The Full Belmonte, 1/11/2022
“A 57-year-old man with life-threatening heart disease has received a heart from a genetically modified pig, a groundbreaking procedure that offers hope to hundreds of thousands of patients with failing organs.
It is the first successful transplant of a pig’s heart into a human being. The eight-hour operation took place in Baltimore on Friday, and the patient, David Bennett Sr. of Maryland, was doing well on Monday, according to surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
‘It creates the pulse, it creates the pressure, it is his heart,’ said Dr. Bartley Griffith, the director of the cardiac transplant program at the medical center, who performed the operation.
‘It’s working and it looks normal. We are thrilled, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us. This has never been done before.’
Last year, some 41,354 Americans received a transplanted organ, more than half of them receiving kidneys, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit that coordinates the nation’s organ procurement efforts.
But there is an acute shortage of organs, and about a dozen people on the lists die each day. Some 3,817 Americans received human donor hearts last year as replacements, more than ever before, but the potential demand is still higher.
Scientists have worked feverishly to develop pigs whose organs would not be rejected by the human body, research accelerated in the past decade by new gene editing and cloning technologies. The heart transplant comes just months after surgeons in New York successfully attached the kidney of a genetically engineered pig to a brain-dead person.
Researchers hope procedures like this will usher in a new era in medicine in the future when replacement organs are no longer in short supply for the more than half a million Americans who are waiting for kidneys and other organs.” Read more at New York Times
“INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Confetti rained down on Georgia. The Bulldogs fans chanted ‘Kir-by, Kir-by!’
Four decades of pent-up emotion were unleashed Monday night as the Bulldogs snapped a frustrating national championship drought by vanquishing their nemesis.
Stetson Bennett delivered the biggest throws of his storybook career and Georgia’s defense sealed the sweetest victory in program history, beating Alabama 33-18 in the College Football Playoff for its first title in 41 years.
‘I’ve never been around a group of players that really wanted it so bad and wouldn’t be denied,’ Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. ‘I told the guys in the locker room, just take a picture of this.’
Smart, a Bulldogs defensive back in the mid-1990s, returned to his alma mater in 2016 after helping Nick Saban build a dynasty as an assistant at Alabama.
Georgia has become an elite program under Smart, but has not been able to chase down its Southeastern Conference rival.
Until now.
‘This was for all the glory, we took it,’ defensive tackle Jordan Davis said.
And they did it the way Alabama has broken their hearts so many times in recent years: Coming from behind and finishing with a flourish.
Bennett connected with Adonai Mitchell on a 40-yard touchdown to give No. 3 Georgia a 19-18 lead with 8:09 left and then hooked up with Brock Bowers for a 15-yard TD on a screen to put the Bulldogs up eight with with 3:33 left.
The final blow came from Georgia’s dominant defense. Kelee Ringo intercepted an underthrown deep ball down the sideline by Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young.
‘I just saw the ball in his hands and that was all she wrote,’ said safety Lewis Cine, the game’s defensive MVP.
With just over a minute left, Ringo took off behind a convoy of blockers and went 79 yards, Smart chasing and yelling at him to go down so he wouldn’t risk a fumble. The touchdown set off a wild celebration by the relieved Georgia fans who packed Lucas Oil Stadium.
‘There’s going to be some property torn up in Indianapolis tonight,’ Smart said, paraphrasing the late Georgia play-by-play man Larry Munson.” Read more at AP News
“The spread of the Omicron variant is putting a strain on health care networks across the US as hospitalizations reach a level not seen since last winter. More than 141,000 Americans were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of yesterday, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Separately, the agency announced that health insurers must cover the cost of home Covid-19 tests starting January 15. That means most people with private health insurance can buy at-home tests online or in stores and have them paid for at the time of purchase, or get reimbursed by submitting a claim to their insurer.” Read more at CNN
“Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Rochelle Walensky and others will testify before a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday about the federal response to COVID-19 variants . The U.S. is now averaging more than 700,000 new coronavirus cases per day, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows, as the more transmissible omicron variant sweeps across the nation. President Joe Biden has faced recent criticism for a shortage of at-home rapid tests and the administration is now working to make the tests more accessible. Later this month, the federal government will launch a website to begin making 500 million at-home COVID-19 tests available via mail. And starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month for people on their plans.” Read more at USA Today
“MOSCOW — The United States and Russia remained deadlocked after crisis talks on Monday over Moscow’s desire to block any future NATO expansion to the east, but officials agreed to continue discussions on other high-stakes security issues that the Biden administrations hopes can avert another invasion of Ukraine.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said her team of negotiators put forward suggestions related to the scope of American military exercises and the placement of U.S. missiles in Europe, cautioning that the bilateral discussion in Geneva, the first of a series of discussions this week on Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine, was only the start to a potentially lengthy process.” Read more at Washington Post
“President Joe Biden will issue an urgent call to protect the constitutional right to vote and safeguard the integrity of the nation’s elections while in Atlanta Tuesday. Biden's planned remarks, on the heels of his blunt post-mortem on the Jan. 6 2021 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, will come as he braces for a bruising fight over voting rights legislation that has stalled in the Senate. Biden's choice of Georgia for a major voting rights address is no accident. The state has a rich history entwined with the struggle for civil rights – one that activists warn is under assault. After Biden beat former President Donald Trump in Georgia by less than 12,000 votes in 2020, the state became one of the first to put in place more restrictive voting laws.” Read more at USA Today
“WASHINGTON—Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) issued a pre-emptive threat to Senate Democrats considering an overhaul of the chamber’s longstanding filibuster rule, detailing a plan to force tough votes on GOP-sponsored bills if Democrats make even modest changes.
