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Zaila Avant-garde becomes 1st African American to win Scripps National Spelling Bee

Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde on Thursday night became the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The big picture: Avant-garde's winning word was "murraya." First lady Jill Biden attended this year's finals, which were held in Orlando, Florida, after the coronavirus pandemic canceled last year's bee.


  • The only previous Black winner in the event's 96-year history is Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, who won in 1998.
  • Avant-garde, who is from New Orleans and holds several Guinness world records for dribbling basketballs, wants to someday play in the WNBA, according to AP.
  • Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from San Francisco, came in second place. Bhavana Madini, a 13-year-old from New York City, placed third.

It was the smile and twirls for us! After tying for 370th place in 2019, #Speller133 Zaila Avant-garde wins the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Congrats to all of our spellers. We're proud of everyone's poise and courage in facing the dictionary. #SpellingBee #TheBeeIsBack pic.twitter.com/wHfYeU4CNl

— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) July 9, 2021

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Facebook says it will no longer remove posts claiming COVID is human-made

Facebook posts claiming that COVID-19 was "man-made" will no longer be removed, the social media giant announced Wednesday.

Why it matters: The lifting of the ban reflects a reinvigorated debate on the origins of the pandemic in recent days, following a Wall Street Journal report that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in November 2019 after falling ill.

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