Meet the influencers making blue-collar jobs cool

Education

September 04, 2024

Daniel Wine - CNN

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👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! Parisians won’t be saying “adieu” to the Olympic Games as early as they expected after the city’s mayor announced plans to leave the Olympic rings as a permanent fixture on the Eiffel Tower. But not everyone is happy about it.

Here’s what else you might have missed during your busy day:

5 things

1️⃣ Discount doldrums: After years of growing by leaps and bounds, dollar stores are experiencing a downturn. Low-income customers have cut their spending on basic necessities, and experts also blame “the Walmart effect.”

2️⃣ Underrated places: Tourists flock to Disney World, Times Square and Yellowstone National Park year after year. But there are plenty of other spots in the US worth visiting that continue to fly beneath the travel radar.

3️⃣ Catching zzzs: Sometimes a busy week can throw everything out of whack — including your sleep schedule. It’s only natural to catch up on sleep over the weekend, and new research shows that doing so can benefit your heart.

4️⃣ Functional fungus: A robot controlled by a king oyster mushroom blends living organisms with cutting-edge technology. Researchers hope that one day, they can explore oceans and search for survivors in the wake of an earthquake.

5️⃣ Destination unknown: This once bustling airport used to serve as the gateway to Europe. Now no one has even heard of it.

Watch this

🧰 Career advice: Influencers are using how-to videos and social media posts to encourage young people to consider working in blue-collar jobs like mechanics, welders, plumbers and electricians. A shortage of skilled labor looms as older workers retire.

Top headlines

• Officials identify 14-year-old student as suspect in Georgia school shooting that left 4 dead
• CNN polls across 6 battlegrounds find Georgia and Pennsylvania are key toss-ups
• Biden administration will tackle Russian efforts to influence 2024 election

What’s buzzing

😳 ‘Very sorry’: Rachael Gunn, the breaker known as Raygun whose performance at the Summer Olympics drew heavy criticism, apologized for the backlash she brought to the breaking community.

Check this out

📸 Revising history: Photographer Omar Victor Diop inserted himself into scenes from America in the 1950s and 1960s where Black people were often shut out.

$800 an hour

🦍 That’s how much it costs to spend time with a group of gorillas, with the guidance of experts from the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

Quotable

⭐ ‘Better be quick!’ The British actor fell during a recent stage performance in London. McKellen said he’s willing to reprise his role as Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” franchise, but it needs to happen soon.

Quiz time

🎭 Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was once a scene partner with which celebrity during drama class at Harvard University?
A. Matt Damon
B. Ben Affleck
C. Ethan Hawke
D. Mark Wahlberg
⬇️ Scroll down for the answer.

Good vibes

🏋🏾‍♀️ We like to wrap things up on a positive note: When she was 65, Nora Langdon struggled to climb stairs while showing houses as a Realtor. Sixteen years later, she’s one of the best senior powerlifters in the world. Here’s how she turned things around.

Thanks for reading

👋 We’ll see you tomorrow.
🧠 Quiz answer: A. While she was a student at Harvard, Jackson acted scenes with future Academy Award winner Matt Damon.
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5 Things PM is produced by CNN’s Tricia Escobedo, Meghan Pryce and Kimberly Richardson.