Those votes would include contentious subjects such as blocking vaccines mandates or stopping fracking bans, his office said. Aides familiar with Mr. McConnell’s thinking say the threat is intended to cause heartburn for Democrats as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) tries to unify his caucus ahead of possible votes to amend or abolish the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold in the next week.
‘Since Sen. Schumer is hellbent on trying to break the Senate, Republicans will show how this reckless action would have immediate consequences,’ the Senate minority leader said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Schumer responded by making an offer to Mr. McConnell shortly before the Senate adjourned Monday night: If all 50 Republicans agreed, the Senate would hold up-or-down votes at a majority threshold on each of Mr. McConnell’s 18 Republican bills, as well as Democrats’ two election-related bills.
‘The Minority Leader seems to want to place a bunch of gotcha bills on the legislative calendar that he thinks would be tough votes for Democrats to take as some kind of payback for pursuing legislation to protect the sacred right to vote,’ Mr. Schumer said. ‘Well, we Democrats aren’t afraid of these votes.’
Mr. Schumer asked for unanimous consent for the deal. Mr. McConnell objected.
With the House and White House under Democratic control, any Democratic bills that passed the Senate under such a deal likely would make it to President Biden’s desk for his signature. The Republican bills, even if they passed, would be unlikely to become law.
A growing number of Democrats say they need to eliminate or change the filibuster to pass federal elections legislation, which they call the party’s top priority, and Mr. Biden plans a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday on voting rights. In the past year, Senate Republicans have blocked Democrats from opening debate on elections legislation, a filibuster technique routinely employed by both parties when they are in the minority.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says he will remove several Democratic lawmakers from key committee assignments if Republicans win back the House in this year’s midterm elections. McCarthy told Breitbart he would strip Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of their assignments on the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Ilhan Omar of her assignment on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. McCarthy said he would do so because of a ‘new standard’ set by Democrats, who elected to remove GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar from their committees last year. Gosar was censured for posting a photoshopped anime video to social media showing him appearing to kill Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joe Biden. Greene was stripped of her assignments because of a long history of incendiary and racist rhetoric.” Read more at CNN
“Chicago teachers will be back in school today and students are scheduled to return to in-person learning on tomorrow after the Chicago Teachers Union house of delegates voted to end the teachers' work action over Covid-19 mitigation measures. More than 340,000 students in the country's third-largest school system had missed four days of classes since teachers voted to teach remotely, citing unsafe conditions and inadequate staffing. The school district responded by canceling classes. The Chicago Teachers Union said late yesterday that it expects to open polls today for rank-and-file members to vote on the agreement.” Read more at CNN
“Treasury Department officials on Monday said that the Internal Revenue Service will face ‘enormous challenges’ during this year’s tax filing season, warning of delays to refunds and other taxpayer services.
In a phone call with reporters, Treasury officials predicted a ‘frustrating season’ for taxpayers and tax preparers as a result of delays caused by the pandemic, years of budget cuts to the IRS, and the federal stimulus measures that have added to the tax agency’s workload.
Typically, IRS officials enter filing season with an unaddressed backlog of roughly 1 million returns. This year, however, the IRS will enter the filing season facing ‘several times’ that, Treasury officials said, although they declined to give a more precise estimate. The IRS website says that as of Dec. 23, 2021, it still had 6 million unprocessed individual returns, and as of the start of this month it still had more than 2 million unprocessed amended tax returns, a separate category.” Read more at Washington Post
“NEW YORK — Cleanup crews in white suits cleared debris and trash Monday from the high-rise Bronx apartment building where choking smoke from an accidental blaze a day earlier killed 17 people, including eight children.
