A Degree Of Normalcy By July 4th; How Breonna Taylor Changed Louisville

Plus, 10 years into the Syrian civil war. by Korva Coleman and Emily Alfin Johnson First Up [President Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House Thursday night.]( Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images Here's what we're following today. President Biden announced in his first prime-time address Thursday night that he's aiming for the country to begin to find a degree of normalcy and move on from the coronavirus pandemic by [the July 4th holiday.]( Biden has promised there will be enough vaccines for every U.S. adult by the end of May. So far Moderna and Pfizer are on track to produce enough vaccine [to meet their next target]( 100 million doses each by the end of March. [Click here to see how the vaccination campaign is going in your area.]( The speaker of the New York Assembly has authorized its judiciary committee to begin an impeachment investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo. New York Attorney General Letitia James already has launched an independent investigation [into the claims.]( While deaths from COVID-19 are down, the CDC says fatal overdoses nationwide keep rising, with more than 220 drug deaths every day. Many of these individuals turned up at emergency departments needing a kind of care that [staff aren't always trained to handle.]( House lawmakers have passed two bills aimed at strengthening the nation's gun laws. "The gun violence crisis in America is a challenge to the conscience of our country — one that demands that we act," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. [The legislation heads to the Senate]( next, where it would need 60 votes to pass. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- StoryCorps [Walid Sakaan (center, bottom) with most of his 11 siblings in Aleppo, Syria, in 2006.]( Magda Sakaan Walid Sakaan moved from Syria to the U.S. in 1966 and raised his family here. His daughter, Magda, moved to his home town of Aleppo, Syria, after college. Then ten years ago this month, the Syrian civil war began. Neither has been back since. In 2019, Magda and Walid came to StoryCorps [to remember the country and the the people they love.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Listen [Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at UC Berkeley, says the dangers in sophisticated phony videos called "deepfakes" are amplified in their potential to travel rapidly across social media.]( Ben Margot/AP In a crop of viral videos featuring Tom Cruise, it's not the actor's magic trick nor his joke-telling that's deceptive — but the fact that it's not actually Tom Cruise at all. The videos, uploaded to TikTok in recent weeks, have raised new fears over the proliferation of convincing deepfakes. [Read more here]( or [listen now](. On March 13, 2020, Louisville Metro Police officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor in her apartment. She was 26. In the year since, Louisville has undergone some difficult reckonings. For Black girls and young women in the city, it prompted them to confront the uncertainty of their futures. [Read the story]( or [click to listen.]( During the pandemic, Jon Batiste took his music to the streets. This summer, the music director and bandleader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert performed at marches protesting the killing of George Floyd. Recently he did a pop-up performance at a mass vaccination site in New York. [He spoke with Fresh Air about sharing joy during this painful year.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Before You Go Eric Risberg/AP - Former Facebook employees are sharing how Apple's new privacy features are affecting the social media company. ([CNBC]( - Matthew McConaughey says he's seriously considering running for governor of Texas. ([CNN]( - WHO is looking into issues with the AstraZeneca vaccine, after a number of European countries paused their rollout over blood clot concerns. ([Reuters]( - German police say they've solved a nine-year-old case ... thanks to DNA found on a half-eaten piece of sausage. ([The Guardian]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. --------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Politics, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Daily News emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( [NPR logo]