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Good morning and welcome to Wednesday.
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⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.53 minutes to read. (With the 360° view: +3.41 minutes.)
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👇📰 Quick Bits
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💉🗽The Key to NYC
Image: CDC
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🎁 DONUT Headline: NYC will soon become the first major U.S. city to require proof of vaccination to dine, work out, or attend performances indoors, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced yesterday.
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“If we’re going to stop the Delta variant, the time is now,” said the mayor. “This is going to make clear, you want to enjoy everything great in this summer of New York City? Go get vaccinated.”
The 🔑 to the city… New Yorkers will still be able to dine outdoors without showing proof of vaccination – but to enter indoor venues, they must use the “Key to NYC Pass” (the city’s new digital app), the state’s Excelsior app, or a paper vaccination card. Masks will not be required.
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Fifty-five percent of all New Yorkers including minors are fully vaccinated, according to city health data. About 60 percent of individuals have received at least one shot.
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Children under 12, who don’t have a federally authorized vaccine available yet, are excluded from the requirement..
👁️ Looking ahead… The new policy will be phased in over the coming weeks and implemented August 16. By the week of September 13, the city will begin inspections and enforcement.
🔭 Zoom out… With cases in the U.S. jumping 148% in the past two weeks and hospitalizations increasing by 73%, other cities could soon follow suit. Similar mandates were put in place in France and Italy over the past few weeks, leading to an increase in vaccinations, but also a cyberattack targeting one of Italy's official vaccine booking sites and protests in France that looked like this. 👇
From the Left: CNBC
From the Right: WSJ
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🇧🇾 The Olympics & Belarus
Image:
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🎁 DONUT Headline: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched a formal investigation into allegations that Belarus attempted to force one of its Olympic athletes to return home.
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Let’s back up… Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is a 24-year-old sprinter from Belarus who typically competes in the 100m and 200m. The Tokyo Games were her first Olympics.
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Last week, she alleged on Instagram that her coaches signed her up for the 4x400m relay on short notice - an event she didn’t train for. She said members of the team then tried to force her onto a flight back to Minsk due “to the fact that I spoke on my Instagram
about the negligence of our coaches.” She refused to board and invoked the help of authorities at the airport.
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Belarusian state media reported she was removed on doctors’ advice about her “emotional, psychological state.” Tsimanouskaya denies suffering from mental health issues and says she never spoke with doctors at the Olympic village.
Friendly reminder: the Belarusian regime isn’t known for being friendly... Leader Aleksandr Lukashenko is referred to by some as “Europe’s last dictator,” and is known for stifling dissent since his rise to power in 1994.
🔭 Zoom out: Regime escape at international events isn’t uncommon. In September 2004, the Sri Lankan national handball team arrived in Munich to play a series of matches against local players as part of a tournament organized by a nonprofit.
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Plot twist: The handball team was fake. One day, the 16 players and eight coaches went out for a run and never returned, but left a note saying they had fled to France. (There's even a movie about it.)
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Melbourne Olympics, 1956: Members of the Hungarian Olympic team defected after they discovered the Soviet Union stamped out the Hungarian Revolution in Budapest.
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London Olympics, 2012: Fifteen athletes from several African countries went missing, and several of them later requested asylum in the UK.
👁️ Looking ahead… Tsimanouskaya was granted asylum in Poland on Monday and is currently in a safe place, per the IOC. Her husband, Arseniy Zdanevich, has fled the Belarusian capital, Minsk, for Kiev. "I love my country and I didn't betray my country," she told the BBC. "This is about the mistakes that have been made by our officials at the Olympics.”
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The IOC has requested that the Belarus National Olympic Committee submit its report on the incident by the end of Tuesday. We unfortunately weren’t able to find it or get access before this went to print (☹️) – but we’ll update you when/if we do. (😊)
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🔥 The Hot Corner
💬 Heard Through the Grapevine… "Based on the investigation, and as set forth in greater detail below, we reach the conclusion that the Governor sexually harassed a number of State employees through unwelcome and unwanted touching, as well as by making numerous offensive and sexually suggestive comments." –An excerpt from a 168-page report by the state AG's office concluding NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women in violation of state and federal law.
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In a videotaped statement, Gov. Cuomo called the report biased and untrue. "My attorney... has done a response to each allegation, and the facts are much different than what has been portrayed... I want you to know directly from me that I never touched anyone inappropriately, or made inappropriate sexual advances."
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President Biden and other top Democratic lawmakers called for Cuomo to resign following the report's release. (From the Left | From the Right)
🔢 Stat(s) of the Day... Over one-quarter (27%) of Japan's jobs could be displaced by automation by 2030, according to a McKinsey analysis.
