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1. President Biden will order the release of up to 180 million barrels of government oil reserves over six months. The president aims to bring down surging energy costs. This will be the largest release of U.S. oil reserves since the reserve was created in 1974.
2. U.S. citizens will be able to list their sex as “X” on their passports starting April 11. The announcement was made in celebration of Transgender Day of Visibility, a day meant to draw attention to trans people. TSA announced it will implement new “gender-neutral” screening processes and make TSA PreCheck “more inclusive.”
3. As of today, you no longer need to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative test to attend events at city-owned indoor venues in Portland (Merrill Auditorium, Portland Expo and Ocean Gateway). Some events may still require certain protocols depending on requests from the artist, event organizer, promoter or league.
4. Hugs are coming back to Disney. As early as April 18, Disney “will start reintroducing traditional character greetings at Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts” according to a new post on Thursday on the official Disney Parks blog.
5. After missing the 2018 tournament, the US Men’s National Soccer team has qualified for the World Cup in Qatar. The US will learn Friday which three nations it will face in the World Cup’s group stage which starts November 21st.
