Today is Friday, July 30th, and you're listening to The Morning Announcements presented by

Betcha's Media.

I'm Sammy Sage.

Today's news cycle is giving extreme Friday energy, and by that, I mean, it is moving slower

than me attempting to do the 100-meter butterfly.

Yesterday, President Biden announced sweeping new pandemic requirements for approximately

4 million federal workers.

They will now be required to a test that they've been vaccinated or else face mandatory

masking, weekly testing, distancing, and other new rules.

The administration encouraged businesses to follow its lead on incentivizing vaccinations,

and they also directed the Defense Department to look into adding the COVID shot to its

list of required vaccinations for members of the military.

Next we have some more COVID news.

In the first announcement of its kind, the Israeli Health Ministry revealed plans yesterday

to give a third COVID vaccine dose to adults over 60 years old, who had received their

second shot at least five months earlier.

The program will begin on Sunday, and I won't lie, I'm kind of jealous.

Yesterday, Congress passed a $2.1 billion emergency spending package.

You may be wondering, but Congress never passes anything.

Well, it appears that they were able to find consensus in order to avert a funding crisis

for the Capitol Police that was sparked by the January 6th riot, and also to provide urgent

funds to evacuate and resettle Afghans, who aided U.S. forces during the Afghanistan War.

...