Friday, July 31st, 2020

Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, a 29-year-old student, is sentenced for nine years in a Russian penal colony for assaulting two police officers while drunk last year in Moscow. Reed’s father told reporters after the verdict he is planning to appeal directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Al Jazeera)

A court in Uganda sentences a poacher who killed a rare gorilla named Rafiki to 11 years in prison. Rafiki, a 25-year-old silverback who was the head of a gorilla group in the southwestern Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, was killed with a spear in early June. (Al Jazeera)

NASA launches Perseverance rover to Mars NASA on Thursday launched its Perseverance rover to Mars on an Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Perseverance will collect soil samples from Mars for return to Earth around 2031, as well as “search for signs of ancient microbial life,” according to NASA. “This is the first time in history where we’re going to go to Mars with an explicit mission to find life on another world — ancient life on Mars,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said. This is the third launch to Mars to take place this summer, with the first two being from China and the United Arab Emirates. Perseverance is expected to land in the Jezero Crater on Mars in February 2021. Source: CNN

Economy dips a record 32.9 percent in Q2 The U.S. GDP fell 9.5 percent in the second quarter from the first, and 32.9 percent year over year, Bureau of Economic Analysis data released Thursday indicates. That’s the sharpest decline the economy has seen since the 1940s, as even though the Great Depression’s economy dipped further, it was spread out over a longer period. The numbers are close to economists’ expectations of a 34.5 percent drop for the quarter. A massive 34.6 percent annualized drop in personal spending is largely to blame for the contraction, as it makes up about two-thirds of GDP determinations. At the same time, though, personal income rose 7.3 percent from Q1 to Q2, likely due to federal stimulus payments, unemployment benefit boosts, and PPP loans to businesses. Source: NBC News

Tropical Storm Isaias is expected to head towards Florida, prompting the state to close their COVID-19 test sites. (CNN)

Tokyo reports 367 new COVID-19 cases. It is the highest jump of new cases since the pandemic began. (Asahi Shimbun)

Japan reports a single day record high of 1,274 new COVID-19 cases. (The Japan Times)

India reports its largest single day record of 52,123 new cases of COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. (Anadolu Agency)

Mainland China reports 105 new COVID-19 cases and 96 of them are in Xinjiang. (Reuters)

Herman Cain dies a month after hospitalization for coronavirus Herman Cain, the businessman turned Republican politician and commentator, died Thursday after contracting COVID-19. He was 74. “We knew when he was first hospitalized with COVID-19 that this was going to be a rough fight,” Dan Calabrese, the editor of Cain’s blog HermainCain.com, wrote in a Thursday morning post. Cain tested positive for COVID-19 after attending President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was hospitalized earlier this month after having trouble breathing. He was considered especially at risk because he had survived cancer in the past. Cain led several food companies before shifting to politics, most notably Godfather’s Pizza. He is best known for his 2012 Republican run for president, where he pushed an ultra-simple “9-9-9” tax plan. Source: HermanCain.com

The End

Thursday,  July 30th, 2020

Ruth Bader Ginsburg ‘resting comfortably’ after non-surgical procedure Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent a non-surgical procedure Wednesday at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and is now resting comfortably, the Supreme Court announced in a statement. The procedure was “minimally invasive” and done to “revise a bile duct stent that was originally place at Sloan Kettering in August 2019,” the court said. “According to her doctors, stent revisions are common occurrences and the procedure, performed using endoscopy and medical imaging guidance, was done to minimize the risk of future infection. The justice is resting comfortably and expects to be released from the hospital by the end of the week.”
 Ginsburg, 87, announced earlier this month that she is battling a recurrence of cancer, and undergoing chemotherapy.  Source: CNN

Pelosi orders lawmakers to wear masks while on House floor House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday announced all lawmakers and their staffers are now required to wear masks while in the House chamber. Pelosi said she wants to see everyone “adhere to this requirement as a sign of respect for the health, safety, and well-being of others present in the chamber and surrounding areas.” It will be a “serious breach of decorum” if a person fails to comply with the order, and they could be removed from the floor. The mandate comes after Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) announced he tested positive for the coronavirus. Gohmert was often seen around the Capitol complex not wearing a mask, and he attended Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General William Barr.  Source: The Washington Post

A masked, umbrella-wielding man accused of helping incite riots and looting in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd is identified. (ABC News)

Archeologists at Stonehenge pinpoint the origin of the structure’s large Sarsen stones to a site 25 kilometers (16 mi) north near Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. (BBC)

Oregon Governor Kate Brown announces that federal agents deployed to Portland, including all Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, will start withdrawing tomorrow, per her conversation with Vice President Mike Pence. (Business Insider)

The Central Bank of Brazil announces that it will start producing 200 reais bills starting in August. (G1)

Japan’s daily new COVID-19 cases topped 1,000 for the first time. (NHK World)

Vietnam repatriates 219 of its citizen from Equatorial Guinea with at least 120 of them reported to be COVID-19 infectees. (VnExpress)

China reports 101 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. This is the highest number of new cases since mid-April, and 89 of them are from Xinjiang. (Reuters)

The number of deaths in Brazil reaches past 90,000. (New Straits Times)

U.S. coronavirus death toll surpasses 150,000 The United States coronavirus death toll surpassed 150,000 Wednesday, data collected by Johns Hopkins University shows. Florida on Wednesday reported 216 new coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, the state’s biggest one-day increase yet. Texas meanwhile added 8,324 new cases on Tuesday and 164 new deaths. It is close to surpassing 400,000 total cases, as California, Florida, and New York already have. Spiking infections, hospitalizations, and deaths across the South and West have prompted states to halt or reverse the reopening of their economies. Federal officials released a report that found 21 states are experiencing outbreaks that put them in the “red zone.” Another 28 states are in the “yellow zone,” while just one, Vermont, qualified for the “green zone.” Source: Orlando Sentinel

Lawmakers accuse tech CEOs of stifling competition Four tech giants — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai — appeared before a House antitrust panel on Wednesday, and faced harsh questioning from Democrats and Republicans alike. The hearing lasted for more than five hours, with the CEOs speaking via video conferencing. The Democrats accused the companies of wielding too much power, while Republicans said they are suppressing conservative views. Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said the platforms “enjoy the power to pick winners and losers, shake down small businesses, and enrich themselves while choking off competitors. Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.” Together, the four tech executives are worth nearly $5 trillion, The New York Times reports. Source: The New York Times

 The End

This Day in History

762 – Baghdad is founded.

