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Sports

Aaron Judge fuels Yankees’ comeback win over Twins

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NEW YORK — The Yankees’ 2021 season has brought soaring highs, gut-punch plunges and seemingly everything in between. Aaron Judge aptly described his team’s first 144 games as “a roller coaster,” and the slugger would caution you to prepare for a few more twists and turns. In his view, this thrill ride isn’t close to over yet.

On Monday afternoon, Judge crushed a game-tying three-run homer in the eighth inning and Gary Sánchez delivered the winning RBI single in the 10th as the Yankees rallied from five runs down for a 6-5 walk-off victory over the Twins at Yankee Stadium. It was the largest comeback win of the year for the Bombers, who had been 0-34 when trailing by four or more runs.

“You’ve got to enjoy the ride,” Judge said. “When you’re on a roller coaster, you’ve got to enjoy it. This is the fun part of the year, so just keep riding it — and ride it through the playoffs.”

With 18 games remaining, New York (80-64) moved within a half-game of Toronto (80-63) and Boston (81-64), the two clubs tied atop the American League Wild Card standings. All three could be tied by the end of Monday night, when the Blue Jays host the Rays and the Red Sox take on the Mariners in Seattle.

Judge’s homer came off right-hander Alex Colomé and Sánchez connected off righty Ralph Garza Jr., powering yet another win for the Bombers over Minnesota, a team they’ve defeated 33 times in 43 tries since 2015 (including postseason matchups).

With the clubs making up an Aug. 22 contest postponed by Hurricane Henri, the Yankees returned to action still buzzing from an emotional three-game Subway Series against the Mets that included some spicy theatrics late in Sunday night’s finale.

“For us as a whole, the goal is to win as many games as possible,” Sánchez said through an interpreter. “We find ourselves to be here in this stretch, and that’s the mentality: focus on each game at a time and try to win as many as we can.”

The Yankees trailed, 5-0, through five innings as Luis Gil gave up three home runs over six frames. Jorge Polanco and Miguel Sano each hit a two-run homer in the first off Gil, who had a second consecutive tough outing after beginning his big league career with 15 2/3 scoreless innings over his first three starts.

Byron Buxton added a solo homer in the third off Gil, who scattered seven hits, walked one and struck out eight.

“[Gil] continued to compete and allowed us to do something special late,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Just a great job by him, and then a lot of guys came up big, whether it be in the bullpen or some big hits. With these games meaning so much, that’s a good one right there.”

Sleepy start
Though Twins starter John Gant lasted only three batters before exiting with a lower abdominal strain, the Yanks were held hitless until Joey Gallo dropped a bunt single to open the fifth.

“You never want to start a game in a hole, but Gil came up big for us by putting up some zeros,” Judge said. “If you put up some zeros for this offense, we’re going to get the job done eventually.”

DJ LeMahieu was robbed in the sixth by a leaping Max Kepler near the wall in right field, settling for a sacrifice fly. Gallo then launched a solo home run, his 33rd of the season and eighth for the Yankees, off righty Tyler Duffey to bring New York within three runs in the seventh.

“It was really good to see the fight that we had today,” Gallo said. “We could have easily just let that game go, but we kept grinding and competing.”

Not over yet
Anthony Rizzo and Brett Gardner worked walks in the eighth to set the stage for Judge, who has been the club’s most consistent offensive performer this season. Judge was limited to two at-bats — both strikeouts — on Sunday against the Mets due to dizziness, but he reported improvement on Monday, likening his feeling to “getting [his] bell rung” during his high school football days.

“I feel better today. Not 100 percent, but I’m not too concerned about it,” Judge said.

Judge connected with a 2-1 Colomé cutter for a 394-foot drive to the seats in right-center field, Judge’s 33rd homer of the year. Aroldis Chapman and Clay Holmes each tossed a scoreless frame before Sánchez ripped Garza’s 1-1 sinker down the left-field line in the 10th, plating Gleyber Torres for the winning run.

