- Passenger sticks out 18-hour delay, gets whole plane to himself WSOC Charlotte
- After a man’s flight was delayed for 18 hours, he was rewarded by being the only person on the plane and documented himself partying with the crew Yahoo Entertainment
- ‘Welcome to your private charter flight’: Passenger ends up being the only person on American Airlines flight after 18-hour delay The Daily Dot
- Guy Gets An Entire Airplane To Himself After Enduring 18-Hour Flight Delay (Video) BroBible
- Man Had His Own Private Jet After All American Airlines Passengers Took Other Flights During Delay View from the Wing
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: sticks
India-China border clash video shows troops fighting with sticks and bricks
Hong Kong
CNN
—
Video of what appears to be a previously unreported violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops at their disputed Himalayan border has emerged online, offering a rare window into the long-simmering territorial tensions between the two Asian powers.
The video, according to a serving Indian military officer with knowledge of the clashes on the China-India border, was filmed in the mountainous Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh at the Line of Actual Control – the de facto border between the two countries – on September 28, 2021.
CNN has reached out to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on the video.
Though it’s not clear who filmed or released the video, it began circulating on Indian social media on Tuesday just hours after the Indian Defense Ministry confirmed that a brawl had taken place at the border on Friday, in the remote Tawang sector of northeastern India. The first reported incident in nearly two years.
In the video – which CNN cannot independently verify – troops from both countries are seen on mountainous terrain, surrounded by green hills apparently untouched by winter. Though they’re separated by barbed wire, the footage appears to show Indian troops beating the Chinese soldiers with makeshift weapons, including what look like wooden sticks and metal pipes. In several instances, Indian soldiers can be seen throwing bricks or stones.
Many of the Chinese soldiers, gathered on the other side of the wire, also appear to be holding long sticks or batons.
Eventually the barbed wire collapses and the Indian soldiers move forward, prompting the Chinese troops to jump over a short stone wall and leave the area, to cheers from the Indian side.
The Indian military source said transgressions happen frequently due to the two sides’ different perceptions of the border – and the patrols they carry out along the LAC.
Several experts who spoke to CNN agreed the video did not depict a recent clash given the lack of visible snow. However, the video does offer an insight into the ongoing tensions, information about which is typically highly restricted by authorities.
“It’s an illustration of how quickly things can go south if tensions are not reduced between the two sides,” said Sushant Singh, senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research, an Indian think tank.
The shared 2,100 mile (3,379 kilometer) border has long been the source of friction between India and China. The two countries do not agree on its precise location and both regularly accuse the other of overstepping it, or seeking to expand their territory.
Though a series of mostly non-lethal scuffles over the position of the border have taken place over the years, tensions escalated sharply in June 2020 when hand-to-hand fighting between the two sides resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.
Experts say other skirmishes that have broken out since have been downplayed by authorities. “The Indian thinking, when I speak with the officials, is that if the situation can be resolved at a very local level, at an operational level between local commanders, it does not blow up into a big major international issue where the political leadership has to be involved,” said Singh.
But unlike those apparently downplayed incidents, Friday’s skirmish was reported by Indian media. This coverage, as well as pressure from domestic political opposition, could have pushed the Indian government to discuss the incident publicly, Singh said.
Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, India’s defense minister accused Chinese troops of trying to cross the LAC, saying they were trying to “unilaterally” change the status quo. Soldiers from both sides sustained minor injuries, he said.
Later that evening in a statement posted online, the Chinese military’s Western Theater Command accused Indian troops of “illegally” crossing into the Chinese side of the border.
The location of Friday’s clash is also significant, Singh said. Tawang, a Buddhist town, is home to a revered monastery that plays a central role in Tibetan internal politics, and the town itself is strategically important for China in handling Tibetan affairs.
Tibet is an internationally recognized autonomous region within the People’s Republic of China, though many Tibetans dispute the legitimacy of China’s rule. The Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has been in exile in India since an unsuccessful revolt against the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959.
Though the source of the newly emerged video is unclear, the timing of its release – shortly after Indian authorities confirmed Friday’s Tawang clash – has raised questions.
