Monday, July 13th, 2020

For the 1st time in months, New York City reports zero coronavirus deaths On Sunday, for the first time in four months, New York City reported its first day with zero confirmed or probable coronavirus deaths. New York City was hit hard during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic — its first COVID-19 fatality was reported on March 11, and on April 7, the city hit its peak with 597 deaths. Overall, New York City has recorded 18,670 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 4,613 probable ones. “New Yorkers have been the hero of this story, going above and beyond to keep each other safe,” Avery Cohen, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, told Bloomberg in an email. Last Monday, New York City entered Phase 3 of its reopening plan, allowing nail salons and tanning facilities to reopen but postponing the start of indoor dining. Source: Bloomberg

Florida reports record 15,000 new coronavirus cases Florida on Sunday reported more than 15,000 new coronavirus cases, shattering its previous record of 11,336 set on Thursday. If Florida were a country only the United States, Brazil, and India would have recorded more new infections over that same span, Reuters reports. No European country recorded a daily number that high during the height of the pandemic there, while Florida also broke New York state’s previous record of 12,847 new cases on April 10 when it was the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States. The positivity rate did drop slightly in Florida thanks to an increase in testing even though the number of positive results increased. Source: Reuters

U.S. military officials report 61 cases of COVID-19 at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and Camp Hansen. Governor of Okinawa Prefecture Denny Tamaki said late on Saturday that “Okinawans are shocked by what we were told”, and demanded more action from the U.S. military which has since put the two bases under lockdown. (AP News)

The death toll in Mexico rose above 35,000, surpassing Italy. (Reuters)

Amid a series of reforms, Sudan bans female genital mutilation, decriminalizes apostasy, ends public flogging and lifts a 36-year ban on the consumption of alcohol for non-Muslims, according to Justice Minister Nasreldin Abdelbari. (BBC)

China releases law professor Xu Zhangrun, who had criticized President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, from detention. (Reuters)

New poll shows Biden with a 5-point lead over Trump in Texas A survey conducted by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler has former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, leading President Trump by five points. UT-Tyler political scientist Kenneth Bryant Jr. described the jump as a result of Trump losing with independents and “weak partisans.” A CBS News poll conducted by YouGov indicated the loss of support likely has to do with how voters feel about Trump’s coronavirus response. In the CBS Poll, Trump holds a one-point advantage over Biden in Texas, but shows the former vice president is in the race there, as well as two other key Sun Belt states: Florida and Arizona. All three states are struggling with coronavirus surges, and the results show 69 percent of Arizonans, 65 percent of Floridians, and 62 percent of Texans think efforts to contain the virus are going poorly. Source:  CBS News

 

 

Sunday,  July 12th, 2020

Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom reopens at Walt Disney World with new safety guidelines despite rising cases in Florida. Masks are expected to be mandatory and capacity is expected to be limited. (CNBC)

The Karnataka government announces that Bengaluru will be on lockdown from July 14 to July 22. (Gulf News)

The COVID-19 hospitalizations and average three-day death toll in New York reaches lower levels for the first time since March. (CBS News)

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards issues a executive order requiring people to wear face masks in public. (Axios)

Two Texas police officers are fatally shot in McAllen, Texas. (The Hill)

Serbians protest for a fourth consecutive day; the protest initially started out against the government COVID-19 measures but would morph into anti-government protests. 71 people are arrested. (DW News)

The End

587 BC – Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem ends following the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.

1573 – Eighty Years’ War: The Siege of Haarlem ends after seven months.

1956 – The Dartmouth workshop is the first conference on artificial intelligence.

1977 – Somalia declares war on Ethiopia, starting the Ogaden War.

1977 – New York City: Amidst a period of financial and social turmoil experiences an electrical blackout lasting nearly 24 hours that leads to widespread fires and looting.