“In that at-bat, I was trying to stick to my plan — trying to look for a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it,” Sánchez said. “I’m happy with the results there and very excited we were able to win that game.”

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Business

Harvard Will Move to Divest its Endowment from Fossil Fuels | News

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UPDATED: September 9, 11:03 p.m.

Following years of public pressure, Harvard said Thursday it would allow its remaining investments in the fossil fuel industry to expire, paving the way for it to eventually divest from the sector. The move marks a stark twist in a decade-long saga that has pitted student activists against University administrators and dominated campus politics for years.

In an email to Harvard affiliates Thursday afternoon, University President Lawrence S. Bacow — who has for years publicly opposed divestment — stopped short of using the word divest, but said that “legacy investments” through third-party firms “are in runoff mode,” and called financial exposure to the fossil fuel industry imprudent.

Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, which has been pushing the University to pull its investments in the fossil fuel industry since it was founded in 2012, declared victory.

“So long as Harvard follows through, this is divestment,” Connor Chung ’23, a Divest Harvard organizer, said. “This is what they told us for a decade they couldn’t do, and today, the students, faculty, and alumni have been vindicated.”

Bacow wrote that the Harvard Management Company, which manages the University’s $41.9 billion endowment, “does not intend” to make future investments in the fossil fuel industry. He said the University would not renew HMC’s partnerships with private equity funds that have holdings in the sector once its current obligations to them expire.

“Given the need to decarbonize the economy and our responsibility as fiduciaries to make long-term investment decisions that support our teaching and research mission, we do not believe such investments are prudent,” Bacow wrote.

Fossil fuels make up less than 2 percent of the University’s endowment — but they won’t disappear overnight.

Per a footnote in Bacow’s letter, Harvard holds a legal obligation to fund “up to the maximum capital committed at the time of the investment,” meaning that its endowment funds will likely go toward completing its obligations to private equity firms that invest in fossil fuels for years to come.

Bacow did not provide a timeline for the liquidation.

The divestment debate has consumed campus in recent years, with supporters of the movement filing legal complaints, storming the field at the Harvard-Yale football game in 2019, staging protests across campus, and gaining seats on school governance boards.

Harvard administrators have long contended the school is best positioned to address climate change through its teaching, research, and campus sustainability efforts. Before Thursday, HMC had not explicitly committed to pulling its endowment funds from firms that invest in the fossil fuel sector.

HMC said in February that it no longer directly invests in the fossil fuel industry, and that its indirect investments in the sector make up less than 2 percent of the endowment. By the end of fiscal year 2020, the endowment’s direct and indirect exposure to the fossil fuel industry had decreased by more than 80 percent since fiscal year 2008.

HMC also previously pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its endowment by 2050.

In its February 2021 Climate Report, HMC wrote that it plans to spend the next few years working to gain access to the carbon emissions data from all of its public and private market managers — who have not historically provided this level of information on their portfolios.

In his Thursday letter, Bacow also pointed to the University’s efforts to promote research on climate change, including its appointment this week of economics professor James H. Stock as the first-ever Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability.

On campus, the University has committed since 2018 to reaching fossil fuel neutrality in its operations by 2026 and eliminating its use of fossil fuels for heating, cooling, and power by 2050. Harvard’s success in decreasing emissions on campus has slowed in recent years, however. Campus greenhouse gas emissions stayed flat between 2016 and 2019 despite reductions over the previous decade, according to data from the Office for Sustainability. The University also fell short of its 2020 waste and water reduction goals.

William E. “Bill” McKibben ’82, founder of climate campaign group 350.org and a former Crimson president, wrote in an emailed statement that Harvard’s “obstinance” in refusing to divest for years cost the University prestige and money.

“Honestly, I thought Harvard would never divest,” he wrote. “That it finally did is an enormous tribute to generations of Harvard students who have never let up, and to faculty and alumni who backed them up.”