📖 Worth Your Time… Operation Fox Hunt: How China Exports Repression Using a Network of Spies Hidden in Plain Sight
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🗣👂 Dose of Discussion
🗳️ A Tale Of Two Parties
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Yesterday, we covered the Republican primary for Ohio's 15th Congressional District, widely seen as a proxy battle for the future of the GOP. Mike Carey, a Trump-endorsed energy lobbyist, emerged the victor. (From the Left | From
the Right)
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In part two, we're taking a look at the Democratic primary for Ohio's 11th Congressional District.
🔵 The Future of the Left
Image: Time
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🎁 DONUT Headline: A special election primary for a vacant Ohio House seat pits the Democratic establishment against the party's progressive wing.
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Party primaries in the race to fill the Ohio House seat vacated by Marcia Fudge (D), who left to become the Biden administration's secretary of housing and urban development, were held yesterday.
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Fudge was first elected in 2008 and won every re-election since with at least 79% of the vote, meaning the winner of the Democratic primary probably decides November’s ultimate winner.
🤿 A deeper dive... The Democratic field consists of two primary candidates – former state senator Nina Turner, who most recently served as national co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, and Shontel Brown, who currently serves as chairwoman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.
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Turner has received endorsements from many well-known progressives in Washington, including Sanders, Sen. Ed Markey, and all six "Squad" members.
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Brown has the support of several establishment Democrats, including Hilary Clinton and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.
The contest is the most expensive House race of the year so far, according to OpenSecrets.org (with $6+ million in combined spending as of mid-July).
✋ Yes, but... Special elections typically draw lower voter turnout, meaning the results are not necessarily a reflection of the overall sentiment in that area.
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Regardless of who advances, either of the two candidates would continue the more than two-decade-long tradition of Black women representing Ohio's 11th district in Congress.
👁️ Looking ahead... The general election is scheduled for November 2.
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📣🗣💬 This Week’s Poll Question
Do you agree with NYC’s decision to require proof of vaccination to dine indoors, work out, or attend indoor performances?
Yes
No
Unsure
+Note: Results and the most thoughtful responses will be featured in tomorrow’s newsletter.
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🛸🌄📲 Calling from the Future…
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🍄 Hungry Fungus Among Us
The Biohm fungus digesting plastic, as seen through a microscope. Image: Biohm
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🎁 DONUT Headline: Engineers at UK bio-manufacturing firm Biohm accidentally discovered a fungus that can break down plastic waste. (As Bob Ross would say: “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.”)
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Samantha Jenkins, a lead biotech engineer at Biohm, was studying several different strains of fungus for use in bio-based insulation panels when she found one of the strains had eaten its way through the plastic sponge intended to seal it in its jar.
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The unforeseen escape was not only surprising, but exciting – it could further the cause of scientists around the world who are working to ease the environmental burden of single-use plastic waste.
Biohm is working towards making the plastic-hungry strain of fungus an even more efficient digester by testing its appetite on polyethylene terephthalate, a type of plastic widely used in bottles.
Keep reading.
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🤗 Daily Dose of Positive
🏡 Tiny Homes, Big Hearts
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Images: Linda Brown
Real estate agent Linda Brown has made it her mission to ensure no one in her Missouri hometown has to sleep on the streets.
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After raising nearly $5 million from her local community, Linda and her husband purchased a mobile-home park and successfully erected 31 tiny homes for the city’s homeless.
The 400-square-foot dwellings come fully furnished and cost just $300 per month in rent. Most tenants receive government disability checks of $725 per month.
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Residents of the tiny homes are allowed to stay as long as they’d like, provided they remain “good neighbors” to the community.
The mobile park, called Eden Village, is the first of five tiny home neighborhoods in the works.
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“[Linda] showed me I was valuable and that my potential shouldn’t be wasted. She made me feel like I belonged somewhere.”
Keep reading.
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💡 Dose of Knowledge
🎣 Go Fish
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What type of seafood do fishermen usually reel in on the show Deadliest Catch?
A) Shark
B) Crab
C) Lobster
D) Squid
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(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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💡 Dose of Knowledge Answer
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B) Crab
Deadliest Catch debuted on The Discovery Channel in spring 2005 and takes viewers inside the lives of commercial crab fishermen on different vessels in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska.
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In the 1980s, the job was at its deadly peak – an average of 37 fishermen died on the job each year.
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The introduction of new safety regulations gradually led to a decline in the death toll to 11 fishermen per year between 2003-2008.
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🍩 Daily Sprinkle
“The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.”
–Arnold Palmer (1929-2016)
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