Month: July 2021

Categories
Politics

Schumer to push infrastructure invoice, finances decision this week

Schumer to push infrastructure bill, budget resolution this week

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is flanked by Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) as he speaks to reporters, follow the weekly Senate Democrats’ luncheon at the US Capitol in Washington, USA, July 13, 2021.

Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., plans to proceed with the Senate passing a bipartisan infrastructure bill worth $ 1.2 trillion this week, despite the lack of consensus among the Senators negotiating the legislation about what will be in there.

Again this week, Schumer wants the Senate Democrats to agree to a $ 3.5 trillion budget dissolution, which they want to pass without a Republican vote.

Schumer is under heavy pressure to advance both of President Joe Biden’s domestic spending packages before Senators leave Washington early next month for a scheduled August break.

But several Republicans, whose votes Schumer must exceed 60 to move the infrastructure bill forward, have sounded the alarm over the hasty schedule and threatened to vote against efforts to postpone the bill before negotiators have finalized it.

“We shouldn’t have an arbitrary Wednesday deadline,” said Ohio Senator Rob Portman, the leading Republican negotiating the deal, on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “We should come up with the legislation when it’s ready.”

However, Schumer sees the deadline as a crucial lever to force the bipartisan group of 22 senators to come to an agreement on difficult issues.

None are harder than paying for the $ 579 billion in new infrastructure they were planning to spend earlier this year.

Portman said he spent the past weekend working on the deal with members of the Senate group and the White House.

But rather than adding to the list of potential sources of funding for the bill, Portman said Republicans had recently removed a provision that would fund part of the infrastructure upgrade by collecting unpaid taxes.

“Everyone had productive talks, and it is important to keep the two-pronged process going,” said Schumer in the Senate on Thursday.

“All parties involved in the bipartisan talks on the Infrastructure Act must now finalize their agreement so the Senate can begin examining this bill next week,” he said.

Schumer announced that he will file a motion on Monday to proceed with a Shell bill to be used as a “vehicle” for the infrastructure bill once it is drafted. The Shell Bill contains a permit to finance highways that has already been passed by the House of Representatives.

This would initiate a further process vote on Wednesday. If 60 senators vote in favor of the Cloture appeal, Schumer’s office says it triggers up to 30 hours of debate in the Senate, followed by a vote on the motion to continue the Shell legislation.

During the subsequent amendment process, Schumer would file an amendment that swapped the Shell Act for the actual text of the final bipartisan infrastructure bill.

CNBC policy

Read more about CNBC’s political coverage:

Aside from this week’s scheduled vote, the other major test that lies ahead of us for the infrastructure package is what is known as the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office’s bill, an estimate of how much the package would add to the federal deficit based on how much the proposed one Funding would actually pay.

Schumer has also set an ambitious deadline for his group on Wednesday to reach an internal agreement to move forward with their massive budget dissolution, including instructions on reconciliation.

If they could invoke this parliamentary maneuver, the Democrats could pass the $ 3.5 trillion budget with just a simple Senate majority – 50:50 50:50 with the Republicans – instead of the 60 votes that the GOP could require through the filibuster rules.

But the timeline is also squeezed there. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, who will lead the process of drafting the bill, only approved the topline number last week.

The package will likely include money for a universal preschool, free community college, expanded health insurance, subsidized childcare, extended family and sick leave, new low-income housing, and nationwide green energy projects.

If passed the Democratic way, the bill would represent both the largest expansion of the social safety net in decades and one of Washington’s most comprehensive efforts to curb climate change and prepare the country for its effects.

Republicans, meanwhile, have resisted the prospect of pumping trillions of dollars more into the economy as inflation rises.

The Democratic budget decision was “totally inadequate for a country already suffering from dramatic inflation,” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Said last week.

However, many of the provisions in Biden’s two expense accounts are popular with voters. The Democrats are relying on this public approval to get the bills through in the next few weeks and months.

The party’s election hopes in 2022 likely depend on whether Biden’s two-pronged agenda actually goes through and whether Biden can maintain public support for it through November next year.

Biden will be promoting the two bills, dubbed the “Build Back Better” agenda by the White House, on Monday in remarks on the economic recovery from the Covid pandemic.

The president has publicly tried to assert himself above the battle during the infrastructure negotiations.