Authorities had initially put the death toll at 19. But Mayor Eric Adams, calling the tragedy at the Twin Parks North West complex an "evolving crisis," updated the death toll at a news conference Monday.
‘There was a bit of a double count,’ Fire Department of New York Commissioner Daniel Nigro explained. However, dozens of people remained hospitalized from the nation's most deadly apartment fire in almost 40 years. Thirteen survivors were in critical condition, and Nigro warned the death toll could rise.
Adams, who described the blaze as one of the ‘worst fires in modern times,’ ordered flags to remain at half staff until sunset Wednesday in remembrance of the victims.” Read more at USA Today
“Refugee admissions to the US will restart this week after a temporary freezeput in place last year to focus on the resettlement of Afghan evacuees following the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. About 55,000 Afghans have been resettled nationwide and around 20,500 people remain at domestic military bases as of January 6 — an influx that taxed an already-overwhelmed resettlement system. In recent months, refugee advocates and resettlement offices have been able to recoup low staff numbers and bolster volunteers to process more people. Now, refugees from around the world who have already undergone processing and checks will once again be allowed to come to the US. As of November 30, more than 2,000 refugees had been resettled in the US in the new fiscal year. The refugee cap for fiscal year 2022 is 125,000.” Read more at CNN
“CHICAGO — Dominick Black, a friend of Kyle Rittenhouse who faced two felony charges for buying a rifle used by Mr. Rittenhouse, has agreed to plead no contest to lesser charges in a deal announced in a Wisconsin courtroom on Monday.
Mr. Black, 20, bought an AR-15-style rifle in May 2020 for Mr. Rittenhouse, who was then 17 and too young to buy the gun legally. Mr. Rittenhouse used the rifle when he killed two people and wounded a third during an altercation amid protests in Kenosha, Wis. Mr. Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of homicide and other charges after a trial in November, testified that he was acting in self-defense when he fired the weapon.
Mr. Black, who was a witness for the prosecution in Mr. Rittenhouse’s widely followed homicide trial, was initially charged with two counts of intent to sell a dangerous weapon to a minor, a felony. Under the agreement made public on Monday, Mr. Black agreed to plead no contest to a noncriminal county ordinance violation of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, his lawyer, Anthony Cotton, said during a brief hearing.
In the Kenosha courtroom where Mr. Rittenhouse’s trial took place, Judge Bruce Schroeder of Kenosha County Circuit Court accepted the plea agreement and imposed a fine of $2,000.” Read more at New York Times
“Sixteen major U.S. universities are facing a federal antitrust lawsuit over how they work together to calculate financial aid. They’re allowed to collaborate, but only if they don’t weigh financial need during the admissions process. More than 170,000 former undergrads who got partial financial aid at those schools—including Yale University, the University of Chicago and Duke University—over the past 18 years could be eligible to join the suit as plaintiffs, according to lawyers.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a wave of public and political outrage on Tuesday over allegations that he and his staff flouted coronavirus lockdown rules by holding a garden party in 2020 while Britons were barred by law from mingling outside the home.
Opposition politicians called for a police investigation after broadcaster ITV published a leaked email invitation to ‘socially distanced drinks’ in the garden of the prime minister’s Downing Street office and residence in May 2020. The email from the prime minister’s private secretary, Martin Reynolds, was sent to dozens of people and urged attendees to ‘bring your own booze.’
The event was scheduled for May 20, 2020 — the same day the government at a televised news conference reminded people they could only meet up with one person outside their household. London’s Metropolitan Police force also published reminders about the rules that day.” Read more at AP News
“Internet service for athletes at the Winter Olympics in Beijing next month will be fraught with risk and even surveillance, despite China's promise of free access to social media and other websites.
Why it matters: China's plan for temporarily opening its ‘great firewall’ appears aimed at boosting its global reputation ahead of the Games, not championing an open internet.
Experts expect heavy tracking of online activity, even for visitors who are allowed to access sites that are otherwise blocked, Axios' Ashley Gold, Ina Fried and Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian report.
How it works: Chinese authorities say Olympic participants and foreign media will have uncensored Internet access through special SIM cards.
The U.S. Olympic committee is warning athletes and officials: ‘[I]t should be assumed that all data and communications in China can be monitored, compromised or blocked.’
Chinese athletes post at their peril: Authorities have arrested dozens of Chinese citizens for content they posted on foreign social media.