The video appears to show “an Indian victory,” said Ian Hall, deputy director of the Griffith Asia Institute. “I think it was released to reinforce the Indian government’s narrative that it is robustly defending India’s claims.”
He added that given the opacity of information surrounding the border situation, the government has been under increased pressure from its political opponents since 2020 “about exactly what occurred … and how much ground was lost.”
Singh added that the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has faced domestic criticism for not taking a stronger stance on China – meaning videos like this, appearing to show a firm Indian military response, reflect the “nationalistic mood” among the Indian population and political opposition.
“I think these kinds of videos allow that political narrative to play out domestically – that look, we’re responding strong,” he said, adding that it was “highly possible” the video was timed to shore up support for the country’s leadership and military.
But more importantly, the video illustrates how precarious the border situation is, and how quickly violence could break out and potentially escalate.
Chinese and Indian officials have held a series of talks in the past few years, with China withdrawing troops and dismantling infrastructure along the border in 2021 under a mutual disengagement agreement. But progress has since stalled, with relations fraying further as India has drawn closer to the United States, while US-China ties have sunk to new lows.
“The video reminds the rest of the world that the LAC is still volatile – much more so than it was pre-2020,” Hall said.
Japan’s inflation hits 40-year high as BOJ sticks to easy policy
TOKYO, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Japan’s core consumer inflation accelerated to a 40-year high in October, driven by currency weakness and imported cost pressures that the central bank shrugs off as it sticks to a policy of ultra-low interest rates.
The nationwide core consumer price index (CPI) was up 3.6% on a year earlier, exceeding the 3.5% rise expected by economists and the 3.0% gain seen in September.
It was the largest jump since February 1982, when a Middle East crisis stemming from the Iran-Iraq war disrupted crude oil supply and triggered a spike in energy prices.
The rise in the index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices but includes oil products, confirmed that inflation remained above the 2% goal of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) for a seventh consecutive month.
But economists do not expect the BOJ to join a global trend of raising interest rates, because it sees this year’s acceleration in inflation as a cost-push episode that will fade as import costs stop pushing.
Foreign supply constraints have driven up prices of imported food, industrial commodities and manufacturing parts, and so has a fall in the yen, which in dollar terms is down more than 20% this year.
“I haven’t changed my view that the rise will start to slow down soon,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute, noting declines in global grain prices. “I expect inflation to peak by year-end and the rise in prices to start diminishing in the new year.”
BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda reiterated on Thursday a pledge to maintain monetary stimulus to achieve wage growth and sustainable and stable inflation. The central bank is keeping long-term interest rates around zero and short-term rates at minus 0.1%.
[1/3] A woman chooses products at a drug store in Tokyo, Japan October 21, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
The economy remains fragile as it recovers from the COVID-19 downturn. Also, Japan’s inflation rate remains moderate by the standards of other developed countries.
BEER, SAKE UP
Kuroda has argued that global commodity costs account for half of the magnitude of Japan’s price rises.
The October data showed raw-material price rises and the yen’s weakness had driven a 15.2% increase in energy costs, while food excluding perishables was up by 5.9%, the fastest rise since March 1981.
Among food items, 88% were more costly than a year before, led by alcoholic drinks, such as beer and sake.
Prices of household durable goods were up 11.8%, their biggest rise since March 1975, driven by costs of transportation, raw materials and energy and by the weak currency.
The data suggests Japanese firms may be shaking off their deflationary mindset as they apply price rises to a broadening range of products. Of the 522 items composing the core consumer price index, 406 were more expensive in October than a year earlier. In September, 385 were.
The BOJ has forecast average prices for the fiscal year to March 2023 will be 3% higher than in 2021-22 but that the rise for 2023-24 will be only half as great, because commodity and other cost-push factors will have subsided.
In a sign subcontractors are struggling with wholesale price pressures, the corporate goods price index jumped 9.1% in the year to October.
Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Additional reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Sam Holmes and Bradley Perrett
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 brings Wi-Fi 7, sticks with some 32-bit support
Qualcomm
Today, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, the company’s flagship chip that will be coming to many Android phones over the next few months. Besides the usual newer, better, hopefully faster cores, a big piece of news is the addition of Wi-Fi 7 support so you can get better home wireless—provided you invest in a new router.
