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| Tuesday, October 13, 2020 | |
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| | | | 1. ‘Immune’ Trump Wants to Kiss Rally Crowd “I’ll walk in there, kiss everyone in that audience.” That’s how “immune” and “powerful” President Donald Trump said he felt upon returning to the campaign trail after being hospitalized for COVID-19 11 days earlier. But that would have been a health risk, experts say, for the crowd near Orlando, Florida. Especially considering that a medical journal documented a Nevada man becoming reinfected a month after a negative test — which Trump’s doctor now claims he’s had on consecutive days. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson has stopped inoculating 60,000 trial subjects worldwide while it investigates one participant’s “unexplained illness.” Sources: NBC, Washington Post, The Hill, The Independent |
| 2. Senators Face Off on Barrett Nomination The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Thursday. That’s how certain Republicans are of approving Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Hearings began yesterday despite two members’ COVID-19 infections and Chairman Lindsey Graham’s 2016 vow not to confirm a nominee before an election. Democrats used opening statements to argue that the hastily seated justice would kill Obamacare in the middle of a pandemic. Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor turned federal appeals judge, told senators that courts aren’t designed to “right every wrong” — a responsibility reserved for elected officials, who’ll begin grilling Barrett today. Sources: Fox News, NYT, Newsweek |
| 3. Belarus Warns It Will Shoot Protesters In a potentially deadly escalation amid widespread protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an official said in a video that security forces are authorized to shoot demonstrators. Yesterday unrest continued, with police responding to a march of 2,000 elderly protesters with tear gas and stun grenades. Belarusians are demanding the ouster of Lukashenko, who claimed victory in an August election the U.S., U.K. and European Union won’t recognize. The embattled leader made a surprise visit to detained opposition leaders Sunday, and allowed two, including a software company executive, to leave jail for house arrest. Sources: AFP, VOA, BBC, Moscow Times |
| 4. Despite Flagging Support, GOP Keeps Lid on Stimulus As voters head to the polls or drop off their ballots, they’ll likely do so without another $1,200 stimulus check. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now says talks with the White House are at an impasse, dashing hopes that had energized bullish investors the world over. Budget-conscious Republicans — who’ve complained that the White House’s proposed $1.8 trillion pandemic aid package relies on Democratic support to get through Congress — are partly to blame. But Democrats have rejected that package as too modest, compared to the $2.2 trillion package passed by the House earlier this month. Sources: CNBC, Reuters, The Hill |
| | | 6. OZY on Hulu From a near-death car crash at 17 to surviving sexual assault; from receiving backlash after coming out as queer to accusations of faking mental health disorders, actress Jameela Jamil has endured it all. Discover the unbelievable story of how these setbacks inspired her to become one of the biggest names in activism in a special interview with OZY's Carlos Watson. Watch Defining Moments With OZY: Now streaming on Hulu. |
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| | | | | 1. Facebook to Delete Holocaust Denial Posts They hadn’t already? Amid increasing pressure to combat hateful misinformation, Facebook says it’s banning content that “denies or distorts” the Nazis’ genocide of 6 million Jews and millions of others in the 1940s. While CEO Mark Zuckerberg said two years ago that he found such posts “deeply offensive,” he’s long insisted Facebook shouldn’t be the “arbiter of truth.” But increasing anti-Semitic violence has changed his view, he wrote Monday. Still, the platform cautions that enforcement “cannot happen overnight,” saying it’ll take time to train both people and algorithms to recognize this form of hate. Sources: The Verge, Facebook, ArsTechnica |
| 2. US Auction Theorists Win Economics Nobel Sold! To Stanford University professors Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson — a Nobel prize worth $1.1 million. But how much is the award, which is actually a Nobel memorial prize established by a bank, really worth to the two scholars? That’s the essence of their work: Figuring out how auction sales work, and how to improve them. They designed an auction to sell radio spectrum to wireless companies that earned $120 billion for the Federal Communications Commission. Among their surprising findings was that when bidders know more about rivals’ intentions it boosts the seller’s revenue. Sources: NPR, Reuters |
| 3. Implant Innovation Could Save 10,000 Lives While 1.5 million patients’ lives are improved — even saved — annually by cardiac implants that prompt their hearts to beat more normally, many suffer life-threatening complications. Some 60,000 implant recipients around the world suffer postoperative infections, and a sixth of them die as a result. But now there’s a seemingly simple solution, OZY reports : Envelopes of antibiotics wrapped around the devices have cut infections by 40 percent in thousands of patients in worldwide trials. That’s a huge benefit for many suffering from heart disease, the biggest cause of mortality in the United States. Sources: OZY |
| 4. Actors Hit the (Virtual) Campaign TrailThey want to be in the Zoom where it happens. Lin-Manuel Miranda is reuniting virtually with the original Hamilton cast Friday to help raise funds for Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden. They’re not alone: Cast members of multiple Star Trek series, including OG Lt. Sulu George Takei and two captains, Patrick “Picard” Stewart and Kate “Janeway” Mulgrew, are meeting today to campaign for Biden. Meanwhile, President Trump is again tweeting against his most influential media ally, Fox News, for allowing ads against him, as he pines for its days helmed by the late #MeToo-scandalized Roger Ailes. Sources: Deadline, THR |
| 5. First Paying Fans Attend MLB Game “It definitely got the adrenaline going.” So said Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley of baseball fans’ in-person pandemic debut. He was referring to the cheers from 11,500 spectators as his team scored four runs in the ninth inning to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 last night in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. But it might also quicken the pulse of health authorities who aren’t sold on the safety afforded by masks (which appeared to be worn by about 75 percent of fans) and a limited crowd with pods of four set apart by empty seats. Sources: AP, CBS, ESPN |
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