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  • Mike Pence Fast Facts | CNN Politics

    Mike Pence Fast Facts | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of Mike Pence, the 48th vice president of the United States.

    Birth date: June 7, 1959

    Birth place: Columbus, Indiana

    Birth name: Michael Richard Pence

    Father: Edward Pence, gas station owner

    Mother: Nancy Pence-Fritsch

    Marriage: Karen Pence (1985-present)

    Children: Michael, Charlotte and Audrey

    Education: Hanover College (Indiana), B.A., 1981; Indiana University School of Law, J.D., 1986

    Religion: Evangelical Christian

    After two early unsuccessful runs for Congress, Pence wrote an essay, “Confessions of a Negative Campaigner.” In the 1991 piece, he pledged not to use insulting language or air ads disparaging opponents.

    During the 2010 Value Voter Summit, Pence took the stage and said, “I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.”

    Pence was a Democrat as a teen. He has said that he voted for Jimmy Carter, not Ronald Reagan, in the 1980 election.

    Pence’s Irish grandfather immigrated through Ellis Island in 1923.

    1991-1993 – President of the conservative think tank, Indiana Policy Review Foundation.

    1992-1999 – Hosts a talk radio show, “The Mike Pence Show.” The show is syndicated on 18 stations in Indiana.

    2000 – Is elected to the US House of Representatives for the 2nd District of Indiana.

    2002 – Is elected to the US House of Representatives for the 6th District of Indiana. The district was renumbered in 2002. He is reelected in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.

    2009-2011 – Is the Republican Conference chair.

    2012 – Is elected governor of Indiana. His campaign includes a grassroots trek across the state called the “Big Red Truck Tour.”

    January 2015 – Announces, then scraps plans to launch a state-run news outlet called “Just IN.”

    January 27, 2015 – Gains federal approval for a state plan for Medicaid expansion, “Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0.”

    March 26, 2015 – Pence signs the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), banning local governments from intervening when businesses turn away customers for religious reasons. The law sparks concern about discrimination, particularly within the LGBTQ community. After the law is passed, a wave of boycotts and petitions roil the state, with companies like Apple and organizations like the NCAA criticizing the bill and threatening to reconsider future business opportunities in Indiana.

    April 2, 2015 – Pence signs a new version of the RFRA that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

    July 15, 2016 – GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump tweets that he has chosen Pence to be his running mate. The formal announcement takes place July 16.

    November 8, 2016 – Is elected vice president of the United States.

    January 20, 2017 – Sworn in as vice president of the United States.

    January 27, 2017 – Pence speaks at the March for Life, an anti-abortion rally in Washington. He is the first sitting vice president to make a speech at the annual event.

    February 7, 2017 – Casts a tie-breaking vote to confirm Betsy DeVos as the next education secretary. This is the first time a vice president has needed to cast the deciding vote on a cabinet nomination.

    February 18, 2017 – Pence delivers a speech at the Munich Security Conference, declaring that the United States will hold Russia accountable for acts of aggression even as the Trump administration makes an effort to cultivate stronger ties with Moscow. The vice president also says that the United States “strongly supports NATO and will be unwavering in our commitment to our transatlantic alliance.” Pence adds a caveat, saying that NATO member nations should boost their defense spending.

    March 2, 2017 – The Indianapolis Star reports that while governor of Indiana, Pence used a private email account to conduct some state business and that it was hacked. Indiana’s Code of Ethics does not address officials’ use of personal emails. Pence also had a state-provided email address. Pence says, “there’s no comparison” between his situation and that of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

    August 9, 2018 – In a speech to US military and civilian personnel, Pence calls for the establishment of a Space Force by 2020. Pence also announces immediate steps the Department of Defense would take to reform how the military approaches space.

    January 16, 2019 – At the Global Chiefs of Mission conference, Pence declares that “the caliphate has crumbled, and ISIS has been defeated.” Hours before, the US-led coalition confirmed that American troops had been killed in an explosion in Manbij, an attack that ISIS claimed responsibility for.

    May 30, 2019 – During talks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Canada, Pence says he is “very proud to be part of a pro-life administration” and that he is troubled by what he calls “the Democratic party in our country, and leaders around the country, supporting late-term abortion, even infanticide.”

    February 26, 2020 – Trump places Pence in charge of the US government response to the novel coronavirus, amid growing criticism of the White House’s handling of the outbreak.

    April 28, 2020 – Pence visits the Mayo Clinic without a face mask, ignoring the facility’s current policy requiring protective masks be worn at all times. Later, Pence says he should have worn a mask during his visit.

    November 7, 2020 – Days after the presidential election on November 3, CNN projects Trump and Pence have lost to former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris.

    April 7, 2021 – Pence announces the launch of a new political advocacy group, “Advancing American Freedom.” The group’s stated goal is to “promote the pro-freedom policies of the last four years that created unprecedented prosperity at home and restored respect for America abroad, to defend those policies from liberal attacks and media distortions, and to prevent the radical Left from enacting its policy agenda that would threaten America’s freedoms,” according to a statement from the group. On the same day, publisher Simon & Schuster announces it will publish Pence’s autobiography.

    April 14, 2021 – Pence undergoes surgery to have a pacemaker implanted to help combat a slow heart rate.

    November 14, 2022 – During a interview with ABC’s David Muir, Pence says he thinks “America will have better choices in the future” than Trump as president in 2024, and admits he’s considering running himself.