Qualcomm has some claims for this new chip. The company says the CPU “improves performance up to 35 percent” and has “up to 40 percent more power efficiency.” The GPU supposedly “delivers up to 25 percent faster performance, with up to 45 percent better power efficiency.” Take both of these claims with a grain of salt, since Qualcomm last year promised a 20 percent CPU improvement that never manifested in shipping products. Even if Qualcomm hits these performance promises, it would still be about a year behind the iPhone. The company is trying to do something about its uncompetitive performance with the (now legally encumbered) Nuvia acquisition, but those chips aren’t ready yet.
Let’s start with the basics. This is a 4 nm chip with an unusual layout containing four different CPU cores, all designed by Arm. The prime core is a 3.2 GHz Arm Cortex X3—that’s all good and expected, and from here, Arm’s recommended layout is three Cortex A710 CPUs for “medium” duty and four A510 CPUs for low-power background processing. Qualcomm isn’t following the recommended layout, though, and after the Cortex X3 it has two different cores doing “medium” duty: a pair of Cortex-A715 CPUs and a pair of last-generation Cortex-A710 CPUs. After that, there are only three—not the expected four—Cortex A510 CPUs doing background duty.
The reason Qualcomm threw a pair of A710s into the mix is probably 32-bit support. Arm’s recommended core layout for this new generation is a bunch of 64-bit-only chips, and that means any 32-bit apps won’t be able to run. This isn’t a problem for most of the world—the Pixel 7 already shipped as the world’s first Android phone that can’t run 32-bit apps (the entire OS isn’t quite 64-bit-only yet). The Google Play Store has required 64-bit binaries since 2019, and today you’d never notice that lack of 32-bit support. For China, though, there is no Google Play Store, and the free-for-all over there means 32-bit support hasn’t been abandoned as quickly. It’s also not clear if Google is ready for full 64-bit support, with the Pixel 7 reportedly still shipping with some 32-bit libraries. Mixing and matching with older cores lets Qualcomm keep 32-bit support rolling for another year.
Qualcomm promises a peak Wi-Fi speed of 5.8Gbps with the new Wi-Fi 7 support, but the big benefit is even more spectrum to share with your neighbors. If you’re in a crowded apartment building with lots of access points, it’s easy to overwhelm the airways and have everyone’s Wi-Fi run poorly. Just like Wi-Fi 6e, Wi-Fi 7 adds an additional block of the spectrum that your devices can choose from, which will help in crowded spaces. The problem is that you’ll need a Wi-Fi 7 access point to see these benefits, and there aren’t many options right now. TP Link recently promised devices in Q1 2023.
Qualcomm was already beaten to the punch with hardware ray-tracing support by Samsung (with AMD’s help) and Arm’s Immortalis GPU, but now the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can do fancy lighting effects, too. I don’t think there are any serious mobile software uses for ray tracing yet.
This is the first Snapdragon chip to include support for AV1, a royalty-free video codec backed by a huge list of heavy-hitters like Amazon, Apple, Arm, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, Nvidia, and Samsung. Netflix and YouTube have gone all-in on AV1 by making support for the codec mandatory for hardware manufacturers seeking to license these services.
We’ll think of this as the SoC for most 2023 flagship smartphones, but Qualcomm says some partners will actually have devices out before the end of the year.
UK’s Truss sticks to policy plan as she breaks silence after market rout
LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Liz Truss said she would stick to her controversial plan to reignite economic growth as she broke her silence on Thursday following nearly a week of chaos in financial markets triggered by her huge tax cuts.
A day after the Bank of England resumed its bond-buying in an emergency move to protect pension funds from partial collapse, Truss blamed the upheaval on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that has caused inflation to spike around the world.
“We had to take urgent action to get our economy growing, get Britain moving, and also deal with inflation, and of course, that means taking controversial and difficult decisions,” she told BBC radio.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
“But I’m prepared to do that as prime minister because what’s important to me is that we get our economy moving.”
Truss, Britain’s 47-year-old former foreign minister, took office on Sept. 6 after winning the governing Conservative Party’s leadership contest, becoming the fourth prime minister in six turbulent years in British politics.
