Vaxx To The Drawing Board
July 29, 2021
The Good News
- She was forbidden as a young woman from trying on her dream wedding gown because she’s Black. Now, at 94, she finally did it. (WaPo, $)
- A birthday gift: Israeli woman donates kidney to Gaza boy (AP)
“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” — Mahatma Gandhi
Putting Congress To The Test-imony
On Tuesday morning, the committee established to investigate the events surrounding the January 6th insurrection held their first hearings. Four police officers gave their testimony on what happened — two members of the Capitol Police, Officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and two members of the D.C. Metropolitan Police, Officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges. For three hours, the officers recounted their experiences on January 6th in harrowing detail, accompanied by previously-unseen video footage.
The committee is planning to investigate all of the circumstances surrounding the insurrection, including the extent to which former President Donald Trump had an influence on the riot. Despite Trump’s key role in the investigation overall, he was not mentioned much throughout the hearing. Instead, the officers focused on what they saw and experienced amongst the crowd, and the stories were unsettling, to say the least.
Fanone described the threats to “kill him with his own gun,” and how he was tased with his own weapon until he passed out. Hughes, who referred to the rioters as “terrorists” throughout his testimony, described a moment where someone tried to gouge out his eye. Dunn and Gonell both described the racism they faced, with Dunn explaining how racist slurs were hurled at him and Gonell was told he “isn’t even an American,” despite Gonell being an American and also a veteran. Gonell also said that the riot was scarier to him than being in Iraq. He went home and couldn’t hug his wife and son, because he was covered in chemicals that had been sprayed at him and his fellow officers.
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the lone Republicans on the committee, were the other main focuses of the day. Senate Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, after nominating five Republicans for committee and then pulling them when Nancy Pelosi vetoed two of them, called Kinzinger and Cheney “Pelosi Republicans.” House Republicans referred to the hearing as a “political charade” and a “sham.” After the hearing, many of them listed excuses for why they were unable to watch it.
Elise Stefanik, who got her third-highest ranking in the Republican Party after Liz Cheney was removed due to her criticism of former President Trump, had some theories to share on Tuesday before the hearings began. She said, “The American people deserve to know the truth that Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility as speaker of the House for the tragedy that occurred on Jan. 6.”
Republican narrative would suggest that Nancy Pelosi chose not to secure the Capitol on the day of the riot, despite overwhelming intelligence about possible violence. In reality, “most decisions about securing the Capitol are made by the Capitol Police Board, a body that consists of the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms and the Architect of the Capitol.” This also goes against the bipartisan consensus that “found evidence of systematic failures across American intelligence, military, and law enforcement agencies, which misjudged the threat leading up to Jan. 6 and were not properly trained to respond to it.”
The committee’s next steps will be to determine which documents they want to secure and whom they will ask to testify. It’s up in the air if Trump, his aides, or his allies will actually agree to testify, given his propensity for ignoring White House subpoenas. (CNN, CBS, NYT, WaPo)
Lockdown Under
- Sydney, Australia announced Wednesday that they would be extending their lockdown by four weeks. The extension was announced with frustration by Premier Gladys Berejikilan, who stated, “I am as upset and frustrated as all of you that we were not able to get the case numbers we would have liked at this point in time but that is the reality,” during a televised news conference.
- Berejiklian added police would boost enforcement of wide-ranging social distancing rules and urged people to report suspected wrongdoing. The multiple lockdown extensions have turned a “snap” lockdown into the country’s longest, with many fearing another recession. State and federal officials have announced additional relief funding and New South Wales, where Sydney is located, has outlined plans to bring more vaccinations to highly impacted areas.
- Despite the setbacks seen in Sydney, Australia has kept its COVID-19 numbers relatively low, with just over 33,200 cases and 921 deaths, out of a population of about 25 million, since the pandemic began. Other states such as Victoria and South Australia have just recently left short lockdowns, though officials are investigating isolated cases. (Reuters)
(Leban)On To New Beginnings
- Najib Mikati, two-time former Prime Minister of Lebanon, has been designated to form Lebanon’s next government – a task failed by two predecessors since a huge explosion in the port of Beirut sent the country into a downward economic spiral nearly a year ago. A billionaire telecoms tycoon, Mikati said that easing the country’s woes will not be an easy task and asked for unity among Lebanese.
- Mr. Mikati must now come up with a cabinet that will garner support from a range of political parties in Lebanon’s sect-based political system. His predecessor, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, tried for nine months to do so, only to announce that he had given up this month.