 

State of the nation
Why we are entering a new age of disorder.
by John Gray
July 2020

How pandemics extinguished the Roman empire
What the fall of Rome teaches us about the twin threats of lethal disease and ecological disaster.
by John Gray
June 2020

Sunday,  July 12th, 2020 

Authorities in Kazakhstan deny a report published by Chinese officials alleging that the country is experiencing an outbreak of “unknown pneumonia” potentially deadlier than COVID-19. (CNN)

China and Russia veto a United Nations Security Council resolution to extend humanitarian aid to Syria via Turkey for the next six months. (NBC News)

New coronavirus cases hit 7th record in 11 days Authorities across the United States reported another day of record new coronavirus infections Friday, marking the seventh new high in 11 days. A New York Times tally showed the number of new infections on Friday crossed 68,000, while NBC News reports the new cases surpassed 70,000 for the first time in a 24-hour period. Johns Hopkins University recorded nearly 64,000. The figures vary, but all three are higher than Thursday’s previous record. At least six states — Georgia, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Utah — set single-day highs, while others like California, Florida, and Texas continued to surge. Florida for the first time released county-by-county hospitalization data. Nearly 7,000 patients have been hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state, a plurality of whom are in Miami-Dade County, which on Friday reported the positivity rate among people getting tested for the virus was 28 percent. Source:  The Orlando Sentinel

Hong Kong opposition holds primary elections despite government warnings Hong Kong’s opposition parties on Saturday set up polling booths across the city for primary elections in the hopes of selecting pro-democracy candidates who stand a chance of success in Legislative Council elections in September. The decision to move forward with the elections comes in the wake of a new national security law passed by China that severely limits Hong Kong’s autonomy. It’s unclear if how many, if any, pro-democracy candidates will be allowed to run in the September elections, as government officials warned that those “organizing, planning, and participating” in the primary might breach the law, which targets people who commit what the government deems offenses of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces. Still, activists like Joshua Wong said they were determined to go through with the voting “to let Beijing know Hong Kongers never bow down to China.” Source:  Reuters

The End

 

 

https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/06/22/mass-lowest-covid-transmission-rat

 

Saturday,  July 11th, 2020

The bus driver who was left brain-dead after being attacked by passengers who refused to wear face masks in Bayonne, France, dies of his severe injuries. (BBC)

Remdesivir significantly reduces risk of COVID-19 death, Gilead claims Data shows the drug remdesivir significantly reduced the risk of death in severely sick COVID-19 patients, biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences announced Friday. Remdesivir reduced the risk of death by 62 percent when compared to normal care, but Gilead noted this is an “important finding that requires confirmation in prospective clinical trials.” Shares of Gilead rose close to three percent before the market opened upon the news. Gilead developed remdesivir as a potential treatment for Ebola and has been testing it on coronavirus patients for months. Late last month, Gilead said each dose of remdesivir will cost $520, totaling more than $3,000 over the course of a typical coronavirus treatment. The Trump administration has since bought up Gilead’s remdesivir supply. Source: CNBC

New coronavirus cases hit 6th record in 10 days Authorities across the United States reported another day of record new coronavirus infections on Thursday, marking the sixth new high in 10 days. The surge of about 60,000 new cases was driven by spiking infections across the South and the West, mostly in states that eased lockdowns and reopened their economies early after the first spike in the spring. At least six states — Alabama, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, and Texas — reported single-day infection records. At least two states saw their biggest death toll increases yet, with Florida reporting 120 deaths and Tennessee 22. Hospitalizations rose sharply in some areas, too, forcing many hospitals across the South and West to open up beds by canceling elective surgeries and discharging patients early. Source: The New York Times

Dame Vera Lynn, who died last month, receives a military funeral in East Sussex, England. (BBC)

 

Governor of Khabarovsk Krai Sergey Furgal is arrested by Russian police over a series of murders of several businessmen in 2004 and 2005 in his region, according to the Investigative Committee of Russia. (Sky News)

Park Won-soon, the Mayor of Seoul, is found dead after being declared missing earlier the same day. (Yonhap News Agency)

The End

 

This Day in History:

472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in St. Peter’s Basilica and put to death.

1346 – Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans.

1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time.

1616 – Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec.

1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979.

1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.

1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto.

1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball.

1914 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is launched.

1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People’s Republic.

1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices.

1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.

1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission.

1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.

1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.

1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris, France on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories.

1979 – America’s first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia killing all 261 passengers and crew on board.

2006 – Mumbai train bombings: Two hundred nine people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India.