“There may be some minor adjustments to the payouts and that will depend on what Congress wants to do,” Biden told reporters Wednesday afternoon after meeting with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill. the White House. “I’m not sure what can happen, exactly how it’s paid for,” he added.

But privately, senators from both parties have been in almost constant communication with important White House envoys over the past few days.

Portman said he spoke to White House negotiators about details of the infrastructure bill on Saturday night. On Thursday, a group of Senators met with the White House team on Capitol Hill.

As the House of Representatives returns to Capitol Hill this week, Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., And her aides are working behind the scenes to avert potential problems the moderate Democrats face with the $ 3.5 trillion budget plan, Punchbowl News reported Monday morning .

Pelosi has proposed that the Senate pass both the infrastructure deal and the draft budget before adopting them in the House of Representatives.

“There will be no infrastructure bill unless the Senate passes a reconciliation bill,” Pelosi said last month.

– Christina Wilkie reported from Washington and Kevin Breuninger from New York.

Categories
Entertainment

17 New York Arts Organizations Are Amongst These Receiving $30 Million

17 New York Arts Organizations Are Among Those Receiving $30 Million

The Queens Museum is among 46 cultural nonprofit organizations selected for a new $30 million program by Bloomberg Philanthropies that is intended to support improving technology at the groups and helping them stabilize and thrive in the wake of the pandemic. A Bloomberg Tech Fellow is being appointed at each organization, the philanthropies announced Tuesday.

Heryte Tequame, assistant director of communications and digital projects at the museum, was chosen as its fellow in what is known as the Digital Accelerator program and will be in charge of developing a digital project of her choice. In an interview she said that in 2020, the museum “realized where we needed to expand our capacity and invest more.”

“I think now we’re really taking the time to see what we can do that has longevity,” Tequame said. “And not just being responsive, but really being proactive and having a real future-facing strategy.”

The organizations don’t know exactly how much of the $30 million each will receive yet, but Tequame said she wants to use at least some of it on the museum’s permanent collection.

Another recipient, Harlem Stage, selected Deirdre May, senior director of digital content and marketing, as its tech fellow.

That performing arts center — which largely focuses on artists of color — aims to use the assistance in part to increase accessibility, Patricia Cruz, its chief executive and artistic director, said in an interview. “People who cannot leave their homes, for example, would be able to see some of the finest artistic performances that could be made,” Cruz said, because “that’s the core of what we do.”

The 46 organizations selected for the program include nonprofits in the United States and Britain. Among them are 26 in the United States, and 17 of those are in New York City, including the Apollo Theater, the Ghetto Film School and the Tenement Museum. The chief executive of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Patricia E. Harris, said in a statement that when the pandemic hit, cultural organizations had to get creative to keep their (virtual) doors open.

“Now we’re excited to launch the Accelerator program to help more arts organizations sustain innovations and investments,” Harris said, “and strengthen tech and management practices that are key to their long-term success.”

As Cruz from Harlem Stage put it, “We’re ready to be accelerated.”

Categories
Health

What You Don’t Know About Meals Allergic reactions

What You Don’t Know About Food Allergies

The prevalence of severe food allergies ranges from 10 percent in 2-year-olds and 7.1 percent in children between 14 and 17 to 10.8 percent in adults aged 18 and over. Although milk, egg, wheat, and soy allergies are often overcome in infants and toddlers, others in the Big 9 almost always persist for life. And whoever was allergy-free as a teenager doesn’t necessarily have to stay that way. New food allergies can develop at any age.

According to Dr. Scott H. Safe, allergist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and co-authors: “Remarkably, about half of US adults with food allergies report developing at least one of their food allergies in adulthood, the shellfish allergy being for most of these cases is responsible. “

The only real food allergies are adverse immunological reactions, explained Dr. Safer. The body reacts to an otherwise harmless food like a life-threatening infection and starts a large-scale offensive. Symptoms can include hives, difficulty breathing, vomiting, or anaphylaxis – a severe, potentially fatal shock reaction that occurs within seconds or minutes of exposure to an allergen, sometimes in tiny amounts. For this reason, most airlines no longer offer passengers peanuts – simply spraying peanut dust can be fatal for some people with peanut allergies.