—Staff writer Jasper G. Goodman can be reached at jasper.goodman@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jasper_Goodman.

—Staff writer Kelsey J. Griffin can be reached at kelsey.griffin@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @kelseyjgriffin.



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Health

Arkansas nearly out of ICU beds as Delta variant fuels U.S. pandemic

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NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Only eight intensive care unit beds were available on Monday in the state of Arkansas, its governor said, as the rapid spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus pushed cases and hospitalizations in the United States to a six-month high.

In neighboring Texas, Governor Greg Abbott asked hospitals to postpone elective surgeries as the variant raged through swathes of the country including many southern states grappling with low vaccination rates.

Nationwide, COVID-19 cases have averaged 100,000 for three days in a row, up 35% over the past week, according to a Reuters tally of public health data. Louisiana, Florida and Arkansas reported the most new cases in the past week, based on population. (Graphic of U.S. coronavirus cases)

Hospitalizations rose 40% and deaths, a lagging indicator, registered an 18% risenationwide in the past week.

“We saw the largest single-day increase in hospitalizations and have eclipsed our previous high of COVID hospitalizations,” Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said on Twitter. “There are currently only eight ICU beds available in the state.”

Hutchinson, a Republican, urged Arkansans to be vaccinated against the pandemic, which many of his constituents have been hesitant to do in part because of widespread disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

Abbott, who in May issued an order banning local governments from requiring masks to help prevent the spread of the virus, said on Monday he would increase the number of clinics in Texas where COVID patients can receive infusions of antibodies.

Florida set a new single-day record with 28,317 cases on Sunday, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Hospitalizations in Florida have been at record highs for eight days in a row, according to the Reuters analysis. Most Florida students are due back in the classroom this week as some school districts debate whether to require masks for pupils.

Holding signs, mask proponents and opponents gathered at the Pinellas County Schools building near St. Petersburg on Monday where the school board called a special session to discuss mask protocols.

The head of the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union on Sunday announced a shift in course by backing mandated vaccinations for U.S. teachers in an effort to protect students who are too young to be inoculated.

The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is rising across the country, a trend health experts attribute to the Delta variant being more likely to infect children than the original Alpha strain.

With the virus once again upending Americans’ lives after a brief summer lull, the push to vaccinate those still reluctant has gained fresh momentum.

The Pentagon on Monday said that it will seek Biden’s approval by the middle of September to require military members to get vaccinated.

STURGIS CROWDS

The evolving pandemic and the rapid community spread spurred by the Delta variant have prompted the cancellation of some large-scale events. Last week, organizers canceled the New York Auto Show that had been set for later this month.

The New Orleans Jazz Fest was canceled for the second straight year as Louisiana fights a severe outbreak.

But fears about the Delta variant seem to not have dampened the mood in Sturgis, a small town in South Dakota that welcomes hundreds of thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

“It is one of the biggest crowds I have seen,” Meade County Sheriff Ron Merwin said in an email. “I think there will definitely be some spread.”

Sturgis has partnered with health officials to provide COVID-19 self-test kits to rally-goers but the event, taking place Aug. 6-15, does not require proof of vaccination or mask-wearing.

Last year, health officials cited the rally as a super-spreader event that contributed to an autumn surge in the Midwest.

While cases and hospitalizations were relatively low in South Dakota when the event started on Aug. 7, 2020, three months later the state set a record for hospitalized COVID-19 patients and new infections.

Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York, Lisa Shumaker in Chicago and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento; Additional reporting by Octavio Jones in Largo, Florida; Editing by David Gregorio and Sonya Hepinstall

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

Mississippi has only 6 open ICU beds, Arkansas only 25 as delta variant fuels Covid surge

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Mississippi and Arkansas face shortages of available intensive care beds as the delta variant sparks yet another surge in coronavirus cases around the country.