She defeated former finance minister Rishi Sunak by vowing to put an end to “Treasury orthodoxy” with a new economic policy that would cut taxes and regulation, funded by vast government borrowing to snap the economy out of years of stagnant growth.
She dismissed Sunak’s warnings that her plans posed a threat to Britain’s economic standing in the world as “negative, declinist language”.
But her fiscal plan, set out by finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, triggered a crisis of confidence in the government, hammering the value of the pound and government bond prices and jolting global markets.
Ken Griffin, the U.S. billionaire founder of Citadel Securities, one of the world’s biggest market-making firms, said he was worried the damage to Britain’s reputation. “It represents the first time we’ve seen a major developed market, in a very long time, lose confidence from investors,” he said.
UNFUNDED TAX CUTS
Truss said her government would not change course.
Having set out 45 billion pounds of unfunded tax cuts, she said it would in the coming weeks spell out reforms of everything from childcare costs to immigration, planning and financial regulation. A fuller fiscal statement on Nov. 23 will detail the cost of the borrowing and measures to cut debt.
Investors and economists have said they cannot wait another eight weeks for details with borrowing costs elevated and markets volatile. As well as the risk posed to pension funds, the surge in borrowing costs has led to the withdrawal of cheaper mortgage offers and a leap in corporate lending rates.
The BoE’s intervention had an immediate impact in driving down bond yields on Wednesday, but investors still see the central bank increasing rates by at least 1.25 percentage points to 3.5% by Nov. 3, the date of its next scheduled announcement.
Some are betting on an emergency increase before then, according to the prices of rate swaps.
Rates are seen rising further to 4.5% in December and 6% by June, levels that would likely hit house prices and offset any gains from a cut in property transaction taxes that was announced last week.
Economists mostly expect a less severe pace of rate increases.
“This is the right plan,” Truss told the BBC. Asked if it was time to reverse course, she said: “No, it isn’t.”
Yields on British government bonds rose moderately on Thursday, having plunged a day earlier on the BoE’s move to temporarily buy long-dated debt and halt a gilts sell-off that threatened the country’s pension funds.
Sterling pared some earlier losses to trade down 0.5% against the dollar at $1.0797, taking its fall in September to almost 7% and its fall year-to-date to almost 20%.
Simon Wolfson, the head of major British retailer Next (NXT.L), warned that the plunge would create a second cost-of-living crisis in Britain after the surge in energy costs. He cut the group’s forecasts after a slowdown in August.
CRITIQUED BY MARKETS
Investors, businesses and consumers are now waiting for the government to announce more details of how it plans to get the economy growing more quickly, which will be key to fixing Britain’s increasingly stretched public finances.
“Every day, every week, every month, the government will now be critiqued by markets and businesses on how serious they are about growth and about their fiscal responsibility to pay back debt,” Tony Danker, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said late on Wednesday.
Former BoE governor Mark Carney also criticized the plan, saying the release of only a “partial budget”, without the accompanying scrutiny from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, had unnerved investors.
“It’s important to have (the budget) subject to independent and, dare I say, expert scrutiny,” Carney said.
Kwarteng and Truss must now defend their strategy, and try to calm nerves in the Conservative Party which is due to start it annual conference on Sunday.
“There is no confidence in the Truss government right now,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said. “The problem is not fiscal spending per se, the problem is that people just don’t trust what she is doing.
“We just avoided a bad sovereign debt crisis in the UK because the Bank of England changed dramatically its plans and jumped in.”
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Writing by William Schomberg and Kate Holton; Additional reporting by David Milliken, Kylie MacLellan, Paul Sandle, Elizabeth Piper and James Davey in London, and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bangalore; Editing by Catherine Evans and Alex Richardson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Oil sticks near three-month highs despite China lockdowns
The Homer Ferrington gas drilling rig, operated by Noble Energy and drilling in an offshore block on concession from the Cypriot government, is seen during President Demetris Christofias’ visit in the east Mediterranean, Nicosia November 21, 2011. REUTERS/Cyprus Public Information Office/Handout
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) – Oil prices hovered near three-month highs on Thursday after parts of Shanghai imposed new COVID-19 lockdown measures although China’s stronger-than-expected exports in May offered a boost to the demand outlook.
