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Thursday, July 22, 2021

Wake-Up Call: China Stalls WHO Plan To Find COVID-19 Origins

A senior Chinese health official said today that China can't accept the World Health Organization’s (WHO) plan for the second phase of a study into the origins of Covid-19. The vice minister of China's National Health Commission, Zeng Yixin, said he was, quote, "rathen taken aback" by the call for futher investigation of the virus' origin, the lab leak theory in particular, a theory he dismissed as counter to common sense and science. He stated, "It is impossible for us to accept such an origin-tracing plan." China has been accused of not being transparent about what happened in the early days of the pandemic, while Beijing charges that the issue is being politicized. Zeng noted that a team of international experts coordinated by WHO that visited the Wuhan lab earlier this year concluded that a lab leak was unlikely, and the virus most likely jumped from animals to humans.


➤BIDEN URGES COVID VACCINATION IN TOWN HALL, CALLS IT 'GIGANTICALLY IMPORTANT: President Biden again urged getting vaccinated against Covid-19 in a town hall televised on CNN last night, calling it "gigantically important" and expressing frustration over how much the U.S. vaccination rate has slowed. Speaking at the event at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Biden said that the pandemic in the U.S., now being driven by the delta variant, is now largely focused among the unvaccinated, saying, "We have a pandemic for those who haven’t gotten the vaccination -- it’s that basic, that simple." 


Biden also answered questions about topics including his infrastructure package, expressing confidence that it will get done in Congress, and inflation, saying there will be what he called "near-term inflation" as the economy rebounds from the pandemic, stating it's, quote, "highly unlikely long-term inflation will get out of hand."


➤PELOSI BLOCKS TWO OF FIVE GOP APPOINTEES TO JANUARY 6TH PANEL, REPUBLICANS SAY WON'T PARTICIPATE: Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday rejected two of the five House Republicans chosen by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to sit on the House committee that will investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. The two were Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, two outspoken allies of former President Donald Trump. Pelosi cited the, quote, "integrity of the investigation" and "concern about statements made and actions taken by these members." 

McCarthy accused Pelosi of, quote, "an egregious abuse of power" and said Republicans won't participate in the probe if the five members aren't appointed. Democrats have said the investigation will proceed, with Pelosi having appointed eight members, including Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, a Trump critic, which gives them the bipartisan representation needed according to committee rules. Cheney told reporters she agrees with Pelosi's decision, and lashed out at McCarthy, charging he's, quote, "attempted to prevent the American people from understanding what happened -- to block this investigation." McCarthy said the Republicans will conduct their own investigation, although it's unclear how that could happen, since the minority doesn't have the power to set up committees. The House voted in May to create an independent, bipartisan investigation that would have been evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, but Senate Republicans blocked it.


➤OHIO 'INCEL' CHARGED WITH PLOTTING HATE CRIME TO KILL WOMEN IN MASS SHOOTING: A 21-year-old Ohio man described by authorities as an "incel" was arrested Wednesday and charged in federal court with attempting to commit a hate crime to kill women in a mass shooting at sororities at an unnamed Ohio university. Tres Genco was also indicted for unlawful possession of a machine gun. Officials said Genco wrote a manifesto about wanting to kill women, quote, "out of hatred, jealousy and revenge," and hoped to have a "kill count" of 3,000 victims. Genco was part of an online community of incels, according to authorities, a group who have hostility towards women who they believe, quote, "unjustly deny them sexual or romantic attention to which they believe they are entitled." Incel stands for "involuntary celibate."

➤SOME SURFSIDE COLLAPSED CONDO OWNERS WANT TO REBUILT AT SAME SITE: 
The site of last month's collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex in Surfside, Florida, has largely been cleared of the rubble, and 97 victims have been identified. As the recovery period is now drawing to a close, attention is turning to what comes next, and for some condo owners who survived the collapse, they'd like that to be the rebuilding of another condo complex at the same site. 