Only six ICU beds for severely ill patients were available across all of Mississippi as of Wednesday morning, said Dr. Jonathan Wilson, chief administrative officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Health officials are coordinating to transfer patients when possible to alleviate some of the strain on hospitals. Intensive care patients include not only those afflicted with Covid-19 but also those who suffer from traditional health issues, such as heart attacks and strokes.

“We are at the cusp of this. We know that we aren’t at the crest of this wave,” Wilson said Wednesday. “It’s bad, but it’s probably going to get a little worse.”

Only about 35 percent of the state’s population is fully vaccinated, according to state data.

Arkansas, which shares a border with Mississippi, reported that only 25 ICU beds were open as of Wednesday, according to NBC affiliate KARK of Little Rock. About 42 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to the state Health Department.

Allison Moore, an intensive care nurse, helps a Covid-19 patient at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.Joe Ellis / University of Mississippi Medical Center Communications

There are also serious ICU shortages in some regions of Louisiana, which neighbors both states and also faces a surge in cases. Its Health Department divides the state data into regions, with Region 5, covering the Lake Charles area in the southwest corner of the state, having the fewest available ICU beds: two.

Region 4 faces a similar shortage, with only eight beds available to potential patients.

In contrast, Region 1, which covers the southeast corner of the state in the New Orleans region, has 88 beds open to patients, according to the Health Department. People who aren’t fully vaccinated account for 90 percent of Covid-19 hospitalizations in Louisiana.

Dr. Catherine O’Neal, the chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, said the hospital has become overwhelmed with cases.

“We’re rationing care to be able to see the sickest people first, and that means that we are not providing adequate care to many people right now so that we can meet the needs of the sickest first,” O’Neal said Wednesday. “That safety net of care that every community depends on for every type of illness is starting to break down, and that’s very concerning.”

Only about 37 percent of Louisianians have been fully vaccinated, Reuters reported.

The delta variant, which is more transmissible than its predecessors, became the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the U.S. last month, and it has prompted a new surge in infections. Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 200 million Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance that everyone in high-case areas wear masks indoors, whether they are vaccinated or not. New data the agency released last week showed that those who have been inoculated but still become infected are just as likely to spread the new strain as their unvaccinated counterparts are.

Breakthrough cases, or infections despite vaccination, represent less than .08 percent of those who have been fully vaccinated since January, NBC News data showed last week. Vaccines have proven to be highly effective even in those cases, mostly preventing serious illnesses that would require hospitalization.

The number of breakthrough cases could be higher than the 125,682 cases tracked by NBC News on Friday, because of the milder symptoms that can occur for those who are vaccinated. Vaccinated people who become infected might not have any symptoms and therefore wouldn’t feel the need to be tested.

Doha Madani is a breaking news reporter for NBC News. Pronouns: she/her.

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World

Thousands flee homes outside Athens as heat fuels wildfires

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TATOI, Greece (AP) — More than 500 firefighters struggled through the night to contain a large forest blaze on the outskirts of Athens, which raced into residential areas Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee. It was the worst of 81 wildfires that broke out in Greece over the past 24 hours, amid one of the country’s most intense heatwaves in decades.

Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said the fire north of Athens was “very dangerous,” and had been exacerbated by strong winds and tinder-dry conditions due to the heat that reached 45 Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the area.

No severe injuries were reported, and authorities said several buildings had been damaged but no detailed breakdown was available. The cause of the blaze was unclear.

“We continue to fight hour by hour, with our top priority being to save human lives,” Hardalias said. “We will do so all night.”

“These are crucial hours,” Hardalias said. “Our country is undergoing one of the worst heatwaves of the past 40 years.”

The wind dropped later Tuesday, and the regional governor for greater Athens, Giorgos Patoulis, said this could allow the fire to be tamed after water-dropping aircraft resume operations at first light Wednesday.

“If the winds don’t grow it can be brought under control by the early morning so the planes can provide the final solution,” he told state ERT TV.

