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California’s Lithium Valley Gears Up for Clean Energy Future

Lithium is a key component in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems, and California officials hope their state will become a major producer. Governor Gavin Newsom has said he wants California to become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” But residents of one community want some assurances first. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Lithium Valley in the California desert. Camera: Mike O’Sullivan, Roy Kim

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Science & Health
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WHO: After March Surge, Global COVID-19 Cases Continue To Drop

The World Health Organization ((WHO)) says, following a surge of new cases in early March, the number of new worldwide COVID-19 cases and deaths has fallen for a second consecutive week.

In its weekly update released late Tuesday, the WHO reports the number of new cases overall fell by 16 percent during the week ending April 3, compared to the previous week.

As of 3 April 2022, just over 489 million cases and over 6 million deaths had been reported globally.

The agency said global deaths from COVID-19 fell sharply – by 43 percent – in the past week. The WHO attributed a sharp rise in death numbers the previous week to a change in the way deaths were counted and the addition of death numbers not previously reported in the Americas.

At the country level, the highest number of new weekly cases was reported in

South Korea, with more than 2,058,000 new cases, Germany, with more than 1, 371,000 and France, with nearly one million new cases.

South Korea’s cases declined 16% and Germany’s declined 13 percent. In France, case numbers were up 13 percent.

Across the six WHO regions, over nine million new cases and over 26,000 new deaths were reported. All the regions show decreasing trends both in the number of new weekly cases and new weekly deaths.

The WHO continues to caution, however, several countries are progressively changing their COVID-19 testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases being detected.

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Arts & Entertainment/Economy & business
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Ed Sheeran Wins Copyright Case Over 2017 Hit ‘Shape of You’ 

Grammy Award-winning songwriter Ed Sheeran won a U.K. copyright battle over his 2017 hit “Shape of You” on Wednesday, then slammed what he described as a “culture” of baseless lawsuits intended to squeeze money out of artists eager to avoid the expense of a trial.

The British pop star and his co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, had denied allegations that the song copied part of 2015’s “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch.

“Whilst we’re obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no basis for the claim,” Sheerhan said in a video posted on Twitter. “It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry.”

Andrew Sutcliffe, the lawyer for the co-writers of “Oh Why,” argued that there was an “indisputable similarity between the works.” He claimed that Sheeran had “Oh Why” in his head “consciously or unconsciously” when “Shape of You” was written in 2016.

The plaintiffs alleged that the refrain “Oh I, Oh I, Oh I” in the chorus of “Shape Of You” was “strikingly similar” to the line “Oh why, Oh why, Oh why” in their track.

During the 11-day trial, Sheeran denied allegations that he “borrows” ideas from unknown songwriters without acknowledgement and said he has always been fair in crediting people who contribute to his albums.

In Wednesday’s ruling, High Court Judge Antony Zacaroli concluded that Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a phrase from “Oh Why” when writing his smash hit.

Sheeran, McDaid and Mac said in a statement that the cost of the case was more than financial. The stress of going to trial also hurts creativity, means less time to make music and takes an emotional toll, they said.

“It is so painful to hear someone publicly and aggressively challenge your integrity,” the trio said. “It is so painful to have to defend yourself against accusations that you have done something that you haven’t done, and would never do.”

“Shape of You” was the biggest-selling song in the U.K. in 2017.

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Science & Health
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Biden Proposal Would Expand Health Care Access

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced plans to expand access to health care by proposing changes to the Affordable Care Act to allow millions of additional families to purchase health insurance and obtain tax credits to offset the cost. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.

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Arts & Entertainment/Economy & business
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At Masters, Some Come to See Golfers, Others to See Gnomes

The boxes weren’t flying off the shelves. They weren’t even making it onto the shelves. 

The Masters has gone gnome-mad. 

Yes. Gnomes. The must-have item at the Masters this year isn’t any of the shirts or pullovers or caps with the tournament’s logo that can only be bought by those who are lucky enough to have secured a way onto the grounds of Augusta National. 

Instead, the gnome is all the rage. Just ask Tom Frettoloso, who left his house at 4 a.m. on Tuesday to get to Augusta National and was headed back to his vehicle by 8 a.m. — without having seen a single golfer take a single swing. 

He had a bunch of souvenirs, including two gnomes. He wouldn’t say how he got two; signage in the store said the Masters was limiting them to one per person. 

“I’m self-employed and need to get to work,” said Frettoloso, a house painter, who was weaving his way toward the gates while thousands of people were walking the other way onto the Augusta National grounds. “But I’ve gotten the gnomes just about every year. I got a ticket for the practice round and here I am and now I’m done.” 

Gnomes made their Masters debut in 2016 and were a quick hit, though nobody seems to remember them being as much of a phenomenon as they are this week. 

There are a couple versions of gnomes this year; the one that hundreds of people were lined up to get Tuesday morning was this year’s version of a caddy, standing about a foot high, dressed in a green-and-white striped Masters shirt, khakis, green-and-white shoes, a yellow cap and with a bag of clubs slung over his right shoulder. 

Asking price at the Masters: $49.50. 

Asking price online: Most were going for somewhere between $150 and $500 on Tuesday, depending on where you looked. The smaller version — a mini-gnome in the traditional white Masters caddie attire — could be had for considerably less. 

On Tuesday, a worker at the store tried to refill the shelf with more gnomes. The mission was futile: Shoppers were grabbing them as soon as they went on the shelf, and sometimes right from the worker himself. 

“People will buy anything,” someone mused in the checkout line. 

That they will, whether it’s gnomes, shirts, belts, hats and anything else they can get with the Masters logo. There are countless reasons why. Not everyone can get to the Masters: It’s among the toughest tickets to get in sports, and the Masters also doesn’t sell merchandise online — except for some images, the Masters Journal and the Masters Annual that recaps tournament week. 

And for the record, many on-site shoppers got bad news once they got into the Masters store Tuesday. 

The gnomes were gone. 

 

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Economy & business/Silicon Valley & Technology
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Twitter to Start Testing Long-Awaited Edit Feature Soon

Twitter said on Tuesday it will begin testing a new edit feature in the coming months, surprising its users on the same day it said Tesla boss Elon Musk would join the social media company’s board. 

Jay Sullivan, Twitter’s head of consumer products, said in a tweet the company had been working since last year on building an edit option, “the most requested Twitter feature for many years.” 

The news, first teased by Twitter on April Fools’ Day, comes as the company faces a broader change in direction with Musk becoming its largest shareholder and joining the board after questioning the social media platform’s commitment to free speech.  

Musk began polling Twitter users about an edit button after disclosing his 9.2% stake in the company on Monday. As of 6:30 p.m. EST, the poll had more than 4.2 million votes, with 73.5% supporting the feature. 

Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal asked users to “vote carefully” on Monday, though the company on Tuesday tweeted that it did not get the idea for the edit button from the poll. 

Sullivan tweeted the feature will take time to fine tune as “without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation.” 

The company will actively seek “input and adversarial thinking in advance of launching Edit,” he added. 

Twitter will start testing the feature within its Twitter Blue Labs premium subscription service in the coming months to “learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible,” it said. 

Twitter Blue members get exclusive access to premium features and app customizations for a monthly subscription. 

 

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