More than 40 percent of food allergic children and half of food allergic adults experience at least one severe reaction in their lifetime. Among those allergic to one or more of the Big 9 allergens, severe reaction rates exceed 27 percent, with peanut allergy topping the list at 59.2 percent in children and 67.8 percent in adults with peanut allergy.

However, many people who believe they have a food allergy don’t when tested with a blind oral provocation, which involves testing foods under medical supervision to see if a child is responding, the gold standard for diagnosing Food allergies. Others mistakenly view all kinds of food side effects – from upset stomach to headaches – as allergies. Food intolerances, for example to lactose, the natural sugar in milk, are not an immune reaction, but result from a deficiency in the enzyme lactase. Many Asians develop redness and redness when consuming alcohol because they lack an enzyme to digest it. Other people may think they are allergic because they are experiencing drug-like reactions, such as being extremely nervous from the caffeine in coffee and tea.

Sometimes long-term avoidance of a food can lead to an allergic reaction when that food is eventually consumed. This can happen to children with skin allergies who avoid milk; they may experience an allergic reaction later when they finally consume it. Occupational exposure, the use of skin care products, even tick bites can sometimes lead to food allergies in adulthood if both are cross-reactive with an allergenic substance.

And while allergy-prone families have historically been advised not to expose their children to peanuts until the age of 3 (advice that likely contributed to the current explosion in peanut allergies in children), it now appears that introducing it early – at 6 months – a highly allergenic food is actually protective and reduces the risk of a later reaction, said Dr. Safer.

Categories
World News

U.S. warning about Hong Kong alerts Washington might do extra: Lawyer

U.S. warning about Hong Kong signals Washington could do more: Lawyer

The U.S. has issued a warning to U.S. companies operating in Hong Kong — signaling that Washington could take further action, says a lawyer who specializes in international trade compliance.

Adam Smith, a partner at law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said Friday’s financial and regulatory risks advisory was “quite substantial” but it “doesn’t actually do anything with respect to changing the rules” right now.

However, it does indicate “there’s a lot more the U.S. could do” from a policy perspective, he told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Monday.

The nine-page advisory on Friday warned that U.S. firms are encountering several risks posed by China’s national security law in Hong Kong. Washington also announced sanctions on seven Chinese officials for violating Hong Kong’s autonomy.

Possible next steps

In response to Beijing’s crackdown on the former British colony, Smith said, what would “really change the nature of engagement and risk for parties in Hong Kong” would be sanctions on organizations, entities and institutions, which have been absent so far.

Sanctions on individuals can be a challenge to U.S. firms in Hong Kong, but the “real difficulty” would come from restrictions on organizations that businesses need to interact with frequently, he said.

People wearing face masks crossing a street at Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district on Feb. 16, 2021.

Zhang Wei | China News Service | Getty Images

Hong Kong’s attraction

For now, however, there remains “too much opportunity” in Hong Kong for businesses to move out of the city.

“Hong Kong … still has an unbelievable amount of human capital that many companies still need,” he said.

Kurt Tong, a former consul general representing the U.S., and chief of mission in Hong Kong and Macao, said Hong Kong is still a good place for businesses to be despite the risks.

“There’s legal risk, there’s reputational risk, there’s a certain amount of operation risk — but I think that those risks are measured,” he said.

“At the same time, (businesses) need to keep their eye on the big picture, which is that China is an enormous and attractive economy to do business with. And Hong Kong is in many ways, still … one of the best platforms to do that work,” he added.

The rhetoric has been so tough from both sides, so there’s a lot of face-saving that needs to be done.

Kurt Tong

partner, The Asia Group

Tong, a partner at advisory firm The Asia Group, said the rule of law in Hong Kong has deteriorated, but most businesses are not convinced that it has been completely wiped out.

“I think it will take more to drive companies out of Hong Kong than the changes that have taken place thus far,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

Biden-Xi meeting?

As for the path forward, Tong said he expects U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet in the fall, and discuss each of their “red lines” that cannot be crossed.

In the meantime, he said, “diplomatic jousting” will continue.

“The rhetoric has been so tough from both sides, so there’s a lot of face-saving that needs to be done,” he added.

Trade discussions between the two sides have stalled for now, and the U.S. doesn’t have incentives to enter negotiations because it doesn’t believe such talks will be successful, Tong said.

