These two maps show the rapid acceleration of Covid-19 cases in the US over a month.
“More than 98% of US residents now live in an area with a ‘high’ or ‘substantial’ risk of Covid-19 community transmission -- a CDC metric that involves case numbers and test positivity rates. A mere month ago, that figure was at only 19%. In some areas, like Cobb County in Georgia, some schools have already had to switch to virtual learning to keep kids safe from rising infections. Experts are hoping to get children vaccinated soon and re-up protection for vulnerable populations, which could turn these worrying trends around. The FDA is expected to announce within days that it is authorizing Covid-19 vaccine booster shots for some people who are immunocompromised. Meanwhile, US intelligence officials tasked with investigating the origins of Covid-19 are nearing the end of their 90-day assignment and have drafted a classified report now under preliminary review.” Read more at CNN
“California became the first state to issue a vaccine mandate for all educators in public and private schools on Wednesday when Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered teachers and school staff members to provide proof of vaccination against Covid-19 or face weekly testing.” Read more at New York Times
“Defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott's ban on mask mandates continued Wednesday as more Texas school districts and communities announced plans to require students to wear face coverings. Dallas, the Houston suburb of Spring, Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth are all now requiring students and staff to wear masks on campuses and other district buildings. Also, The superintendent of Houston's school district, the state's largest, planned to ask his school board to approve a mask mandate during a Thursday meeting. The mandates go against an executive order Abbott repeated last month banning mask mandates by any state, county or local government entity.” Read more at USA Today
“Mississippi has become the latest state to issue an urgent pandemic distress call to the federal government. Public-health official Jim Craig confirmed Wednesday that state leaders have asked the Biden administration to send a U.S. military hospital ship—such as the USNS Comfort—in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the state’s hospital system from falling into a complete collapse. The plea came after the dean of University of Mississippi Medical Center said the facility was treating 127 COVID-19 patients—including 26 children—with 90 percent of patients unvaccinated. Dean LouAnn Woodward warned: “The Mississippi hospital system will fail within the next five to seven or 10 days if the current trajectory continues.” UMMC has reportedly set up a federally staffed field hospital in its parking garage to help with the sudden overflow of COVID patients.” [The Daily Beast] Read it at ABC News
“Criminal organizations and individuals claiming access to Covid-19 vaccines have contacted authorities in dozens of countries hoping they will sign illegitimate contracts for millions of dollars, according to documents and people familiar with the attempts.
Countries whose national, regional or tribal governments were approached include the Netherlands, Latvia, France, Israel, the Czech Republic, Austria, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Canada and Spain, according to the people familiar with the matter.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand, which has completely stamped out the coronavirus, plans to cautiously reopen its borders to international travelers early next year, the government said Thursday.
Officials also said they would delay second shots of the Pfizer vaccine in order to speed up first shots to protect more people as the threat of the delta variant grows.
New Zealand’s success in erasing the coronavirus has allowed life to return almost to normal. The South Pacific nation of 5 million people has reported just 26 deaths since the pandemic began.
That’s been achieved in part by closing borders to those who aren’t residents or citizens.
But many question whether its feasible for New Zealand to maintain a zero-tolerance approach to the virus once international travel resumes.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the government planned to follow the advice of experts and maintain the elimination strategy.” Read more at AP News
“LONDON—The latest surge of Covid-19 cases in the U.K. is giving rise to growing optimism among doctors and scientists that the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus can be held at bay with high levels of vaccination and public caution.
Although caseloads are now ticking higher after Prime Minister Boris Johnsondropped almost all public-health restrictions in mid July, hospital admissions have been falling and deaths are a fraction of the level seen in earlier phases of the pandemic, according to the latest official data through early August.
The U.K. experienced a wave of Delta-driven infections earlier than other Western nations and has achieved broader vaccine coverage than many of its peers, including the U.S., making it a test case for how well the shots can push Covid-19 into the background alongside other common respiratory ailments. The government also publishes significant amounts of data that allow the course of the pandemic to be closely tracked.
Between 90% and 94% of British adults have some degree of immunity to coronavirus from full or partial vaccination, or prior infection, the U.K. statistics office estimates, based on statistical analysis of blood samples. That is almost certainly playing a big role in keeping a lid on cases and ensuring subdued hospital admissions and deaths, say scientists, though school holidays, warm weather and other factors are also pushing against transmission.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“For the first time in the history of the country’s census taking, the number of white people in the United States is widely expected to show a decline when the first racial breakdowns from the 2020 Census are reported this week.