Some of them were asking for that to happen before a Miami-Dade judge yesterday, among them Yadira Santos, who said, "Why can’t we rebuild where we called home?" But others who lived there are against the idea, with Raysa Rodriguez, for one, saying, "That is a grave site." They spoke as part of a hearing for the many lawsuits that have been filed in the collapse. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman, who's presiding over the cases, has been pushing for the property to be sold to compensate victims and relatives of those who died. Some survivors and relatives of the dead believe the site should be turned into a memorial park or left undeveloped.

➤MORTIFIED MOM ADMITS SHE’S UPSET ABOUT HER DAUGHTER’S NAME:  Sometimes brands can take commonly used names and make them into products—take Amazon’s Alexa, for instance. A mom named Lauren Johnson, from Massachusetts, has started a campaign called Alexa is a Human to highlight issues she says those with the name face. She’s also desperate to change her two-year-old daughter’s name from Alexa to something else. Johnson wrote on Mumsnet, “I’m 100% certain she is going to be picked on, bullied, and teased for being called this.” She added that a child of a friend has already asked if her daughter’s name means he can tell her to sing songs like his Amazon Alexa does. Fellow parents in the group assured the mom that she doesn’t need to change her daughter’s name, with one person noting the technology is bound to change, or that by the time the child is older everyone will already own the tech, and therefore won’t think the jokes are funny anymore.

✔FACT CHECK..ICE CUBES ARE SAFE FOR DOGS, CONTRARY TO ALARMIST SOCIAL MEDIA CLAIMS:  You may have seen a post going around social media claiming that giving your dogs ice cubes or other frozen items in the heat can hurt them. But the American Kennel Club says that is not true. The July 9th Facebook post says, “PLEASE do NOT give your dogs ice cubes or other frozen items in the heat to cool them down! Giving ice cubes to dogs in the heat has the opposite effect of cooling.” The very false post was shared nearly 3,000 times before it was deleted. The warning originated back in 2010, and has circulated online since at least 2014. But veterinarians say that giving dogs ice cubes in moderation is a perfectly acceptable way to cool them down. The experts say you should allow your dog to cool down after they exert a lot of energy and excitement prior to giving them unlimited access to food and water, as if they drink too much water they can develop a dangerous condition called bloat. And giving your dog ice cubes can actually help prevent bloat because they “slow down the rate of ingestion of water by overly excited dogs.”

➤FEDERAL JUDGES BLOCK TWO TRANSGENDER LAWS: Federal judges temporarily blocked two transgender laws yesterday, one in Arkansas that banned gender confirming medical treatments for transgender young people under age 18, and one in West Virginia that banned transgender athletes from competing in women's sports. The Arkansas law barred gender confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers, and sex reassignment surgery for anyone under 18. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody found the plaintiffs were likely to succeed with their challenge of the law, and that allowing it to go into effect would hurt transgender young people currently getting the treatments. In the West Virginia case, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin issued an injunction preventing the state from enforcing its ban in the case of an 11-year-old transgender girl who wanted to run cross country at her middle school. He said it was in the public interest to uphold her constitutional right to not be treated differently than her peers.

➤FIRST LADY STOPS IN ALASKA ON WAY TO TOKYO: First Lady Jill Biden made a stop in Alaska yesterday as she headed to Tokyo, leading a U.S. delegation to the Olympics in her first solo international trip as first lady. Biden will be in Tokyo for about 48 hours after arriving Thursday afternoon, during which time she'll have dinner with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his wife, Mariko Suga. She'll also have a virtual get-together with members of Team USA on Friday before meeting Emperor Naruhito. Biden will also attend the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday evening. She'll cheer on U.S. athletes competing in several events, and host a U.S.-vs.-Mexico softball watch party at the U.S. Embassy for staff and their families.

➤STUDY...INFLUENCERS ARE UNLIKELY TO CHANGE PEOPLE’S BEHAVIOR:  A new study finds that influencers on social media are actually unlikely to change a person’s behavior by example, and might actually be detrimental to the cause. University of Pennsylvania researcher and senior study author Damon Centola explains it’s because when an influencer presents an idea that their followers don’t agree with “they can unintentionally antagonize the people they are seeking to persuade because people typically only follow influencers whose ideas confirm their beliefs about the world.” Basically, if you want to spread gossip, go ahead and get help from an influencer, but if you want to transmit new ways of thinking that challenge an existing set of beliefs, you should be “targeting people in the outer edge or fringe of a network.” Centola adds that the findings “turn our notions about social influence for marketing, sales, and social movements upside down. Not everything spreads through a network in the same way, and we can use this knowledge to pinpoint hotspots in the social graph. This can allow us to accurately tailor our network strategies for effecting positive social change.”  