“It’s a complex picture … the U.S.-China relationship under the Biden-Xi era,” Tong said. “We’re still on the … first scene of the first act of how this is going to play out over the coming year.”

Indeed. After Tong and Smith spoke, a new alliance of NATO member states, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Japan blamed China’s Ministry of State Security for a massive cyberattack on Microsoft Exchange email servers earlier this year.

Categories
Politics

US to Accuse China of Microsoft Hacking

US to Accuse China of Microsoft Hacking

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday is expected to formally accuse the Chinese government of breaching Microsoft email systems used by many of the world’s largest companies, governments and military contractors, according to a senior administration official. The United States is also set to organize a broad group of allies, including all NATO members, to condemn Beijing for cyberattacks around the world.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that the United States was expected to accuse China for the first time of paying criminal groups to conduct large-scale hackings, including ransomware attacks to extort companies for millions of dollars. Microsoft had pointed to hackers linked to the Chinese Ministry of State Security for exploiting holes in the company’s email systems in March; the U.S. announcement will offer details about the methods that were used, and it is the first suggestion that the Chinese government hired criminal groups to work on its behalf.

Condemnation from NATO and the European Union is unusual, because most of their member countries have been deeply reluctant to publicly criticize China, a major trading partner. But even Germany, whose companies were hit hard by the hacking of Microsoft Exchange — email systems that companies maintain on their own, rather than putting them in the cloud — cited the Chinese government for its work.

Despite the broadside, the announcement will lack concrete punitive steps against the Chinese government such as sanctions similar to ones that the White House imposed on Russia in April, when it blamed the country for the extensive SolarWinds attack that affected U.S. government agencies and more than 100 companies.

By imposing sanctions on Russia and organizing allies to condemn China, the Biden administration has delved deeper into a digital Cold War with its two main geopolitical adversaries than at any time in modern history.

While there is nothing new about digital espionage from Russia and China — and efforts by Washington to block it — the Biden administration has been surprisingly aggressive in calling out both countries and organizing a coordinated response.

But so far, it has not yet found the right mix of defensive and offensive actions to create effective deterrence, most outside experts say. And the Russians and the Chinese have grown bolder. The SolarWinds attack, one of the most sophisticated ever detected in the United States, was an effort by Russia’s lead intelligence service to alter code in widely used network-management software to gain access to more than 18,000 businesses, federal agencies and think tanks.

China’s effort was not as sophisticated, but it took advantage of a vulnerability that Microsoft had not discovered and used it to conduct espionage and undercut confidence in the security of systems that companies use for their primary communications. It took the Biden administration months to develop what officials say is “high confidence” that the hacking of the Microsoft email system was done at the behest of the Ministry of State Security, the senior administration official said, and abetted by private actors who had been hired by Chinese intelligence.

The hacking affected tens of thousands of systems, including military contractors.

The last time China was caught in such broad-scale surveillance was in 2014, when it stole more than 22 million security-clearance files from the Office of Personnel Management, allowing a deep understanding of the lives of Americans who are cleared to keep the nation’s secrets.

President Biden has promised to fortify the government, making cybersecurity a focus of his summit meeting in Geneva with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last month. But his administration has faced questions about how it will also address the growing threat from China, particularly after the public exposure of the Microsoft hacking.

Updated 

July 16, 2021, 7:55 p.m. ET

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the senior administration official acknowledged that the public condemnation of China would only do so much to prevent future attacks.

“No one action can change China’s behavior in cyberspace,” the official said. “And neither could just one country acting on its own.”

But the decision not to impose sanctions on China was also telling: It was a step many allies would not agree to take.

Instead, the Biden administration settled on corralling enough allies to join the public denunciation of China to maximize pressure on Beijing to curtail the cyberattacks, the official said.

The joint statement criticizing China, to be issued by the United States, Australia, Britain Canada, the European Union, Japan and New Zealand, is unusually broad. It is also the first such statement from NATO publicly targeting Beijing for cybercrimes.

The National Security Agency and the F.B.I. are expected to reveal more details on Monday about Chinese “tactics, techniques and procedures” in cyberspace, such as how Beijing contracts criminal groups to conduct attacks for the financial gain of its government, the official said.

The F.B.I. took an unusual step in the Microsoft hacking: In addition to investigating the attacks, the agency obtained a court order that allowed it to go into unpatched corporate systems and remove elements of code left by the Chinese hackers that could allow follow-up attacks. It was the first time that the F.B.I. acted to remediate an attack as well as investigate its perpetrators.