What to watch: ‘Even though they allow access to social media, I don't think any athlete is going to tweet out something about Hong Kong or Taiwan,’ said Victor Cha, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
‘They will work with the IOC to clamp down on any athletes that do say anything,’ Cha said.
The bottom line: Security experts recommend athletes use a different phone from their usual one, and SIM cards not provided by China.” Read more at Axios
“North Korea has launched a suspected ballistic missile that was more advanced than the missile tested last week. The projectile fired from Pyongyang travelled more than 10 times the speed of sound and landed in the ocean between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Although the test posed no threat to US or South Korean territory or military personnel, US Forces Korea said they are becoming increasingly alarmed by Kim Jong Un’s unstable military environment and weapons program. The South Korean government also expressed a ‘strong regret’ over the launch, which breaks international law prohibiting Pyongyang from testing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.” Read more at CNN
Uganda schools reopen, ending the world's longest Covid-19 shutdown
“Uganda’s schools reopened on Monday, ending the world’s longest pandemic-related school closures.” [Vox] Read more at NYT / Musinguzi Blanshe and Abdi Latif Dahir
“Partial and full lockdowns have been in effect for 83 weeks, disrupting the education of more than 10 million students. Schools briefly reopened in February 2021, but closed again amid a surge in June.” [Vox] Read more at AP /Rodney Muhumuza
“But not all students will return. According to local authorities, at least 30 percent of students may never return to the classroom, having entered the workforce or started families early.” [Vox] Read more at Al Jazeera
“It’s not just schools. Once home to some of the continent’s strictest anti-Covid measures, Uganda is now moving to fully reopen its economy despite a surge in cases due to the omicron variant.” [Vox] Read more at BBC / Patience Atuhaire
“Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is again infected with Covid-19 after being sick with the virus a little under a year ago, as infections sweep the country.” Read more at Bloomberg
“PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — After Haiti’s president was assassinated and the country slid into turmoil, Ariel Henry became head of the government, responsible for bringing the killers to justice and helping the country heal.
But new evidence suggests that Mr. Henry maintained communications with a prime suspect in the case — and that the two stayed in close contact even after the murder.
The evidence against Mr. Henry centers on his connection to Joseph Felix Badio, a former justice ministry official wanted by the Haitian authorities on suspicion of organizing the July 7 attack that killed President Jovenel Moïse and left the country in crisis.
Phone records seen by The New York Times, as well as interviews with Haitian officials and a principal suspect in the crime, reveal potentially incriminating details about the two men’s relationship. Among them: Mr. Badio spoke to Mr. Henry before the killing and afterward, including in two calls for a total of seven minutes the morning after the assassination.
Then, when Mr. Badio was wanted by the police, he visited Mr. Henry, according to two Haitian officials with knowledge of the investigation.
Four months after the assassination, the officials said, Mr. Badio went to Mr. Henry’s official residence twice — both times at night — and was able to walk in unimpeded by the prime minister’s security guards, despite being on the run from the police.
It is unclear whether Mr. Henry, who is now the country’s prime minister, did anything to help the suspects, most of whom were eventually captured or killed by police. A spokesperson for Mr. Henry said that, despite the phone records, he did not speak to Mr. Badio after the assassination and that he has no relationship with the suspect. Mr. Badio was unreachable for comment.” Read more at New York Times
“LOS ANGELES (AP) — Betty White died from a stroke she had six days before her Dec. 31 death at age 99, according to her death certificate.
The beloved ‘Golden Girls’ and ‘Mary Tyler Moore Show’ actor died at her home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles as the result of a Dec. 25 cerebrovascular accident, the medical term for a stroke, according to the LA County death certificate obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
The cause was provided by White’s doctor, as is typical in such cases.
She was cremated and her remains were given Friday to Glenn Kaplan, the man in charge of White’s advanced health care directive.
Jeff Witjas, White’s longtime agent and friend, who first confirmed her death to the AP, said she had been staying close to her Los Angeles home during the pandemic.” Read more at AP News
“Gaming mega-merger: Take-Two Interactive, publisher of Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K, bought Zynga for $12.7 billion. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
“U.S. Olympic pairs skater Timothy LeDuc, set to become the first openly non-binary athlete to compete at a Winter Olympics, called Chinese human rights abuses toward Uyghur Muslims ‘horrifying.’” Read more at Axios
“Clay Aiken, the North Carolina teacher and former contestant on ‘American Idol,’ is making a second bid for a seat in Congress.” Read more at USA Today
“Maya Angelou coins distributed by the U.S. Mint make her the first Black woman to appear on quarters.” Read more at USA Today
“Former President Trump said he'll never endorse Sen. Mike Rounds after the South Dakota Republican defended the integrity of the 2020 election.” Read more at Axios
“Robert A. Durst, the scion of a New York real estate dynasty whose life dissolved in a calamity of suspicions over the unsolved disappearance of his first wife, the execution-style murder of a longtime confidante and the killing and dismemberment of an elderly neighbor, died early Monday as a prisoner in Stockton, Calif. He was 78.