➤OLDER PEOPLE ARE WORSE AT LEARNING TO SELF-HELP, BUT JUST AS GOOD AT LEARNING TO HELP OTHERS:  Older people are better at learning to help others than they are at learning to help themselves. Researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Oxford found that older people were slow to learn to choose the most advantageous option when their selections would only benefit themselves compared to a group of younger people, but that when making choices on behalf of another person, older folks learned equally as fast as the younger group. Dr. Jo Cutler, lead study author, adds, “We recognize that in general, cognitive processes and learning ability tend to get worse as people get older. So it’s really interesting to see that when making choices that benefit others, older adults’ learning ability is preserved. By better understanding what motivates older people in this way, we can contribute to strategies that promote healthy aging.”


 🏒EXPANSION DRAFT HELD FOR NHL'S SEATTLE KRAKEN: The expansion draft was held yesterday for the Seattle Kraken, the NHL's new franchise, which will began playing next season. The Kraken chose 30 players and didn't announce side deals or trades. Among their picks were goalie Chris Driedger, former Calgary Flames captain Mark Giordano, longtime New York Islanders winger Jordan Eberle, former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Brandon Tanev, veteran defensemen Adam Larsson and Jamie Oleksiak, and Yanni Gourde from the Tampa Bay Lightning, a two-time Stanley Cup champion.

➤DIRECTOR OF TOKYO OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY FIRED OVER 1998 HOLOCAUST JOKE: The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee fired the director of the opening ceremony, Kentaro Kobayashi, because of a Holocaust joke he made during a 1998 comedy show. Kobayashi was accused of using a joke about the Holocaust in his comedy act, including the phrase, "Let's play Holocaust." The dismissal came one day before Friday's opening ceremony. This comes after a composer whose music will be part of the opening ceremony stepped down earlier this week because of his bullying of fellow classmates, including disabled children, when he was a student, which he boasted about in 1990s interviews.

➤TOKYO OLYMPICS RESULTS, DEVELOPMENTS:
  • U.S. Women's Soccer Team Loses to Sweden: The U.S. women's soccer team, which is favored to win the gold medal, stunningly lost to Sweden 3-0 in their first game Wednesday (July 21st). The top-ranked Americans had a 44-match unbeaten streak until the loss. It was Sweden that eliminated the U.S. in the quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
  • U.S. Softball Team 2-0 After Beating Canada: The U.S. softball team is now 2-0 after beating Canada 1-0. Pitcher Monica Abbott threw a one-hitter.
  • U.S. Beach Volleyball Player Crabb Out with Covid: U.S. beach volleyball player Taylor Crabb will not be able to participate in the Olympics after he had four positive Covid-19 tests.
🏀HAWKS CENTER OKONGWU OUT FOR SIX MONTHS AFTER SHOULDER SURGERY: Atlanta Hawks center Onyeka Okongwu will be out for about six months after having surgery yesterday to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. The 20-year-old, who was the sixth overall pick in the 2020 draft, is expected to make a full recovery. Okongwu played 50 regular-season games for the Hawks and averaged just over nine minutes in 18 playoff games.

🏈HALL OF FAME COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH BOWDEN SAYS HAS TERMINAL CONDITION: Hall of Fame college football coach Bobby Bowden announced Wednesday that he's been diagnosed with a terminal medical condition, which he didn't disclose. The 91-year-old said, "I’ve always tried to serve God’s purpose for my life, on and off the field, and I am prepared for what is to come. . . . I am at peace." Bowden had a 315-98-4 record in 34 years at Florida State, winning national titles in 1993 and 1999 and 12 Atlantic Coast Conference championships. He won 357 games overall during his 40 years in college coaching. He retired following the 2009 season.
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