For five years now, the US Census Bureau’s annual updates of the 2010 Census have estimated that the nation’s white population is shrinking, and all population growth has been from people of color.
The new census data, planned for release on Aug. 12, will show definitively how the ethnic, racial, and voting-age makeup of neighborhoods shifted over the past decade, based on the national house-to-house canvass last year. It is the data most state legislatures and local governments use to redraw political districts for the next 10 years.
If the white decline is confirmed by the new data, that benchmark will have come about eight years earlier than previously projected, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.
‘Twenty years ago if you told people this was going to be the case, they wouldn’t have believed you,’ he said, adding that the opioid epidemic and lower-than-anticipated birthrates among millennials after the Great Recession accelerated the white population’s decline. ‘The country is changing dramatically.’
The United States is also expected to have passed two other milestones on its way to becoming a majority-minority society in a few decades: For the first time ever, the portion of white people could dip below 60 percent and the under-18 population is likely to be majority non-white.
In April, 2020 Census state population totals showed the United States grew by just 7.4 percent in the past decade, more slowly than any decade except the 1930s since census-taking started in 1790. The states with the most growth were in the West and the South, which have seen an influx of people moving in from other countries and other states.
Between the comprehensive census counts each decade, the Census Bureau updates population numbers with estimates based on such changes as births, deaths, and immigration. The 2020 Census head count may turn out to show different results, but meanwhile recent estimates are shaping expectations.
Estimates from 2016 to 2020 show that all of the country’s population growth during that period came from increases in people of color. The largest and most steady gains were among Hispanics, who have doubled their population share over the past three decades to almost 20 percent and who are believed to account for half of the nation’s growth since 2010. They are expected to drive about half the growth in more than a dozen states, including Texas, Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Asian people, who made up about 3 percent of the population in 1990, could double that in the 2020 Census, while the Black population’s share is likely to hold steady at around 12.5 percent.
Whites are expected to account for over half the growth in only five states, plus the District of Columbia. In 26 states, the number of whites has declined, according to bureau estimates. Up to six states and the District could have majorities of people of color, including Nevada and Maryland, which — if they pass that marker — will have done so in just the past decade.
The trend is projected to continue, with whites falling below 50 percent nationally around 2045, Frey said, adding that, at that point, there will be no racial majority in the country. Between 2015 and 2060, the Hispanic and Asian populations are expected to approximately double in size, and the multiracial population could triple due to both immigration and births.
The US population is also becoming older than it used to be: In 31 states, the population of people under 18 is estimated to have declined since 2010.
The changes look different in various geographic areas. Some states will remain Whiter and continue to lose population as their residents age and die or move away, while others will grow and become increasingly ethnically and racially diverse.
The shifts signal what Frey calls a ‘cultural generation gap,’ with older generations that are much whiter than younger ones. Racial minorities will drive all the growth in the US labor force as white baby boomers retire and will make the difference between growth and decline in rural and suburban areas. The year 2011 was the first time more non-white babies were born than white babies, and for the past two decades, the growth of the nation’s child population has been due entirely to Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial people.
Their needs will be juxtaposed against — and in some cases seen as competing with — the needs of older generations: for example, public spending on senior services versus schools or English-language classes or job training.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Redistricting season officially kicks off with the release of detailed population data from the U.S. Census Bureau that will be used to redraw voting districts nationwide — potentially helping determine control of the U.S. House in the 2022 elections and providing an electoral edge for the next decade.
The new data being released Thursday will show which counties, cities and neighborhoods gained or lost the most people in the 2020 census. That will serve as the building block to redraw 429 U.S. House districts in 44 states and 7,383 state legislative districts across the U.S. The official goal is to ensure each district has roughly the same number of people.
But many Republicans and Democrats will be operating with another goal — to ensure the new lines divide and combine voters in ways that make it more likely for their party’s candidates to win future elections, a process called gerrymandering. The parties’ successes in that effort could determine whether taxes and spending grow, climate-change polices are approved or access to abortion is expanded or curtailed.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON — Former President Donald J. Trump’s accounting firm must give Congress his tax and other financial records from his time in the White House, and for a longer period about his lease of a government-owned building for a hotel, a judge ruled on Wednesday in a long-running legal fight over a House subpoena.
But in his 53-page opinion, the judge, Amit P. Mehta of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, also ruled that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform was not entitled to other financial records covering years before Mr. Trump took office. The panel had issued a broad request for records dating back to 2011.