Brent crude futures for August dipped 14 cents or 0.1% to $123.44 a barrel at 1045 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for July was at $121.88 a barrel, down 23 cents or 0.2%.
China’s May exports jumped 16.9% from a year earlier as easing COVID curbs allowed some factories to restart, the fastest growth since January this year and more than double analysts’ expectations. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
“Oil prices have remained flat, with the lockdown of the Minhang district in Shanghai spurring China COVID-zero part two fears, crimping demand in Asia today,” said Jeffrey Halley, OANDA’s senior market analyst for Asia Pacific.
“That said, it is indicative of how tight supplies are that oil has not retreated on that news today.”
Parts of Shanghai began imposing new lockdown restrictions on Thursday, with residents of Minhang district ordered to stay home for two days to control COVID transmission risks. read more
“The export performance is impressive in the context of the country’s multi-city lockdowns in the month,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a note.
Meanwhile, peak summer gasoline demand in the United States continued to provide a floor to prices.
U.S. gasoline stocks unexpectedly dropped, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday, indicating resilience in demand for the motor fuel during the peak summer period despite sky-high pump prices. read more
“It’s hard to see significant downside in the coming months, with the gasoline market likely to only tighten further as we move deeper into driving season,” said ING’s head of commodities research Warren Patterson.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Additional reporting by Florence Tan and Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Jane Merriman and Edmund Blair
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Citigroup Sticks With Its Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate, While GE Drops Its Rules
Citigroup Inc.
C -1.25%
is sticking with its Covid-19 vaccine mandate for its U.S. workers.
General Electric Co.
GE 0.68%
is not.
The two American companies are going in opposite directions after the Supreme Court blocked Thursday the Biden administration’s rule that big employers require their employees to get vaccines or submit to testing.
Citigroup, which has about 65,000 employees in the U.S., said it had reached 99% compliance one day before a Jan. 14 deadline the bank had set for U.S. workers to get vaccinated or request an accommodation for medical or religious reasons.
“Our goal has always been to keep everyone at Citi, and we sincerely hope all of our colleagues take action to comply,” the company’s human-resources chief Sara Wechter said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday after the high court’s decision.
The bank previously told employees anyone who was still unvaccinated would be placed on unpaid leave, according to people familiar with the matter. Their employment would terminate on Jan. 31, the people said. Saturday, after a wave of last minute vaccinations, around 150 employees were being placed on leave, one of the people said. They could keep their jobs if they comply by the end of the month.
General Electric suspended its remaining Covid-19 vaccine requirements.
Photo:
alwyn scott/Reuters
Citigroup and GE announced vaccine requirements for U.S. staff in October, after the Biden administration said large employers and government contractors would be required to enforce vaccination mandates. Both companies count the U.S. government as an important client.
At the start of 2021, GE had about 56,000 employees in the U.S. It originally told them they were required to get vaccinated or seek a religious or medical accommodation by early December. It suspended that policy in December after a court challenge temporarily blocked the rule for federal contractors.
The manufacturer still required U.S. employees to show proof of vaccination or submit to testing under the White House’s mandate for companies with more than 100 workers, until the Supreme Court blocked that policy on Thursday.
GE on Friday suspended its remaining Covid-19 vaccine requirements, a spokeswoman said. The company said most of U.S. employees are vaccinated and it was on track to comply with the federal contractor executive order before the court injunction.
Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com and David Benoit at david.benoit@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
US sticks with 8-month timeline on booster shots – for now; delta variant may double hospitalization risk: Today’s COVID-19 updates
The U.S. is sticking with it eight-month timeline for COVID-19 booster shots, at least for now, the nation’s top infectious disease expert said Sunday.
President Joe Biden had suggested Friday that the administration was weighing whether to give booster shots as early as five months after vaccination as the contagious delta variant drives up transmission rates across the U.S. Biden had cited advice he received from the Israeli prime minister.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that officials are open to shifting the recommendation based on evolving information, but for now the eight months stands.
“We’re not changing it, but we are very open to new data as it comes in. We’re going to be very flexible about it,” Fauci said.
He said there was “no doubt” in his mind that people will need to get an extra shot after they have received the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The Biden administration has set Sept. 20 as the launch date for booster shots, pending approval from the FDA and CDC.