Categories
Health

UK lifts all remaining Covid restrictions regardless of instances surging

UK lifts all remaining Covid restrictions despite cases surging

Two people embrace in the middle of the dance floor at Egg London nightclub in the early hours of July 19, 2021 in London, England. Starting Monday July 19 at 12:01 p.m., England will lift most of its remaining social restrictions from Covid-19, including wearing masks indoors and restrictions on group gatherings.

Rob Pinney | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – England is taking a step into the unknown on Monday, lifting almost all remaining restrictions on public life at a time when coronavirus infections are high and rising.

As of Monday, there will no longer be any restrictions on indoor gatherings. Nightclubs can reopen, the 1-meter social distancing rule will be lifted, and face masks will be largely voluntary, although some airlines and transport companies have announced that they will retain mask requirements.

In essence, most of the legal restrictions have now been lifted and replaced with an emphasis on ownership as infections continue to rise.

There was no mention of “Freedom Day,” as the Monday, July 19, earlier, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged caution as the country moved to “Step 4” of its roadmap to lift restrictions.

“Please, please, please be careful. Take the next step tomorrow with the right care and respect for other people and the risks that the disease continues to pose,” Johnson said in a statement released on Sunday evening Downing Street was released.

The lifting of restrictions had already been postponed from June 21st to allow more vaccinations amid a surge in cases caused by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

The number of cases remains high across the UK with 316,691 reported cases in the past seven days, an increase of around 43% over the previous seven day period. Hospital admissions are low but insidiously higher, with 4,313 people hospitalized in the past seven days, government data shows. 283 people have died in the past seven days.

The vast majority of infections currently affect younger age groups who are not yet or only partially vaccinated. Recent events such as the 2020 European Football Championship, which saw England fans gathering in pubs and bars across the country, have also been blamed for the rise in cases.

At the same time, the government is pushing ahead with vaccinations. To date, 87.9% of UK adults have received a first dose of a vaccine and 68.3% of UK adults have received both doses. Taking both doses of a vaccine greatly reduces the risk of infection and hospitalization from the coronavirus.

Continue reading: A headache? Runny nose? According to the study, these are among the new top 5 Covid symptoms

However, experts warn that hospital admissions could increase significantly in the coming weeks, and scientists have criticized plans to relax almost all Covid-19 restrictions, calling it unethical and dangerous for the entire planet.

Others have defended the move, saying that staying incarcerated has many harmful consequences, from the economic and livelihood effects to mental health.

In a statement on Sunday evening, the UK government admitted that cases continued to rise, but noted that the link to hospital admissions and deaths from the vaccination program had been “significantly weakened” as all adults were asked to come forward for both doses of the vaccine.

Watch the world

Analysts say the world will be watching Britain with interest to see what happens.

Deutsche Bank research strategist Jim Reid stated Monday that “the world will be watching the British experiment with great interest. It could show a way back to normal or warn even heavily vaccinated countries that Covid will be a problem for a decent time. “

“Before that symbolic day, new cases in the UK fell below 50,000 after two days yesterday (Sunday). However, the weekly growth rate is still strong. When you break down the numbers, the largest area of ​​growth over this period was men ages 15 to 40. It is the first time in the pandemic that there has been any notable gender segregation. It strongly suggests the impact of the millions of soccer fans watching the European Championship soccer final in various locations across the country. “

Continue reading: Wearing masks becomes a new battlefield in England as Covid rules are relaxed

Kallum Pickering, senior economist at Berenberg Bank, told CNBC on Monday that the economic impact of the reopening was uncertain as consumer behavior could be affected by the reopening, with some consumers more nervous about the lifting of restrictions like wearing masks .

“I doubt we will see any recovery, but I think we will see continued growth in economic activity … but some of those uncertainties are certainly great. We need to look at some of the high-frequency data, ”mobility statistics, and the like, to see what the real impact of the uncertainty of opening and removing masks is actually keeping people away from the high street and into restaurants and supermarkets go, “he told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.

Government defends reopening

Johnson, who is self-isolating after coming into contact with Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who is ill with Covid, defended the reopening on Monday.