‘In the current polarized political climate, it is not difficult to imagine the incentives a Congress would have to threaten or influence a sitting president with a similarly robust subpoena, issued after he leaves office, in order to ‘aggrandize itself at the president’s expense,’ Judge Mehta wrote, citing a Supreme Court ruling last year.
He added, ‘In the court’s view, this not-insignificant risk to the institution of the presidency outweighs the committee’s incremental legislative need for the material subpoenaed’ from the accountants.” Read more at New York Times
“Another major company has been hit by a ransomware attack. Accenture, a global consulting firm, was targeted by a ransomware gang that claims it will publish the company’s encrypted files on the dark web unless it pays up. Other international targets, like a UK rail network and an Indian news organization, have been hit in the past by the same malicious software. The US government has identified ransomware attacks as a critical national and economic security threat amid a string of attacks against corporate and infrastructure targets. In a separate cybercrime, hackers stole about $600 million in cryptocurrency from the decentralized finance platform Poly Network. Some of that money has been returned, but in all, it could be the largest crypto theft in that industry's history.” Read more at CNN
“Things are getting even more expensive across the US as the economy tries to keep pace against the pandemic. Consumer prices rose 4.3% in the year ending in July, and that’s not including the volatile food and energy categories. Food prices are up 3.4% over last year, and meat products have seen a big rise. Gas prices also recently hit seven-year highs. The average price of a gallon was $3.19 as of yesterday morning, AAA said -- a full dollar more than the same time last year. The Biden administration is calling on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies like Russia (together, known as OPEC+) to do more to combat these rising energy prices. The administration is also trying to curtail any illegal activity that may lead to differences in oil prices and prices at the pump.” Read more at CNN
“US intelligence assessments paint a dire picture of Afghanistan’s immediate future, predicting that the country’s capital of Kabul could be cut off by the Taliban in the next 90 days. While there are multiple assessments out there with different conclusions, such a collapse would be a stunning and swift defeat following the two-decade US military campaign in the country. It could also lead to a full collapse of the Afghan government. The Taliban has overrun 10 provincial capitals since Friday, and its rapid gains have led officials to consider more urgent measures, like possibly drawing down more US Embassy personnel. Biden, however, has said his plans for the withdrawal as a whole have not changed.” Read more at CNN
“AUSTIN — The Texas Senate on Thursday approved a bill that contains new voting restrictions after a Democratic senator filibustered for 15 hours to try to stop the legislation, moving it one step closer to being enacted and increasing pressure on Republicans in the House to reestablish a quorum to move the measure forward.
The state Senate voted 18-11 in favor of Senate Bill 1 around 9 a.m. local time, after Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Carol Alvarado left the floor for the first time since 5:50 p.m. on Wednesday — the latest long-shot effort by state Democrats to try to stymie passage of the legislation.
Filibuster rules prevented her from eating, sitting down, leaning on her desk, taking a bathroom break or speaking on subjects unrelated to the legislation.” Read more at Washington Post
“The National Collegiate Athletic Association said Wednesday that an investigation was unable to reach a conclusion as to whether Baylor University violated its rules when it failed to report a string of alleged sexual assaults that took place within the football program from 2011 to 2016.
The NCAA did, however, issue minor penalties related to rules violations it discovered during the course of its investigation. According to the NCAA, Baylor provided impermissible benefits to a football player who was not reported for an academic violation. The NCAA also penalized the school for a former assistant director of football operations who refused to cooperate with the investigation.
The penalties issued by the NCAA include four years of probation and recruiting restrictions for the football program and a five-year show-cause penalty for the former employee.
The verdict comes over five years after a scandal over a series of alleged sex assaults tied to the Baylor football team rocked the university and cost the football coach, the athletic director and the university president their jobs.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Attorneys for the Boys Scouts of America are asking a Delaware judge to approve an $850 million agreement that is the foundation of the group's plan to emerge from bankruptcy. The judge was to begin a hearing Thursday on whether to approve the agreement. But even though this is already one of the largest-ever child sexual abuse cases against a single national organization, plaintiffs' attorney Michael Pfau questioned last month whether the offer is robust enough. ‘The Boy Scouts have disclosed that their local councils have over $1.8 billion in unrestricted net assets,’ Pfau said. In March, USA TODAY estimated the Boy Scouts to be worth over $3.7 billion.” Read more at USA Today
“Tropical Depression Fred will continue to move toward Florida Thursday and could make landfall as early as Friday. The risk of Fred impacting the Sunshine State was increasing as it brought heavy rain and flooding risks to the Caribbean island nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, according to the National Hurricane Center. Fred weakened from a tropical storm to a tropical depression Wednesday, but forecasters said it could become a tropical storm again Thursday as it moved near the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas Fred is the sixth named storm of the 2021 hurricane season and first named storm in August, breaking a month-long lull after Hurricane Elsa formed last month.” Read more at USA Today
“Sen. Rand Paul revealed Wednesday that his wife bought stock in Gilead Sciences — which makes an antiviral drug used to treat covid-19 — on Feb. 26, 2020, before the threat from the coronavirus was fully understood by the public and before it was classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
The disclosure, in a filing with the Senate, came 16 months after the 45-day reporting deadline set forth in the Stock Act, which is designed to combat insider trading.