The blaze sent a huge cloud of smoke over Athens, prompting multiple evacuations near Tatoi, 20 kilometers (12 1/2 miles) to the north and forcing the partial closure of Greece’s main north-south highway. Residents left their homes in cars and on motorcycles, often clutching pets, heading toward the capital amid a blanket of smoke.

One group stopped to help staff from a riding school push their horses into trucks to escape the flames.

Fire crews went house to house to ensure that evacuation orders were carried out, and 315 people were escorted to safety after calling for help. Authorities said nobody was listed as missing, and Greek media said six people required treatment for light breathing complaints.

As the heat wave scorching the eastern Mediterranean intensified, temperatures reached 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) in parts of the Greek capital. The extreme weather has fueled deadly wildfires in Turkey and blazes in Italy, Greece, Albania and across the region.

Wildfires also raged in other parts of Greece, prompting evacuations of villages in Mani and Vassilitsa in the southern Peloponnese region, as well as on the islands of Evia and Kos, authorities said. A total 40 blazes were raging late Tuesday.

The fires prompted Greek basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo to cancel celebrations planned in Athens for the NBA championship he won recently with the Milwaukee Bucks.

“We hope there are no victims from these fires, and of course we will postpones today’s celebration,” Antetokounmpo wrote in a tweet.

Earlier, authorities closed the Acropolis and other ancient sites during afternoon hours. The site, which is normally open in the summer from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., will have reduced hours through Friday, closing between midday and 5 p.m.

The extreme heat, described by authorities as the worst in Greece since 1987, has strained the national power supply and fueled the wildfires.

The national grid operator said the power supply to part of the capital was “endangered” after part of the transmission system, damaged and threatened by the fires, was shut down.

Seven water-dropping planes and nine helicopters were involved in the firefighting effort near Athens, including a Beriev Be-200 amphibious aircraft leased from Russia. They ceased operations after dark for safety reasons.

The blaze damaged electricity pylons, adding further strain on the electricity network already under pressure due to the widespread use of air conditioning.

The Greek Fire Service maintained an alert for most of the country for Tuesday and Wednesday, while public and some private services shifted operating hours to allow for afternoon closures.

Hardalias appealed to the public for high vigilance.

“Because the heatwave will continue in coming days, please avoid any activity that could spark a fire,” he said.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate.

___

Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed.

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Health

US coronavirus: US sends surge team to southwest Missouri after Delta variant fuels rise in cases and hospitalizations

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The surge of Covid-19 cases is so high in the city of Springfield, Missouri, that the CoxHealth hospital system began transferring patients infected with the virus to other facilities to provide better staffing. At Cox South, a Springfield hospital, 12 Covid-19 patients were transferred to other facilities in the region between Friday and Monday morning.
Over the past week, the Missouri Covid-19 caseload came in second highest in the country, with 15.5 new cases per 100,000 people daily, or 108 cases per 100,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University data published Sunday. Arkansas claimed the highest rate at 15.7 new cases per 100,000 people each day, the data shows.

“We’ve seen this in Arkansas, Missouri, Wyoming … those are the places where we’re going to see more hospitalizations and deaths as well, unfortunately. And any time you have large outbreaks, it does become a breeding ground for potentially more variants,” he told CNN on Monday.

About 56% of adults in Missouri have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose and 39.4% of residents are fully vaccinated, CDC data shows. Arkansas has fully vaccinated 34.6% of its total population as of Tuesday, CDC data shows.

Overall, data shows that Covid-19 is expected to swell in less vaccinated communities, especially as the Delta variant continues to spread in those areas.

“If ever there was a reason to get vaccinated, this is it,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Tuesday.

Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added that America has ample vaccine supply, but there is still a significant portion of people who don’t want the shots.

“There are places in the world, where people would do anything to get vaccine, and yet we have a substantial proportion of people in very specific regions of the country, who just do not want to get vaccinated,” he added.

In response to the more contagious Delta variant, the Biden administration said it would deploy response teams comprised of officials from the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to areas with a high spread of the virus and low vaccination rates.

