By Audrey Glover-Dichter Edited by Elissa D. Hecker
Below, for your browsing convenience, the categories are divided into: Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Technology/Media, and General News: Entertainment Betty, Inc. v. Pepsico, Inc. The Second Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment in this case. The Court reviewed Betty Inc.'s claims on appeal and found that although Betty, Inc. did have a valid copyright, Pepsico did not infringe upon it because there were not substantial similarities in the Pepsico's commercial from Betty's pitch. Most importantly "[c]opyright does not protect an idea, but only an expression of an idea." https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/nmopagroepa/IP%20PEPSI%20COPYRIGHT%20opinion.pdf
Metropolitan Opera Cuts Fees for Solos by 12.7% The Metropolitan Opera is negotiating cuts to pay per performance with the American Guild of Musical Artists. There is also talk of reducing the number of the full-time chorus members. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/met-opera-deal-allow-solo-singer-fees-cut-by-up-to-127percent/2021/05/26/57bd681e-be7c-11eb-922a-c40c9774bc48_story.html
Amazon buys MGM With this $8.45 billion deal, Amazon gains the MGM catalog with more than 4,000 films and 17,000 television shows. https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/26/media/amazon-mgm-deal/index.html
The Tony Awards's have been rescheduled to September Save September 26, 2021, to watch the Tony Awards! https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/tony-awards-set-september-after-coronavirus-delays-2021-05-26/
Arts Biden to Appoint Four New Members to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts The Commission of Fine Arts is responsible for overseeing design and architecture of federal buildings in our capital. Such appointees do not need Congressional approval. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/25/1000103301/biden-just-purged-the-arts-commission-that-advises-congress-on-public-architectu
Smithsonian Museums Are Reopening A great number of museums in Washington, D.C. have already open, including the National Zoo. Others are set to reopen between June and September. https://washington.org/dc-information/coronavirus-event-attraction-information
Robert Lynch Steps Down as CEO of Americans for the Arts Due to complaints of alleged sexual harassment and lack of respect for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Lynch decided to step down from his $900,000 a year position. https://pressnewsagency.org/major-arts-group-leader-steps-aside-amid-workplace-complaints/
Florida High School Alters Photos of Girls Showing a Bit of Cleavage The school's yearbook coordinator decided to alter about 80 photos based her interpretation of the district's dress code. https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/25/us/florida-yearbook-photos-altered-trnd/index.html
Laurence de Cars is First Woman to Direct the Louvre After 228 years in existence, French president picked the first woman to direct the Louvre museum. De Cars is currently the director of Musee d'Orsay. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/laurence-des-cars-louvre-director-1234594069/
Myanmar's Poets Are Shut Down by the Junta Not only are poets in Myanmar being incarcerated by the junta, but they are also being brutally killed. Apparently, once killed, their organs may be removed. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/may/17/revolution-dwells-in-the-heart-myanmars-poets-cut-down-by-the-miltary
Sports COVID Threatens 2021 Japan Olympics Rising COVID cases in Japan leads to a state of emergency. Travelers from abroad have already been banned, but it seems that even local fans might not be able to attend the Olympic Games. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/05/28/tokyo-olympics-looking-more-and-more-like-fan-free-event/44647145/
15-year-old Olivia Moultrie Can Join the National Women's Soccer League A federal judge approved a temporary restraining order against the age limit requirement of the National Women's Soccer League. Apparently, there are no such restrictions in Europe or men's leagues. https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/25/us/olivia-moultrie-soccer-judge-ruling/index.html
National Football League Raises Salary Cap The 2022 salary cap was raised to $208.2 million, with which the National Football League Players Association has agreed. https://lionswire.usatoday.com/2021/05/26/nfl-raises-salary-cap-to-record-figure-for-the-2022-season/
Body Shaming Comments Found Offensive Head Coach Curt Miller offensively body shamed a Women's National Basketball Association player. Such actions led to his suspension and a fine of $10,000. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/curt-miller-connecticut-sun-wnba-coach-suspended-fined-liz-cambage/
Mickey Callaway Fired Major League Baseball launched an investigation to the sexual harassment allegations, which led to the Angels firing Callaway. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2021/05/26/mickey-callaway-mlb-ineligible-list-sexual-harassment/7455089002/
Kenya's Doping Ban Kenya has a policy prohibiting "past doping offenders from representing the country." Abel Kiprop, who is serving a four-year ban, is considering a challenge the prohibition. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1108237/asbel-kiprop-athletics-kenya-ban-fight
Copa America Might Not Happen This Year Colombia, one of the two host countries, has been removed as a host country because of the political protests and violence. Argentina, being the other host country, is suffering from a Coronavirus surge, forcing the country to shut down again. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/world/americas/copa-america-argentina.html
21 Runners Died in China During Race Extreme cold weather from a storm in the high mountains pass killed many runners in the Bayiyin race. https://www.hebergementwebs.com/sports/chinese-ultramarathon-turns-inward-after-21-runners-die