Experts in corporate and securities law said the investment, and especially the delayed reporting of it, undermined trust in government and raised questions about whether the Kentucky Republican’s family had sought to profit from nonpublic information about the looming health emergency and plans by the U.S. government to combat it. Several senators sold large amounts of stocks in January or February of last year, prompting a handful of insider-trading probes. Most of those investigations concluded in the spring of 2020, according to notifications from the Justice Department to lawmakers under scrutiny.” Read more at Washington Post
“The National Security Agency has quietly awarded a contract worth up to $10 billion to Amazon Web Services, setting off another high-stakes fight among rival tech giants over national security contract dollars.
On July 21 the Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft filed a formal bid protest with the Government Accountability Office, an independent federal agency that handles contract disputes, after Microsoft applied for the opportunity and was rejected. A decision is expected by Oct. 29.
The contract award comes on the heels of a protracted and bitter dispute over a Pentagon contract, also worth up to $10 billion, which was given to Microsoft before getting bogged down in lawsuits and ultimately scrapped. If the NSA can fight through an often bruising bid protest process, the new contract could extend Amazon’s lead in the fast-growing cloud computing market where rivals are gaining on it.” Read more at Washington Post
“‘Pay cuts for remote work will not be received well’: Google employees could face reductions in their salaries if they choose to work from home permanently.” Read more at USA Today
“Major League Baseball and movie lovers alike will have plenty to cheer for Thursday, when the New York Yankees face-off against the Chicago White Sox in Dyersville, Iowa, near the set of the 1989 hit movie ‘Field of Dreams.’ In fact, the two teams will play in an 8,000-seat park adjacent to where the movie was filmed. And just like the film, players will appear from a cornfield — the park is surrounded by about 159 acres of corn about 10 to 12 feet high. In addition to a cinematic environment, the ‘Field of Dreams’ game holds significance in the playoff race. The Yankees are chasing the Boston Red Sox for the final American League Wild Card spot, while the White Sox are less than two games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the best record in the AL.” Read more at USA Today
“The Olympic tradition of chomping down on a medal has, frankly, always looked a little bit weird—but it’s especially strange when you didn’t even win it in the first place. A member of Japan's gold-winning softball team is going to get a replacement medal after the mayor of her hometown caused a public outcry by having a little nibble on her original one. The cringeworthy incident happened last week when the Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura threw a celebration for Miu Goto’s achievement. In an apparent attempt to show off to the gathered photographers, the mayor pulled down his mask and clamped his jaws on to Goto’s medal. The mayor was criticized for his lack of respect—and lack of awareness of a raging infectious pandemic in his country—and Tokyo 2020 organizers confirmed Thursday that Goto will get a new medal, free of any unwelcome teeth marks.” [The Daily Beast] Read more at Reuters
The specimen (pictured) was so well-preserved in permafrost that it's whiskers are still intact. (Love Dalén/Stockhom University's Centre for Palaeogenetics via Twitter)
“The video shows scientists examining a dead lion cub. They take hair samples from the tiny corpse, which looks like it might have died only a few days ago. In fact, it has been deceased for nearly 30 millennia—covered in permafrost in Siberia until recently.
Sparta, as this female cave lion is called, is estimated to be 27,962 years old, according to a study published this month in the journal Quarternary. It may be the most well-preserved specimen ever found—so intact that she still has whiskers, reports Carly Cassella of ScienceAlert. Sparta was likely one or two months old at the time of death.” Read more at Smithsonian
““Jeopardy!” will have two hosts: Mike Richards, its executive producer, and Mayim Bialik, the actress and neuroscientist.” Read more at New York Times
“Wisconsin will allow hunters to kill 300 wolves, more than double the maximum state biologists recommended.” Read more at New York Times
“Dolly Parton and James Patterson are writing a novel together.” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: The Bread and Puppet Theater, known for its countercultural messaging, is dedicated to two types of art. Its matriarch, Elka Schumann, died at 85.” Read more at New York Times