His lawyer Chip Lewis confirmed his death, at the San Joaquin General Hospital, where Mr. Durst had been taken for testing. He then went into cardiac arrest and could not be revived, Mr. Lewis said. Mr. Durst had been serving a life sentence at the California Health Care Facility in the killing of his longtime confidante Susan Berman.
He was convicted of the murder last September and shortly afterward tested positive for Covid-19 and was briefly put on a ventilator. Mr. Lewis said the virus had worsened a host of already existing medical problems.
In a story made for supermarket tabloids, Mr. Durst, a small, rail-thin man, was a cross-dressing fugitive from justice with $100 million in assets. On the run, he became a vagrant urinating in public, sometimes disguising himself as a mute woman. He beat his wife and forced her to have an abortion; beheaded a man he had killed as he sat in a pool of blood, and once wrote a ‘cadaver note,’ telling the Los Angeles police where to find a woman who had been shot in the head. Distraught and alone in a bathroom, he unwittingly confessed to all the killings on a live recording used in a 2015 HBO mini-series about himself.” Read more at New York Times
“(Not much) sex in the city
And just like that, nobody’s having sex any more. Middle-aged people aren’t having much. Young people aren’t having much. Japanese people aren’t having much. Nor are Brits or Australians or Americans. Over the past decade a number of studies have found a significant decline in sexual activity around the world, the latest example of this being a recent US-focused study showing declines from 2009 to 2018 in all forms of partnered sexual activity and a decline in adolescent masturbation. The researchers, by the way, looked at self-reported information from government surveys among people 14-49 years old; it’s possible that it’s a very different story when it comes to the over-50s.
So what’s going on with young and youngish people these days? Why is sexual activity declining? While the study didn’t go into possible underlying factors in much detail – nor did it look at the effects of the pandemic – two of its authors, Debby Herbenic and Tsung-chieh (Jane) Fu, recently shared their hypotheses with Scientific American. The (very technical) summation of the conversation is that a bunch of factors are probably at play. There’s increasing social media and video game use, of course. A decrease in alcohol use could be another factor. Perhaps most interesting and worrying, however, is the researchers’ hypothesis that the mainstreaming of extremely rough sex could be putting a generation of young people off sex altogether.” Read more at The Guardian
“Lives Lived: Don Maynard teamed with quarterback Joe Namath in a passing attack that took the New York Jets to an upset victory in Super Bowl III. Maynard died at 86.” Read more at New York Times
“An autopsy was performed Monday morning on Bob Saget, according to a statement from the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office.
There is no evidence of drug use or foul play in the death of Saget, who was found dead in an Orlando hotel room Sunday, according to the statement released by the medical examiner’s office.
‘The cause and manner of death are pending further studies and investigation which may take up to 10-12 weeks to complete,’ he added.” [CNN]
“Abstract geometric designs at Big Bend National Park in Texas that had survived for thousands of years were ‘irreparably damaged’ by vandals who scratched names and dates into the prehistoric designs, the National Park Service said.
The Park Service said on its website that the ancient rock art was damaged on Dec. 26 in the Indian Head area of the park, which encompasses more than 800,000 acres in southwest Texas and stretches along 118 miles of the United States border with Mexico.
Since 2015, archaeologists at the park have documented more than 50 instances of vandalism, the Park Service said.
Damaging park resources is against federal law and defacing rock art and ancient cultural sites violates the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, which aims to protect archaeological resources and sites on federal and Native American lands.” Read more at New York Times
“A snowy owl touring iconic buildings of the nation's capital is captivating birdwatchers who manage to get a glimpse of the rare, resplendent visitor from the Arctic, AP's Christina Larson reports.
Above, the football-sized bird looks down from its perch atop the stone orb of the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain at the entrance to Union Station in Washington.
The owl, far from its summer breeding grounds in Canada, was first seen Jan. 3, when a storm dumped eight inches of snow.
It's been spotted in the evenings flying around Washington's Capitol Hill neighborhood, and landing at Union Station, the National Postal Museum, various Senate buildings, and Capitol Police HQ.
Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP
The nocturnal hunter appears to be targeting the city's plentiful downtown rat population.” Read more at Axios