In Missouri, the surge team will include an epidemiologist, research assistants, a health communication specialist, contact tracers and others who will help with vaccination and outreach, according to the health department.

“More team members will be added, both remotely and in person, to assist with data and research, vaccine uptake strategies and outreach,” said Lisa Cox, a communications director with the Missouri health department.

Full FDA approval for Pfizer vaccine may come this month, former White House advisor says

Federal data shows that as of Tuesday, 47.5% of the US population is fully vaccinated.

And while the current seven-day vaccination pace of 490,918 people becoming fully vaccinated daily has plateaued since two months ago, experts are hoping that could change soon.

The US Food and Drug Administration could fully approve Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine this month, according to Andy Slavitt, a former White House senior adviser for Covid Response, adding that the full authorization could sway people who have yet to get their shot.

“That will be a telltale sign for them to say ‘Why am I on the fence any longer? This has now been fully approved by the FDA,’ and even though it’s got a great record already, that will I think be another stamp of approval,” Slavitt said.

The FDA does not comment on pending approvals, but officials across the Biden administration have said they expect the agency to grant full approval.

Currently, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccines are administered under Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA.

A recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that 31% of adults who have yet to get vaccinated would be more likely to get a shot that has been fully approved by the FDA. The report polled 1,888 US adults.

Study finds people are more likely to have health complications if they had a severe case of Covid-19

Vaccines are not only effective in preventing severe illness from Covid-19, they also prevent its long-term health effects, according to experts.

People who were severely ill with Covid-19 are twice as likely to need to go back to the hospital for a Covid-19-related complication in the future compared to patients who had mild or moderate symptoms, according to a new study from the University of Florida.

The researchers examined patient records for nearly 11,000 people treated in their health system. Of those patients, 114 had severe Covid-19 and needed to be hospitalized. Another 211 had mild or moderate Covid-19.

The other patients were treated for unrelated health problems. Researchers tracked these patients for six months.

“Data are, unsurprisingly, showing that people who aren’t vaccinated are more likely to get sick,” study co-author Arch Mainous said in a news release Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, our data show that even if people are willing to take their chances with COVID-19 because they are not concerned about the disease, they are now more likely to have a complication like a heart attack or stroke because of this. Vaccination is critical.”

Patients with severe Covid-19 were twice as likely to go back to the hospital for a heart attack, stroke, pneumonia, or pulmonary embolism, according to the study published online in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Researchers say the study should encourage everyone to get a Covid-19 vaccine, particularly those people who are at a high risk for developing severe disease.

CNN’s Jen Christensen, Lauren Mascarenhas, Deidre McPhillips and Virginia Langmaid contributed to this report.

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Technology

Envy Gaming pledges action after Dallas Fuel’s ‘Fearless’ speaks out about racism he, teammates have experienced in Dallas

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Envy Gaming leadership is taking action after Dallas Fuel player Lee “Fearless” Eui-Seok spoke out this week about racism he and his Korean teammates say they have faced in Dallas.

Mike Rufail, the organization’s founder and Chief Gaming Officer, said Envy is looking to ramp up security and asked others to battle racism when they see it.

Rufail doesn’t often make political statements. He said it himself in the five-minute video he posted Tuesday, saying he typically sticks to gaming and esports. But this was something he had to acknowledge after Lee’s Sunday clip, which was later translated from Korean to English, discussed the hatred the Fuel were receiving “basically every day.”

“Being Asian here is terrifying,” said Lee, as translated by Florida Mayhem manager Jade “swingclip” Kim. “Seriously. People keep trying to pick fights with us.”

The video originated from Lee’s Twitch stream on Sunday and was later posted to Twitter. Kim’s translation brought more English-speaking members in the Overwatch League community to the conversation.

Reports of hate crimes against Asians in the United States have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic, per The New York Times, and on March 16, there were eight people killed in Atlanta-area spas, six of whom were Asian.