“If we don’t do it now, we have to wonder when are we ever going to do it? This is the right moment,” Johnson said in a video statement.

“But we have to do it carefully. We have to remember that unfortunately this virus is still out there. The cases are increasing, we can see the extreme contagiousness of the Delta variant.”

Johnson said there was “immense comfort and satisfaction” that Covid vaccines “have severely weakened the link between infection and hospitalization, and between infection and serious illness and death.”

Continue reading: The Covid Delta variant “exploded” in Great Britain – and could be a blueprint for the USA

The government said it would continue to review all data. It said it will “strengthen vaccine defense” by shortening the dosing interval of Covid vaccines for all adults from 12 to 8 weeks, continuing to use its testing, tracking and isolation system, and maintaining border controls, including quarantine for all travel from a country on the red list and for countries on the yellow list, unless persons are double vaccinated.

“The data is continuously evaluated and contingency measures are maintained during times of higher risk if necessary, but restrictions are avoided where possible,” the government said.

Categories
Health

The Unknowability of Different Individuals’s Ache

The Unknowability of Other People’s Pain

Every Christmas Eve, too late, he told me about it again. The eight-year-old PFY had stepped on an old can that severed his tattered shoe. The stab wound became infected with tetanus – fatal even now in 10 percent of cases, far more in rural Ireland around the middle of the century. The nearest hospital was hours away and nobody in my father’s fishing village owned a car. Eventually a wealthy man came to drive PJ, but too late: in the back seat, his body already stiff and his jaws locked, PJ died, rigid, sprawled on the laps of my 13-year-old father and father.

Every time my father told the story, I looked out of his eyes at his dying little brother, who was only 8 years old. PJ’s body had become his coffin. That must have been so terrifying. My father must have felt so helpless.

From a helpless boy, my father went from being an intimidating man, partly through determination. He had no control over PJ’s death and not much over my mother’s. Yet the anger that caused his faint became a motivational energy that turned into physical strength. He’s managed to work so hard and steadily, to be so selfless and steadfast in saving money, that he paid for my way through an Ivy League college.

Most of all, however, his strength must have been demonstrated in the way he had to endure his physical suffering for so long. When he was over 70 years old, he was continually and unpredictably sidelined by upset stomach or bowel problems that no doctor could adequately treat or even diagnose. The persistence of his illnesses should have made me more concerned about him. Instead, he became the father who wept wolf. I couldn’t or wouldn’t put myself in his tormented body; and to the extent that I could get into his thoughts, I decided that his sickness was made worse by his tendency to brood.

It wasn’t until after my father’s suicide that I learned that depression can cause chronic gastrointestinal distress, just as stress can cause back pain or sadness. I doubt any doctor explained this to my father sufficiently. The mere suggestion that his suffering might have had a “psychosomatic” component made him protest that what was happening to him wasn’t just “inside his head”. Of course not. And yet the brain is just as much a part of the body as the intestine. In addition to sensing physical pain, the brain can also help trigger painful physical responses.

If my father had a better understanding of the mind-body connection, would that have saved him? I can not say it. But although I could imagine his emotional or psychological suffering, I was reluctant to empathize with him physically. I could put myself in his eyes as he looked down at his dying brother. But I resisted his aching body. And maybe that’s because we think depression so much in our heads, even though it can be in the flesh and blood and organs too – I tried to get him to change his perception. What I should have urged was better medical care for his body with all the pain.

Maura Kelly is working on memoirs about her father. She encourages anyone experiencing a mental illness to go to an emergency room, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255), or visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness website (nami.org).

Categories
Politics

Biden marketing campaign spokesman joins USTR as a prime communications officer

Biden campaign spokesman joins USTR as a top communications officer

United States Agent Seal

Source: Wikipedia

Former President Joe Biden’s chief spokesman has landed a top communications job in the US Trade Representative’s office.

Kamau Marshall, who was Biden’s director of strategic communications in the 2020 election, is now USTR’s assistant assistant for media and public affairs, according to the trade organisation’s website.

Marshall also conducted press contacts for Biden’s inauguration. The USTR is led by Ambassador Katherine Tai.

Marshall’s addition to the USTR leadership team comes as the United States is in the midst of an ongoing trade war with China.