Also in the news:
►The risks of getting a blood clot if you contract COVID-19 is far greater than if you receive the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines, according to a new BMJ study. Lead author Julia Hippisley-Cox told USA TODAY the purpose of the study was to demonstrate any risks associated with the vaccine are substantially less than with the COVID-19 infection.
►Contact tracers say the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota is the source of at least 178 COVID-19 infections across five different states. Since the start of the rally, cases in the state have shot up, and the epicenter of the rally, Meade County, is reporting the highest rate of cases in the state.
► Two Oregon counties have requested refrigerated trucks from the state because of mortuaries being overwhelmed with COVID-related deaths. Tillamook County Emergency Director Gordon McCraw said it was not possible to transport bodies to other counties because of infection among staff members.
► Newspaper reporter Brendan Quealy, of the Record-Eagle, said he was punched in the face while covering an anti-masking event near Traverse City, Michigan. Quealy said two men confronted him and one of them shoved him into a fence and punched him in the face with both fists.
📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 38.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 637,200 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 216.2 million cases and 4.4 million deaths. More than 173.1 million Americans – 52.1% of the population – have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re reading: COVID-19 is surging among America’s youth. Doctors worry children of color, who disproportionately suffer from lack of access to health care, obesity and other chronic conditions, face the greatest risk. Read more.
Keep refreshing this page for the latest news. Want more? Sign up for USA TODAY’s Coronavirus Watch newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox and join our Facebook group.
Delta variant may double risk of hospitalization among unvaccinated
The highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus may double the risk of hospitalization among unvaccinated people, according to a new study.
The U.K. study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, is part of a growing body of evidence that suggests the latest delta variant may be causing more severe illness than prior strains.
“This large national study found a higher hospital admission or emergency care attendance risk for patients with COVID-19 infected with the delta variant compared with the alpha variant,” researchers found.
The study included more than 40,000 patients with COVID-19, who underwent genome sequencing to determine which variant of the virus they had. Most were unvaccinated. During the course of the study from March 29 to May 23, the delta variant became more prevalent.
Pandemic complicates Louisiana disaster prep as Hurricane Ida hits
As explosive Hurricane Ida roared ashore in Louisiana on Sunday, the pandemic presented complications to the typical array of disaster preparations. Louisiana has been overwhelmed with cases, and most hospitals were preparing to continue operating through the storm. Gov. John Bel Edwards said shelters would operate with reduced capacities “to reflect the realities of COVID.”
The storm arrived on the 16th anniversary of Katrina’s landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. Most of the city flooded, almost 2,000 people died, and federal officials estimated the damage at $125 billion. Ida was nearing Category 5 strength as it approached the Louisiana coast.
New COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across Louisiana waned this week, but the state remains firmly in the grips of the worst yet fourth-wave COVID-19 surge. In the past four weeks, Louisiana has reported a total of 99,368 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the largest four-week total the state has seen since the pandemic began.
Louisiana’s Department of Health announced Friday that given the threat posed by Hurricane Ida to the state’s Gulf Coast, it will not be operating
– Andrew Capps-Lafayette Daily Advertiser
Texas man who opposed masks, COVID measures dies of the disease
A man who led efforts in his Central Texas community against mask wearing and other preventative measures died from COVID-19.
Caleb Wallace, 30, died Saturday, his wife, Jessica Wallace, said on a GoFundMe page, the San Angelo Standard-Times reported. He was a father of three children, and his wife was pregnant with their fourth child.
Wallace helped organize “The Freedom Rally” in San Angelo on July 4, 2020, in which people carried signs that criticized masks, business closures, the science behind COVID-19 and the media. In April, he demanded the San Angelo school district rescind all its COVID protocols.
Jessica Wallace told the newspaper her husband began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms on July 26 but refused to get tested or go to the hospital. He instead took high doses of Vitamin C, zinc aspirin and ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine that officials have urged people not to take.
Florida conservative radio host who refused COVID vaccine dies
Marc Bernier, a talk radio host in Daytona Beach, Florida, for 30 years and an outspoken opponent of vaccines, died after a three-week battle with COVID-19, WNDB and Southern Stone Communications announced on Twitter Saturday night.