1419 – First Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council.

1635 – Eighty Years’ War: The Siege of Schenkenschans begins; Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, begins the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish Army.

1811 – Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, is executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua City, Mexico.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.

1932 – Premiere of Walt Disney‘s Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short.

1945 – World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen. Most die during the following four days, until an aircraft notices the survivors.

1956 – A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto.

1962 – The Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world, is officially opened.

2003 – In Mexico, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.

2012 – A power grid failure in Delhi leaves more than 300 million people without power in northern India.

 

 

Wednesday,  July 29th, 2020

Biden to announce VP pick next week Former Vice President Joe Biden will announce his running mate next week, he said Tuesday. “I’m going to have a choice in the first week in August,” Biden said, promising reporters “I’ll let you know when I do.” Biden has said he will pick a woman as his running mate, and protests over systemic racism in America have raised arguments that he should select a Black woman. Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), both formerly presidential contenders themselves, have gotten a lot of attention as potential vice presidential candidates. Reports also indicate Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms are in serious consideration. Source: Axios

Astronomers at Pan-STARRS announce the discovery of a small near-Earth object (NEO) HLV2514, which is an Amor asteroid near Mars. The asteroid was first discovered in June 2020 by two 14-year-old Indian schoolgirls who were participating in a NASA project. (CNN)

Iran records a record high 235 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. The health ministry urges not to visit Mashhad as the virus infections rose by 300 percent over a one month period. (Al Arabiya)

Osaka and Aichi prefectures post a single day record high of 155 and 110 new COVID-19 cases respectively in the last 24 hours. (The Japan Times)

Major League Baseball postpones the Miami Marlins’s next six games after 17 members of the organization tested positive for COVID-19. (ESPN)

United States Attorney General William Barr defends the Department of Justice’s decision to send security forces to Portland in a congressional testimony. Portland has seen 61 consecutive days of protests, which escalated after federal officers arrived this month. (BBC)

Kodak to use $765 million U.S. government loan to launch new pharmaceuticals arm The Eastman Kodak Company, known for making film and other photography-related products, will receive a $765 million loan from the federal government in order to start producing pharmaceutical ingredients. A new division, Kodak Pharmaceuticals, will focus on manufacturing two types of chemicals used to make generic pills and tablets, creating 350 jobs in Rochester, New York, and St. Paul, Minnesota. In recent years, Kodak has made some materials for pharmaceutical companies, Executive Chairman Jim Continenza told The Washington Post, and the company is “truly doing this to help tighten and fix the supply chain of pharmaceuticals in America.” Kodak has struggled to survive in a world with digital cameras and smart phones, but the company’s stock more than tripled after the loan was announced. Source: The Washington Post

Report: Russia is pushing coronavirus disinformation U.S. intelligence officials have reportedly determined that Russian operatives are spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic on English-language websites directed at American audiences. Russian military intelligence is using a series of websites to amplify false claims the COVID-19 virus was created by the U.S. military, among other propaganda, according to newly declassified intelligence materials. The disinformation campaign is reportedly similar to efforts made by Russia ahead of the 2016 election, but more difficult to stamp out because the websites appear more legitimate than previous bots and fake social media accounts. The operatives appear to be attempting to exploit the pandemic to cause confusion ahead of the presidential election. The trio of websites published about 150 articles between May and early July. Source: The Associated Press

Monday’s regularly scheduled baseball games between the Baltimore Orioles and Miami Marlins, and the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies, are postponed because 14 members of the Marlins traveling party, including 12 players, tested positive for COVID-19. Tuesday’s Orioles-Marlins game is also postponed; the status of the second Yankees-Phillies game will be announced later. Miami just finished a three-game series in Philadelphia this past weekend. Before Sunday’s series finale, Miami learned that four of its players had tested positive and adjusted its lineup accordingly. (WFLA-TV)

The End

 

This Day in History

1148 – The Siege of Damascus ends in a decisive crusader defeat and leads to the disintegration of the Second Crusade.

1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: English naval forces under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France.

1693 – War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen: France wins a Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands.

1818 – French physicist Augustin Fresnel submits his prizewinning “Memoir on the Diffraction of Light”, precisely accounting for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and thereby demolishing the oldest objection to the wave theory of light.

1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.

1932 – Great Depression: In Washington, D.C., troops disperse the last of the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans.

1945 – The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.

1950 – Korean War: After four days, the No Gun Ri Massacre ends when the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment is withdrawn.

1958 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

1965 – Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.

1967 – Vietnam War: Off the coast of North Vietnam terhe USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134.

John McCain was crucially involved with this fire. Little known true fact. The other guy, White, was killed in the “accident.” So, jus sayin. I’m sure it was all a big misunderstanding.

1973 – Greeks vote to abolish the monarchy, beginning the first period of the Metapolitefsi.

1981 – A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Wow, TV really sucked in 1981. So did viewers.