Friday morning news - May 21, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Anna Johansen Brown.

Israel, Hamas agree to cease-fire in Gaza » Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Hamas officials quickly agreed to honor the deal.

That ended an 11-day conflict that left more than 200 people dead.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken welcomed the news.

BLINKEN: Our goal continues to be to stop the violence, to bring calm, and then get back to work trying to build lasting security and a more hopeful future for all.

Egypt helped broker the deal and pledged to fund rebuilding efforts in Gaza.

MAN: SPEAKING ARABIC

Egypt’s ambassador to the United Nations announced the cease-fire at the General Assembly and said he hoped it would last.

But Israel made it clear that peace will only last as long as Hamas upholds its end of the bargain. In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s military made “significant achievements in the operation, some of which are unprecedented.”

SOUND: BOMBS, EXPLOSIONS

The latest round of fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli forces began May 10th. The dueling rocket fire did not let up ahead of Thursday’s announcement, even as mediators said they expected a deal soon. Five people reportedly died on Thursday during Israeli airstrikes.

Senate Republicans rally against Jan. 6 commission » Senate Republicans are lining up to oppose creating an independent commission on the Jan. 6th Capitol riot.

Democrats in the House approved the commission late Wednesday. Thirty-five Republican members voted with them to create the bipartisan group.

But Senator Ron Johnson of Wyoming called the commission anything but fair. Here he is speaking on Fox’s The Ingraham Angle.

JOHNSON: I sure hope we can get at least 41 Republican colleagues to vote against this thing. You know, there are investigations going out. I’m doing my own investigation into really accurately recreating exactly what happened on Jan. 6. But Nancy Pelosi’s commission is not going to dig into this in any kind of bipartisan fashion. She gets to pick all the staff members. This is a joke and should be voted down.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the chamber’s top-ranking Democrat, said Republican opposition to the commission just proves how much it’s needed.

SCHUMER: We always needed to look into it. But the fact that there’s such denial, such lying, there is such obeisance to Donald Trump’s big lie, and to his fundamentally dishonest personality, makes the need for truth, for a commission greater than it ever has been.

Democrats would need support from at least 10 Republicans to get the 60 votes needed to create the commission. Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have voiced support for the commission. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she liked the idea but wanted to see changes to the way it would be set up.

Vaccine boosters might be necessary this fall » If you got a COVID-19 vaccine this spring, you may need a booster as early as this fall.

Dr. Anthony Fauci made that prediction during an interview with Axios.

FAUCI: We know that the vaccine durability of the efficacy lasts at least six months, and likely considerably more. But I think we will almost certainly require a booster within a year or so after getting the primary because the durability of protection against coronavirus is generally not life-long.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said his company would have data from trials of a booster shot within the next two months. Moderna is also working on a booster shot for its vaccine.

But Fauci said the good news about boosters is that they likely won’t be specific to particular variants of the virus. Boosters targeting the original strain provide adequate protection against mutations.

So far, about half of eligible Americans have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. And nearly 10 percent have developed natural antibodies after recovering from a confirmed case of the virus.

Weekly jobless claims continue to fall » Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims have fallen to their lowest point since the pandemic began. WORLD’s Leigh Jones reports.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to 444,000, according to numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department.

That encouraging sign comes as nearly all states with Republican governors move to cut off extra federal unemployment benefits. Businesses say the extra money is making it too easy for people to stay home and not work.

Twenty-two states will stop providing the $300 dollars in extra benefits starting June 1st.

A total of about 16 million people received unemployment benefits during the week that ended on May 1st, the last for which cumulative data is available. But that was down from nearly 17 million the week before.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

NOAA issues annual storm predictions as first depression forms » Forecasters are predicting this year’s Atlantic hurricane season will be above normal. But they do not expect the historic level of storm activity recorded in 2020.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration unveiled its annual predictions Thursday.

Forecasters anticipate as many as 20 named storms, with up to half becoming hurricanes. And three to five of those could become major storms.

The Atlantic hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the first storm is already spinning to life.

The National Hurricane Center is monitoring an area of low pressure northeast of Bermuda that could become a subtropical storm by early next week. If it does, it will be named Ana.

I'm Anna Johansen Brown, and for more news, features, and commentary visit us at wng.org.

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