Media/Technology University of North Carolina Denies Tenure to Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who is a Pulitzer Prize winner with the New York Times Magazine, is considering suing the university for denying her tenure. Hannah-Jones holds a master's degree from the journalism school of the university. https://worldnewsera.com/news/entrepreneurs/times-journalist-weighs-legal-action-against-university-of-north-carolina/
Support For Ban on Journalists' Data The administration backs the ban on seizures of journalists' data, particularly in phones. This seems to be reverse in policy. https://goodwordnews.com/white-house-backs-ban-on-phone-data-seizures-of-journalists/
Florida's New Censorship Law "Most notably, it imposes heavy fines--up to $250,000 per day--on any platform that deactivates the account of a candidate for political office, and it prohibits platforms from taking action against "journalistic enterprises." https://www.wired.com/story/florida-new-social-media-law-laughed-out-of-court/
AP Rethinking Social Media Rules After journalists have been fired recently for expressing slanted views on social media, AP is looking into forming a committee for recommendations for changing the current social media guidelines. https://apnews.com/article/social-media-media-business-arts-and-entertainment-55cee73bd1da80790ad4aacf3cb2e339
Washington, D.C. Sues Amazon The lawsuit is based on alleged anticompetitive practices. Allegedly, Amazon blocks access to websites or other venues with lower prices. https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-sued-over-price-controls-by-washington-d-c-attorney-general-11621959129
India's Government Regulations Leads to WhatsApp Lawsuit India's new regulations requires traceability of private messages for surveillance. The lawsuit is based on India's constitutional right to privacy. https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/25/whatsapp-sues-india-government/
Plane forced to land in Belarus Belarus forced a commercial jet to land in order to arrest journalist Roman Protasevich. The US and EU condemned Belarus' actions. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belarus-forces-vilnius-bound-ryanair-plane-land-detain-blogger-2021-05-23/
General News Biden Proposes a Budget of $6 Trillion The proposed budget is an attempt to overhaul the economy. It includes the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan. The President's budget aims to make the U.S. more competitive with China. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/28/1000843544/biden-proposes-a-huge-hike-in-government-spending-in-a-6-trillion-budget
GOP Blocks Congressional Inquiry into Capitol Attack The Senate Republicans blocked a bill to establish a 9/11 style bipartisan Commission to investigate the capitol riot/attack. Therefore, the country may never know the answers to so many questions behind the who, what, and why of the riot. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57272756
SCOTUS Rejects Firing Squad Request An inmate on death row in Missouri requested a firing squad instead of lethal injection. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-rebuffs-inmates-firing-squad-request-2021-05-24/
Did Ukraine Interfere in the 2020 Election? Prosecutors are investigating the potential link between Giuliani and misinformation about Biden's corruption during the 2020 election with the help of Ukraine. https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/555872-federal-prosecutors-probing-whether-ukraine-tried-to-meddle-in-2020
FEMA Programs Are Prepared For Extreme Weather As climate change is making weather more dangerous, Biden's administration doubled the FEMA programs to help those in need, especially as this hurricane season is expected to be busier than in the past, with more potential for disasters. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/biden-doubles-fema-program-to-prepare-for-extreme-weather/
Federal Reserve Governor Suggest a Digital Dollar The Federal Reserve plans to release a working paper this summer "that addresses multiple issues involving Central Bank Digital Currencies." https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/24/feds-lael-brainard-pushes-digital-dollar-as-central-bank-currency-race-heats-up.html
Climate Change Strategy Leads to Activists Winning Seats on ExxonMobil's Board Engine No. 1, an activist investor, was successful in obtaining two out of four nominations onto the oil giant's board of directors, although changing the company's views towards renewable energy and away from carbon fuels is an uphill battle. https://www.barrons.com/articles/exxon-mobil-board-vote-oil-companies-51622037099
Ransomware From Russia A group called the DarkSide, although fairly new, it is quite sophisticated in using ransomware. This group might be responsible for the Colonial pipeline shutdown. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/russian-criminal-group-may-be-responsible-colonial-pipeline-ransomware-attack-n1266793
UC Berkley Offers Nonfungible Tokens For Patent Disclosures The auction to the Nonfungible Tokens (NFTs) will be on foundation.app, which is a Ethereum-based NFT auction platform. The proceeds of the auction will go to fund research and education. https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/05/27/uc-berkeley-will-auction-nfts-of-nobel-prize-winning-inventions-to-fund-research/
Hudson Tunnel Gets Approval The Department of Transportation approved the environmental impact statement allowing the project to move forward. The tunnel was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. https://nypost.com/2021/05/29/long-delayed-hudson-tunnel-project-finally-gets-fed-approval/
New York City Students Back to In-Person Classes Next Year NYC will not offer online classes beginning in September 2021, although about 60% opted for remote learning this year. https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2021/5/24/22452134/remote-learning-nyc-schools
It Is Called the "Insane" Prison Myanmar's political prisoners are imprisoned in the Insane prison known for brutality and torture. Its real name is Insein and it is severely overcrowded, especially since the coup. https://www.thebharatexpressnews.com/they-call-it-insane-where-myanmar-sends-political-prisoners/
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