Morning Mix: August 22
THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN WILL CONTINUE, BUT NO ONE IS SURE FOR HOW LONG
Topping the morning news are roundups of President Trump’s speech to the nation last night, in which he announced plans to continue U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, a conflict that has been going on for almost 16 years, making it the longest military campaign in American history. Some news outlets reported the president plans to send 4,000 additional troops to the country.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
POTUS DOES WHAT EVERYONE SAID NOT TO DO AND THE INTERNET WENT NUTS
As we wrote yesterday, your Mom probably already texted you about 10 times, “Don’t look at the Eclipse without glasses. Be careful you don’t want to go blind! (Sun emoji, sunglasses emoji, heart emoji).” But the POTUS is all about doing whatever he wants. And though the he only glanced up at the sun for a few seconds yesterday, the Internet had a lot of fun the moment.
The Huffington Post rounded up some of the funnier reactions.
But did the POTUS hurt his eyes?
Did Trump hurt his eyes when he looked at the eclipse? @jameshamblin investigates https://t.co/tlVYmXr6cV pic.twitter.com/xF11svJRD8
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) August 22, 2017
—————————————————————————————————————————–
STUDY: TEENS ARE LEAVING FACEBOOK FASTER THAN EVER BEFORE, HEADING TO INSTAGRAM AND SNAPCHAT
A study by research firm Emarketer claims that Facebook’s user base among 12- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. will shrink by 3.4 percent in 2017, as reported by Recode. While that’s not great news for Facebook, the study found that many of those teens are deleting Facebook and turning to Instagram, which Facebook owns.
And Recode reported that “Snapchat will be bigger than both Facebook and Instagram in the 12- to 17-year-old and 18- to 24-year-old categories by the end of the year. That would be a first.”
—————————————————————————————————————————–
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS REMOVES CONFEDERATE STATUES
The Associated Press reported this morningthat the school ”quickly removed statues of Robert E. Lee and other prominent Confederate figures overnight from the main area of the Austin campus early Monday, just hours after the school’s president ordered they be taken down.” There were some minor arguments as the area was roped off, but overall the scene was peaceful, the AP reported. Statues of Lee, Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and Confederate Postmaster General John H. Reagan were removed.Are there any Confederate statues or monuments in your area? Any plans to remove them? Let us know. And you can always send us a news tip or story idea by emailing storyideas@uloop.com.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
AND FINALLY, HERE ARE 15 ITEMS TO KEEP AT YOUR DESK TO REDUCE STRESS
Because, classes. Lorena Roberts from The University of Tennessee lays out 15 easy ways to make returning to the grind of classes and reading and papers a little easier. And yes, snacks.
Because, for real:
Classes are starting again and so are my tears
— College Student (@ColIegeStudent) August 21, 2017
If you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading. Now go out there and crush Tuesday, OK?
—————————————————————————————————————————–