Rufail wished Envy leadership knew about the incidents with Lee and the Fuel earlier so they could possibly pursue action, but was pleased with Lee’s response in his video.

“I wish he would’ve told us as soon as it happened, so maybe there were things we could do to find out who those people were and maybe there are things we could have done sooner,” Rufail said. “But at the same time I told Fearless he could always speak his mind and he could always be open publicly about his experiences.”

Rufail acknowledged that he and Envy can’t control what other people do, but are still looking at ways to ramp up security. Envy CEO Adam Rymer said on Twitter that the organization is working through options.

“We have discussed adding security, personal security. We’ve already discussed with security in our building, who will, when they are able to, will try to make sure the players are safe when they are outside and around the building,” Rufail said. “I think this will evolve a bit as we go along. We are still in the process of discussing what we can do to make them feel safe.”

In the translations of Lee’s discussion, he mentioned that this was happening to him and his teammates daily, and the lack of mask-wearing was concerning to them. People would even cough at them and shout racial slurs.

Being part of the Dallas Fuel has helped Lee and his seven Korean teammates and three Korean coaches.

“That’s why sometimes I wear my jersey around on purpose,” Lee said. “If I have my jersey on, I think they realize we’re part of some kind of team, so they don’t bother us as much. But if I have my everyday clothes on, they run up to us, harass us, then run away.”

Rufail said the Fuel players were doing all right, and that Fearless himself was “caught off guard” by the response and concern from Envy. Right now, his team is focused on its Overwatch League season debut against the Houston Outlaws on April 16.

Rufail, who said he’s experienced racist remarks in esports himself during his multi-decade career that began as a player, wants his players to feel safe.

Find more Fuel coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

Find more esports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.



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World

Oil nations tipped for political instability if fossil fuels abandoned

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The Egina floating production storage and offloading vessel, the largest of its kind in Nigeria, is berthed in Lagos harbor on February 23, 2017.

Stefan Heunis | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON — Algeria, Chad, Iraq and Nigeria will be among the first countries to experience political instability as oil producers feel the effects of a transition to low carbon energy production, according to a new report from risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

In its 2021 Political Risk Outlook, published Thursday, Verisk cautioned that countries that had failed to diversify their economies away from fossil fuel exports faced a “slow-motion wave of political instability.”

With the move away from fossil fuels set to accelerate over the next three to 20 years, and the Covid-19 pandemic eating into short-term gains gains in oil export revenues made in recent years, Verisk warned that oil-dependent countries failing to adapt risk sharp changes in credit risk, policy and regulation.

Though some countries are increasing fossil fuel investment in the short term, consensus estimates indicate that “peak oil” will be reached in 2030, after which the transition toward a low carbon economy will gather steam and force oil-producing countries to adapt their revenue streams.

Analysts suggested the worst-hit countries could enter “doom loops of shrinking hydrocarbon revenues, political turmoil, and failed attempts to revive flatlining non-oil sectors.”

Since the oil price crash of 2014, most exporters have either stagnated or reversed efforts to diversify their economies, Verisk data highlighted, with many doubling down on production in the ensuing years in a bid to plug revenue holes.

“Despite this, the majority took a hit on their foreign exchange reserves anyway, including Saudi Arabia, which has burnt through almost half of its 2014 dollar stockpile,” the report added.

Break-even costs, the capacity to diversify and political resilience were identified as the three key factors determining the severity of the impact on stability when the expected energy transition begins to bite.

“Currently, if countries’ external break-evens – the oil prices they need to pay for their imports – remain above what markets can offer, they have limited choices: draw down foreign exchange reserves like Saudi Arabia since 2014, or devalue their currency like Nigeria or Iraq in 2020, effectively rebalancing their imports and exports at the expense of living standards,” the report explained.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, relies on crude sales for around 90% of its foreign exchange earnings and has devalued its naira currency twice since March last year. The IMF last month urged the country’s central bank to devalue once again, but met with resistance.

