Tuesday, July 18, 2023

7/18 WAKE-UP CALL: Heat Dome Causing Extreme Heat Warnings

Asia, Europe and the United States baked under extreme heat on Monday as global temperatures soared toward alarming highs and U.S. leaders sought to reignite climate diplomacy with China. The United States was scorched by record-setting heat in the West and South, lashed with flood-triggering rain in the Northeast, and choked by wildfire smoke in the Midwest. A heat dome parked over the western United States pushed the temperature in California's Death Valley desert to 128 Fahrenheit (53 Celsius) on Sunday, among the highest temperatures recorded on Earth in the past 90 years.Phoenix hit 114F (45.5C) on Monday, matching a historic record of 18 straight days over 110F with the forecast showing the record likely to extend for at least another week.

A remote town in China's arid northwest, Sanbao, registered a national record of 52.2C (126F). Wildfires in Europe raged ahead of a second heat wave in two weeks that was set to send temperatures as high as 48C (118F), while authorities in Italy and France issued heat-related health warnings.

➤SMOKY AIR RETURNS: Unhealthy air quality is predicted to last through tomorrow in the Midwest and Northeast, as smoke from Canadian wildfires lingers. The East Coast could see several more days after that, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters say that the blazes might rage into the fall in what is already our northern neighbor’s most destructive wildfire season. Almost 900 wildfires are burning, more than half of which are out of control, according to fire officials there. Canada said yesterday that it is deploying federal troops to British Columbia, where more than a third of the wildfires are burning.


🌉UKRANIANS BLAMED FOR BRIDGE STRIKE: A Ukrainian strike disabled the only road bridge connecting Russia with the occupied Crimean Peninsula. Moscow used the 12-mile Kerch Bridge, which cost Russia $4 billion to build after it annexed Crimea in 2014, to bring supplies to the front lines in southern Ukraine. It will likely take weeks, if not months, for traffic to resume on the vital artery. A separate rail bridge, which is more important for military supplies, was intact. Russia said that it would use ferry and alternative road connections via occupied regions of Ukraine. Separately, Moscow said it is pulling out of a deal that let Ukraine resume much of its Black Sea grain exports, raising concerns about the global food supply chain. Russia has demanded that the West facilitate its sanction-hampered food and fertilizer exports, according to state news agency TASS.

➤MANCHIN THE MAVERICK: Democratic Senator Joe Manchin on Monday said he believed that having a third-party candidate run in the 2024 U.S. presidential election would "threaten" the two major political parties into tacking towards more moderate positions as their only path to victory. The former West Virginia governor left open the door to being just such a candidate, but said he had not yet decided whether to launch a third party bid under the "No Labels" banner.

➤FAMILY MEMBER RIPS RFK JR: RFK Jr's family is denouncing him for comments he made last week in which he claimed COVID was 'ethnically targeted' to not affect Jewish and Chinese people. His sister, Kerry Kennedy, slammed the remarks as 'deplorable and untruthful' and their brother said it plays 'on anti-Semitic myths.' And his nephew, former Massachusetts Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, said he 'unequivocally' condemns the remarks RFK Jr made at an event Thursday.

➤ACTORS REPORTEDLY REJECTED $1B: Major film and television studios offered Hollywood actors more than $1 billion in higher compensation and enhanced benefits before the SAG-AFTRA union called a strike last week, a group that represents media companies said on Monday. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which negotiates on behalf of Netflix Inc, Walt Disney Co, Warner Bros Discovery and others, said SAG-AFTRA "continues to mischaracterize the negotiations." SAG-AFTRA called a strike last Thursday after union negotiators said they were unable to reach an agreement with studios on a new three-year contract with higher benefits and limits on the use of their images by artificial intelligence. "The deal that SAG-AFTRA walked away from on July 12 is worth more than $1 billion in wage increases, pension and health contributions and residual increases and includes first-of-their-kind protections over its three-year term, including expressly with respect to AI," the AMPTP said in a statement.

