africa and Europe and are on WHO’s radar.
🇦🇺Australia banned cruise ships during COVID. Now, that ban has been lifted.
Written and put together by Jake Shropshire, Christine Dulion and Krystal Lai
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