Biden has yet to reveal whether he plans to lift the tariffs on Chinese exports that then-President Donald Trump imposed on the country’s goods. On Thursday, Biden warned American companies of worsening business conditions in Hong Kong.

Marshall has extensive political and communications experience beyond his time at Biden.

During former President Barack Obama’s tenure, he was a speechwriter and communications advisor for the Department of Agriculture. He also served on the Democratic Campaign Committee, MP Al Green, D-Texas, and the late Democratic MPs John Lewis and Elijah Cummings.

CNBC policy

Read more about CNBC’s political coverage:

Categories
Entertainment

Who Is Mekai Curtis? Information In regards to the Elevating Kanan Star

Who Is Mekai Curtis? Facts About the Raising Kanan Star

Mekai Curtis is the latest star to join the Power family. The 20-year-old actor is set to play the younger version of 50 Cent’s Power character on Starz’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan, which follows a 15-year-old Kanan Stark living in 1991 Queens, NY. Seeing how big the Power fandom is, the young star is already getting a lot of attention as people try to learn more about him. While Mekai already has a handful of acting roles under his belt, it goes without saying that his upcoming role as Kanan Stark is poised to be his biggest yet. After all, the series got renewed for season two before it even premiered. Learn more about the young actor with a few fast facts ahead.

Categories
Health

Docs name for flu testing as Covid threatens to coincide with flu epidemic

Doctors call for flu testing as Covid threatens to coincide with flu epidemic

British doctors have urged authorities to make flu testing available amid concerns that an influenza epidemic may be about to collide with a third wave of Covid-19.

In a report published Thursday, physicians from the U.K.’s Academy of Medical Sciences warned a resurgence of respiratory viruses such as flu and RSV — a common virus that can be serious for young infants and the elderly — was likely to increase pressure on the country’s National Health Service.

The U.K. is due to lift nearly all Covid restrictions on July 19. However, the country is currently experiencing a rise in new cases of the virus, which has been linked to the highly transmissible delta variant.

On July 14, 42,302 people tested positive for Covid in the U.K., making it the country with the fourth-highest number of new cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

Doctors warned in Thursday’s report that overlapping symptoms between flu and Covid meant routine testing for both viruses, and possibly additional respiratory infections — known as multiplex testing — would be important ahead of an expected uptick in common winter illnesses. Medical experts have expressed concerns the U.K. could be headed for an influenza epidemic later this year, and multiplex testing would help doctors differentiate between viruses, allow them to monitor the growth of epidemics, make timely decisions about treatments and reduce transmission rates, the report said.

“We strongly support multiplex testing,” its authors said. “However, if this is not feasible, well evaluated and accurate point-of-care testing for influenza should be deployed in hospitals, primary care settings, care homes and community pharmacies.”

They added that “the symptoms of influenza and other winter respiratory viruses are typically clinically indistinguishable from Covid-19 without a test,” and warned demand for PCR tests may surge this year given the potential rise in winter diseases with similar symptoms.

A recent study of Covid symptoms in the U.K. found that the most common symptoms of the virus included a headache, sore throat and loss of smell. However, these can vary and people with the virus can also experience flu-like symptoms such as fever and a cough, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.K.’s NHS.

The AMS noted that while a successful vaccine rollout would mean mortality would be lower in the next wave than in the winter of 2020/2021, continuous transmission of Covid among the under-50s could result in higher levels of “long Covid” than seen in the previous two waves. The medical body also warned that if Covid cases rise or remain elevated throughout the fall and winter, the third wave could coincide with a resurgence of flu and RSV, adding pressure to the NHS.

Outbreaks of RSV and flu during the fall and winter may be twice as large as the numbers seen in a “normal” year, according to the report. Social distancing and lockdown measures had prevented these illnesses from spreading at their usual rates during the coronavirus pandemic, meaning population immunity may have been diminished.  

“Very low levels of influenza over the last two seasons will have led to lower levels of immunity than usually seen, which means a wave of influenza could be problematic,” the report warned. A priority should be to ensure vulnerable groups were given a flu vaccine, its authors said, although flu vaccines were less effective than those for Covid.

Around 10,000 deaths are caused by flu in a regular year in England and Wales, according to the NHS.

Meanwhile, non-infectious illnesses like asthma and stroke were also likely to be exacerbated in the winter, the AMS report warned, adding more pressure to health care services.