Verisk researchers suggested that recent currency devaluations were a “harbinger of the bleak options” ahead for oil-producing countries, who will have to either diversify or face forced economic adjustments.

“Many, if not a majority, of net oil producers are going to struggle with diversification largely because they lack the economic and legal institutions, infrastructure and human capital needed,” said Verisk Head of Market Risk James Lockhart Smith.

“Even when such institutions are in place, the political environment, corruption or governance challenges and entrenched interests mean some may not reform their way out of trouble, even where it is the rational course.”

The most vulnerable countries are higher-cost producers that are heavily dependent on oil for revenues, have lower capacity to diversify and are less politically stable, Verisk said, identifying Nigeria, Algeria, Chad and Iraq as the first to be hit “if the storm breaks” due to their fixed or crawling exchange rates.

Lower-cost Gulf producers with stronger economic institutions and resources that enable easier diversification, such as the UAE and Qatar, were seen as least susceptible to political upheaval. However, Lockhart Smith suggested that even they will not emerge unscathed.

“Authoritarian political stability is anything but stable over the long term and, as lower-for-longer oil prices cut into social spending, additional pressure will pile on these deceptively fragile political systems,” he said.

“Even diversification could come with its own political risks by challenging traditional petro-state social contracts: legitimacy to rule in return for hydrocarbon largesse.”

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Business

Fire at Giant Auto-Chip Plant Fuels Supply Concerns

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TOKYO—A fire at a factory of one of the world’s leading auto chip makers has added to the troubles of car makers that already have slashed production because of a semiconductor shortage.

The fire Friday left a swath of charred equipment in the factory owned by a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corp. in Hitachinaka, northeast of Tokyo. The company said it would take at least a month to restart the damaged operations.

Shares of Japan’s three leading car makers— Toyota Motor Corp. , Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. —all fell by more than 3% on Monday, worse than the overall market, while Renesas shares were down 4.9%.

Renesas said heat from an electrical problem inside a single piece of equipment caused the fire and contaminated clean rooms needed to make semiconductors. It said two-thirds of the chips made at the fire-affected factory were automotive chips.

Renesas’s chief executive, Hidetoshi Shibata, said Sunday the impact on global chip supplies would be significant. Mariko Semetko, a credit analyst at Moody’s Japan, said the fire was likely to damp the recovery of global auto production this year, while auto makers said they were still assessing the impact.

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Business

Renewable energy surpassed fossil fuels for European electricity in 2020

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The report, which has been tracking EU’s power sector since 2015, found that renewables delivered 38% of electricity last year, compared to 37% delivered by fossil fuels.

The shift comes as other sources, such as wind and solar power, have risen in the European Union. Both sources have nearly doubled since 2015, and as of last year accounted for one-fifth of electricity generation in EU countries, the report found. It’s also the reason why coal power declined 20% last year, making up only 13% of electricity generated in Europe.

“Rapid growth in wind and solar has forced coal into decline, but this is just the beginning,” said Dave Jones, senior electricity analyst for Ember and lead author on the report, in a statement. “Europe is relying on wind and solar to ensure not only coal is phased out by 2030, but also to phase out gas generation, replace closing nuclear power plants, and to meet rising electricity demand from electric cars, heat pumps and electrolysers.​”

Last year’s Covid-19 lockdown measures resulted in less demand for electricity across the globe. European demand decreased by 4% in 2020, according to the report, which said Covid trends had no effect on the growth of renewable energy sources. Since 2015, Europe’s electricity emissions recorded a historic decline, becoming 29% cleaner, the report noted.

The milestone follows commitments from EU leaders last month to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. In the United States, renewable energy overtook coal consumption in recent years. Last May, renewable energy sources generated more power than coal for the first time since 1885.

“Post-pandemic economic recovery must not slow down climate action,” said Patrick Graichen, director of Agora Energiewende, in a statement. “We therefore need strong climate policy — such as in the Green Deal — to ensure steady progress.”

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