- Following his designation, Mr. Mikati made a public address in which he said he would work toward implementing a framework presented by France, which called for a new, technocratic government that would carry out reforms and engage with the International Monetary Fund. Former Prime Minister Hariri’s cabinet attempted to carry out the same plan, but talks with the IMF have been stalled out for months. (NYT, $)
Additional World News
- Myanmar junta seeks international cooperation over COVID-19 crisis (Reuters)
- Troops to stay put in Syria even as Biden seeks to end America’s ‘forever wars’ (Politico)
- Influential voices in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE celebrate Tunisia turmoil as blow to political Islam (WaPo, $)
- China appears to be expanding its nuclear capabilities, US researchers say (CNN)
- Taliban meet in China, gain government’s support (WaPo, $)
- Ivory Coast president and rival in first meeting since civil war (BBC)
Vaxx To The Drawing Board
- President Biden is expected to announce Thursday that all federal employees and contractors working with the federal government will be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, or comply with regular testing and virus mitigation requirements. New York City employed a similar vaccination mandate, but the program could be expanded per agency as the push for vaccination continues. Despite his power to do so, Biden has not yet imposed the vaccine mandate on the military, but may outline guidelines for the Department of Defense to implement in the future.
- A recent Justice Department opinion, released Monday, follows the Biden administration’s outlook on vaccination. Justice Department lawyers determined that federal law does not prohibit public agencies and private companies from requiring their employees to vaccinate, paving the way for even more vaccinations as the nation struggles with the continued spread of COVID-19 after the initial vaccine rollout. (CNN)
Biden Says Buy American
- On Wednesday, President Biden suggested a change in the way the federal government determines if products are made in America. Currently, “Made in the USA” products must be made with 55% of their materials coming from the U.S. Biden’s proposed changes would up this percentage to 75% in order to promote support for domestic industry. In a visit to a truck manufacturer in Pennsylvania, Biden stated, “In recent years, ‘Buy American’ has become a hollow promise. My administration is going to make ‘Buy American’ a reality.”
- While the new rule would take months to be finalized, it continues the administration’s commitment to strengthening domestic manufacturing. Early into Biden’s presidency, he signed an executive order closing loopholes in “Buy American” policies, and on Wednesday a bipartisan group of senators announced an agreement on a long-awaited $1 trillion infrastructure bill focused on creating traditional infrastructure, including roads and railways. (NPR)
Additional USA News
- At least two dead and dozens injured after an acetic acid leak at a facility near La Porte, Texas (CNN)
- How students fared during 1st full school year of COVID-19 pandemic (ABC)
- Justice Dept: Republican Rep. Mo Brooks may be sued over Jan. 6 speech to Trump supporters (WaPo, $)
- D.C. police officer Michael Fanone gets vulgar, threatening voicemail during January 6 testimony (CBS)
- Fake Uber driver Nathaniel Rowland sentenced to life in prison for Samantha Josephson murder (WaPo, $)
- Voters reject Trump-endorsed Republican in Texas special election (Guardian)
Indiana Jones and the Delightful Trip To Hobby Lobby
- The Justice Department had to step in and seize a 3,600 year-old ancient tablet from Hobby Lobby. Let’s back up here a bit… The tablet in question contains a portion of the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” a historic poem with roots in ancient Mesopotamia that is also considered one of the earliest pieces of storytelling poetry.
- It is believed that the tablet was originally looted from Iraq during the Gulf War in 1991, along with countless other ancient artifacts. Using a fake letter that stated the tablet had been purchased in 1981, the tablet jumped from owner to owner until finally being auctioned off to the Hobby Lobby-owned Museum of the Bible in 2014. Federal agents seized the tablet from the museum in 2019.
- The federal court argued that since the tablet was brought into the U.S. illegally, the Museum of the Bible are not the rightful owners. The goal of these confiscations is to return cultural artifacts that were looted from their rightful home. (NBC News)
Additional Reads
- Extreme Heat Could Also Mean Power and Water Shortages (Wired)
- Climate emergency scientists say Earth’s vital signs continue to dip, despite pandemic (CNET)
- Canterbury Cathedral stained glass is among world’s oldest (BBC)
- Mergers, twists, and pentagons: The architecture of honeycombs (Ars Technica)
- Black hole: Light spotted from behind one for the first time (USA Today)
- Iceland may be the tip of a sunken continent (LiveScience)