Bernier, 65, of Ormond Beach, has been remembered in recent days as a conservative who sought out and aired others’ points of view while airing a morning comment, three-hour afternoon show, weekend shows and specials, such as remote town halls and political debates.
Bernier had issues with vaccines for years. Mel Stack, an attorney and friend who regularly advertised on the program, said Bernier’s anti-vaccination views were not based on politics, but personal experience based on how he believed vaccines had impacted people near to him.
– Mark Harper, Daytona Beach News-Journal
Unvaccinated, unmasked teacher causes school outbreak
An unvaccinated, unmasked elementary school teacher infected 22 students and four parents with COVID-19 in California, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While experiencing nasal congestion and fatigue, the teacher taught for two days before getting a COVID-19 test. Although the teacher thought the symptoms were simply allergies, she later tested positive.
The elementary school requires teachers and students to mask while indoors, but the CDC reported that the teacher was unmasked while reading aloud to the class.
“The outbreak’s attack rate highlights the delta variant’s increased transmissibility and potential for rapid spread, especially in unvaccinated populations such as schoolchildren too young for vaccination,” according to the report.
– Gabriela Miranda
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US sticks with 8-month timeline for booster shots for now: COVID news
SF Gay Men’s Chorus Sticks by Controversial Song, Claim Death Threats
San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus
The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus is not backing down from a controversial song in the wake of what they claim is a wave of death threats coming their way.
Here’s the deal … the SFGMC recently posted a song across social media where they satirically sing, “We’ll convert your children,” but they say it’s being taken out of context and they’re getting lots of hateful backlash, including violent threats.
The Chorus is laying the blame on “far-right conservative media” … claiming the song’s tongue-in-cheek humor is being lost on folks and instead used to “support a narrative that suits their intolerant and hateful needs.”
Their intent with the “convert” line is a double-entendre — when you hear the full song, they’re singing they’ll convert children “not to hate.”
The SFGMC claims the death threats are coming their way in emails and social media comments, and the group says it won’t be threatened and will not back down in the face of violence. The Chorus says it’s working with national and local law enforcement to address the alleged threats.
The Chorus is sticking by the song, but they say they’re making the video private so it’s not easily copied and taken out of context on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and other websites.
SpaceX sticks 75th Falcon rocket landing after launching 60 more Starlink satellites – Spaceflight Now
Launching through a blanket of low-hanging clouds and light mist, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thundered into the sky over Florida’s Space Coast early Thursday and delivered 60 more Starlink internet satellites to orbit. The rocket’s first stage touched down on SpaceX’s floating landing platform in the Atlantic Ocean to complete its eighth trip to space and back.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket flashed to life and lifted off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:24:54 a.m. EST (0824:54 GMT). Fifteen seconds later, the liquid-fueled launcher disappeared into a cloud deck over the seaside spaceport, leaving behind an orange flow that slowly faded with the roar of the Falcon 9’s powerful main engines.
Arcing toward the northeast, the Falcon 9 exceeded the speed of sound and dropped its first stage booster about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. A single Merlin engine on the upper stage ignited to continue the flight into space, while the first stage descended to a propulsive landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” positioned about 400 miles (630 kilometers) downrange from Cape Canaveral.
The successful landing marked the 75th intact recovery of a Falcon rocket booster since December 2015. The booster on Thursday mission — designated B1049 — made its eighth launch and landing after debuting in September 2018, tying another first stage for the most number of flights in SpaceX’s fleet.
A Falcon 9 booster on SpaceX’s previous launch Feb. 15 failed to land on the drone ship after one of its nine main engines shut down prematurely during ascent.
After reaching a preliminary parking orbit, the upper stage coasted halfway around the world before firing its engine again for a one-second orbit adjustment burn over the Indian Ocean. The 60 Starlink satellites deployed from the Falcon 9’s upper stage at 4:29 a.m. EST (0929 GMT) while flying 172 miles (278 kilometers) above Earth just south of New Zealand.
The on-target launch came after a series of delays kept the mission grounded since late January. The delays were caused by weather and unspecified technical issues, and two other Falcon 9 missions with Starlink satellites took off from nearby pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station while the flight from pad 39A stayed earthbound.