➤PAY RAISE BEATING INFLATION: Private-sector workers’ hourly wages were up more than 4% in June from a year earlier, not adjusting for inflation. Those gains have eased over the past year, but remain enough to outpace inflation this summer. Overall consumer prices in June rose 3% from a year earlier, down sharply from a four-decade high a year prior. Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled wage growth is still too strong for the central bank’s inflation-fighting efforts. Across the pond, Europeans are becoming poorer, an economic reality they haven’t experienced in decades. In China, the country’s fading postpandemic recovery is testing policy makers’ economic playbook.

➤SOFIA-JOE SPLIT: Sofia Vergara has split from her husband of seven years Joe Manganiello. The announcement comes after fellow actor Manganiello, 46, sparked speculation about the state of their relationship after posting a 'cold' birthday tribute for Vergara last week. Vergara was the highest paid actress in the world in 2020 when she starred on Modern Family, and consistently ranks in the top five, raking in an eyewatering $43 million last year alone. Manganiello began dating her two months after her final split from businessman Nick Loeb. However, signs of cracks in the picture perfect image began to show when in May they listed their Beverly Hills love nest for $18m.

➤BISON GORES TOURIST: A 47-year-old woman was gored by a bison Monday in Yellowstone National Park, the park said. Her condition is unknown. A statement said the woman, who is from Phoenix, was walking with another person near the Lake Lodge Cabins on the north shore of Lake Yellowstone Monday morning when they saw two bison. They turned to walk away when one of the animals charged and caused "significant injuries to her chest and abdomen." The park said the incident is being investigated and no further details, including her name, were released. The incident occurred during bison mating season, which runs from mid-July to mid-August, when the animals can be more easily agitated.


⚾MLB ANGELS 4 YANKEES 3: The Yankees intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani to load the bases but escape a jam in the fifth inning Monday night. Two innings later, they pitched to the Angels superstar and got a reminder of why every contending team is dreaming about the chance to possibly land him at the trade deadline. Ohtani crushed his 35th home run of the season, a two-run shot off Michael King that tied it in the seventh before the Angels dealt the Yankees the same, excruciating fate for the second straight game. Pinch-hitter Michael Stefanic delivered the final blow in the bottom of the 10th, roping a walk-off single against Nick Ramirez to lift the Angels to a 4-3 win over the Yankees at Angel Stadium.

⚾MLB RANGERS 3 RAYS 2: Josh H. Smith raced home on a wild pitch to send the Texas Rangers to a 3-2 walk-off victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday in Arlington, Texas. With the game tied 2-2 going into the bottom of the ninth, Josh Jung roped a leadoff double to center off Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks. Smith then came on for Jung as a pinch runner. After Adolis Garcia struck out, Smith moved to third on a groundout by Nathaniel Lowe and scored when Fairbanks (0-3) uncorked a wild pitch during an at-bat against Mitch Garver. Texas reliever Aroldis Chapman (5-2) registered the victory.  Chapman, who earned his first save in a Rangers uniform on Saturday, struck out the side in a dominant top of the ninth.

⚾MLB DODGERS 6 ORIOLES 4: Chris Taylor hit a grand slam and Freddie Freeman added three hits to power Los Angeles to a victory at Baltimore in the opener of a three-game series.

⚾MLB SCORES:

  • Guardians 11 Pirates 0
  • Cardinals 6 Marlins 4
  • Nationals 7 Cubs 5
  • Tigers 3 Royals 2
  • Red Sox 7 Athletics 0
  • Mariners 7 Twins 6
  • Giants 2 Reds 2 PP

🏈N-W FOOTBALL PLAYERS LAWYER-UP: Eight former Northwestern football players have retained a prominent civil rights and injury attorney in the wake of the hazing scandal that has embroiled the Wildcats' program and led to the dismissal of longtime coach Pat Fitzgerald, reports USA Today. "Whether the coaches at Northwestern approved or participated in the harassment of these players or not, they are responsible for allowing and enabling a toxic, disgusting, and damaging culture in their programs," attorney Ben Crump said in a statement. Crump rose to national prominence following George Floyd's murder in 2020 by representing several families in cases of alleged police brutality. Crump and his co-counsel, Steven M. Levin, are "in conversations with many others," they said Monday, adding that future legal action is "expected to expand beyond Northwestern’s football program and will expose extreme and abusive hazing in other college athletic programs as well."



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