The change in the order of missions meant the batch launched Thursday was on the 20th Falcon 9 flight dedicated to carrying Starlink satellites, despite its designation on the military-run Eastern Range as Starlink V1.0-L17. Launches No. 18 and 19 ended up flying before No. 17.
Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket with 60 more satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink internet network.
The launcher quickly disappeared into clouds over Florida’s Space Coast.https://t.co/UCwNCJyyHk pic.twitter.com/qjFGJRzVWH
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) March 4, 2021
The 60 Starlink satellites, each weighing about a quarter-ton, will unfurl their solar panels and switch on ion krypton thrusters to begin raising their altitude to 341 miles (550 kilometers) in the coming weeks. At that altitude, the satellites will join more than 1,000 active Starlink satellites flying in orbits inclined 53 degrees to the equator, taking them above nearly all of the world’s populated regions.
SpaceX has launched 1,205 Starlink satellites to date with the 60 fresh relay stations delivered to orbit Thursday. But 63 of the Starlinks have been intentionally deorbited or re-entered the atmosphere after failing, and another 20 are not maneuvering or appear to be in the process of deorbiting, according to a tally of Starlink satellites from Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and respected tracker of spaceflight activity.
SpaceX is well on the way to finish deployment of its initial tranche of 1,584 Starlink stations — including spares — later this year. SpaceX won’t stop there, with plans to launch additional orbital “shells” of Starlink satellites into polar orbit to enable global coverage, with a first-generation fleet totaling some 4,400 spacecraft.
The Federal Communications Commission has authorized SpaceX to eventually operate up to 12,000 Starlink satellites.
The company is already providing an interim level of service over parts of the Earth, such as Canada, northern parts of the United States, and the United Kingdom. Beta testing of the Starlink services is already underway with users in those regions. SpaceX is also accepting pre-orders from Starlink consumers, who can pay $99 to reserve their place in line to get Starlink service when it becomes available in their area. For people in the southern United States and other lower-latitude regions, that should come by late 2021, SpaceX says.
Once confirmed, customers will pay $499 for a Starlink antenna and modem, plus $50 in shipping and handling, SpaceX says. A subscription will run $99 per month.
“Starlink continues to improve as SpaceX deploys additional infrastructure and capability, averaging two Starlink launches per month, to add significant on-orbit capacity alongside activation of additional gateways to improve performance and expand service coverage areas across the country,” SpaceX wrote in the filing.
Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, tweeted Feb. 9 that SpaceX’s Starlink subsidiary will go public once it has a predictable cash flow.
“Once we can predict cash flow reasonably well, Starlink will IPO,” Musk tweeted.
Until then, SpaceX will be spending cash at a high rate to maintain the Starlink network’s high-tempo deployment, from satellite launches at an average pace of every couple of weeks to the manufacturing of user ground terminals. SpaceX has said the entire project could cost more than $10 billion, but Musk has said the revenue opportunities are even higher, providing resources for SpaceX to advance its audacious plans to send people to Mars.
The centerpiece of SpaceX’s Mars plans is a next-generation fully reusable rocket called the Starship, which the company says will eventually replace the company’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.
The Falcon 9 launch early Thursday occurred less than a half-day after at atmospheric test flight of a Starship prototype from SpaceX’s development facility in South Texas. The Starship test vehicle made a controlled landing, a first for a Starship descending from high altitude, and a major step forward for the rocket program.
But the prototype exploded a few minutes later, scattering debris across the landing site on Texas Gulf Coast. Nevertheless, SpaceX declared the test a success.
Sixty more Starlink internet satellites are in orbit.
The 60 quarter-ton satellites deployed from a Falcon 9 rocket while flying 172 miles (278 kilometers) above Earth south of New Zealand.
This brings the total number of Starlinks launched to 1,205.https://t.co/UCwNCJyyHk pic.twitter.com/HmxMe27N5b
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) March 4, 2021
SpaceX’s jam-packed launch schedule continues with the next Falcon 9 mission set to blast off Sunday night from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with 60 more Starlink satellites. That flight is scheduled for 10:41 p.m. EST Sunday (0341 GMT Monday), followed by more Falcon 9 launches with Starlink satellites in the coming weeks.
Email the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.