    November 15, 2022 – Pence’s new memoir, “So Help Me God,” is published. The book includes Pence’s recollections of his experience during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

    April 27, 2023 – Pence testifies to a federal grand jury investigating the aftermath of the 2020 election and the actions of Trump and others, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The testimony marks the first time in modern history a vice president has been compelled to testify about the president he served beside.

    June 6, 2023 – Pence announces that he’s running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in a launch video. On October 28, he suspends his campaign for president.

    March 15, 2024 – Says he “cannot in good conscience” endorse presumptive GOP nominee Trump, a stunning repudiation of his former running mate and the president he served with.

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  • Jane Goodall Fast Facts | CNN

    Jane Goodall Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of world-renowned primatologist, activist and conservationist Jane Goodall.

    Birth date: April 3, 1934

    Birth place: London, England

    Birth name: Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall

    Father: Mortimer Morris-Goodall, businessman

    Mother: Margaret Myfanwe (Joseph) Morris-Goodall, a novelist

    Marriages: Derek Bryceson (1975-1980, his death); Hugo van Lawick (March 28, 1964-1974, divorced)

    Children: with van Lawick: Hugo

    Education: Cambridge University, Ph.D. in ethology, 1965

    Obtained a doctorate without receiving a bachelor’s or master’s first.

    Was the first scientist to give names to her research subjects instead of the conventional practice of assigning them numbers.

    Found that chimpanzees engage in warfare with neighboring communities and that chimps are capable of altruism, which they display by adopting unrelated orphaned infants.

    First to observe chimps eating meat and making and using tools.

    1956 – While working as an assistant in a London film studio, she receives an invitation from a friend to visit her farm in Kenya.

    1957 – Arrives in Africa and meets famous archeologist and paleontologist Louis Leakey. He hires her as an assistant and then asks her to study a group of chimpanzees living in Tanzania.

    July 1960 – Arrives at the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanzania to begin her study of chimpanzees.

    October 1960 – Goodall observes chimpanzees eating meat; they were thought to be vegetarians.

    November 1960 – Observes the first recorded instance of chimpanzees making and using tools.

    1977 – Founds the Jane Goodall Institute.

    1991 – Begins the Roots & Shoots environmental program for young people.

    2002 – Designated a United Nations Messenger of Peace.

    February 20, 2004 – Is invested as a Dame of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace.

    2010 – A documentary film about her life, “Jane’s Journey,” premieres.

    March 2013 – Apologizes for plagiarized passages in her book, “Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants,” scheduled to be released in April. The Washington Post first reported on the borrowed passages, saying they came from Wikipedia and other websites.

    September 30, 2014 – A new species of orchid is named after Goodall. The Dendrobium goodallianum orchid was collected in Papua New Guinea in 2003.

    October 20, 2017 – “Jane,” a documentary about Goodall’s early work with chimps, directed by Brett Morgan, opens.

    January 2019 – Announces launch of the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation, “in the hope that we can create an endowment that will enable the programmes I have developed to continue, new ones to be initiated, and so that the fight for the good of the natural world will continue beyond my lifetime.” It is registered in Switzerland.

    April 17, 2019 – Is named to the Time 100, the magazine’s annual list of the most influential people in the world.

    May 8, 2020 – In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Goodall says that humanity’s disrespect for nature led to the coronavirus pandemic, saying “we brought this on ourselves.”

    May 20, 2021 – Is announced as the winner of the Templeton Prize, an award worth over $1.5 million, that honors “outstanding individuals who have devoted their talents to expanding our vision of human purpose and ultimate reality.”

    July 12, 2022 – Mattel Inc announces the release of a new Barbie doll of Goodall, made from recycled plastic, as part of its Inspiring Women Barbie collection.

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  • Iditarod Fast Facts | CNN

    Iditarod Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the Iditarod dogsled race. The event is named after the Iditarod Trail, an old mail and supply route, traveled by dogsleds from Seward and Knik to Nome, Alaska.

    March 12, 2024 – Dallas Seavey wins his sixth Iditarod, breaking the record for most wins.

    March 14, 2023 – Ryan Redington wins his first Iditarod.

    The race traditionally begins on the first Saturday in March, starting in Anchorage and ending in Nome.

    The race ranges from 975 to 998 miles long, depending on whether the southern or northern route is being run. The length can also vary from year to year based on course conditions.

    The beginning of the race in Anchorage is considered a ceremonial start. The competitive part of the race usually begins the next day in Willow, but depends on weather conditions.

    There may be only one musher (person who drives the sled) per team.

    There are 12-14 dogs on each team. At least five dogs must be in harness (pulling the sled) at the finish line.

    The most commonly used sled dogs are the Samoyed, Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky, Alaskan Husky and Chinook. The animals get tested for strength and endurance before being selected.

    The musher must make a mandatory 24 hour stop at some point during the race.

    The route alternates every other year, one year going north through Cripple, Ruby, and Galena, the next year going south through Iditarod, Shageluk, and Anvik.

    Most Consecutive Wins – Lance Mackey won four consecutive times from 2007-2010.

    Most Wins – Dallas Seavey won six times, in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2024. Rick Swenson won five times, in 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1991.

    Fastest winning time – Mitch Seavey finished the 2017 race in eight days, 3 hours, 40 minutes, 13 seconds.

    Winner by a [dog’s] nose – Dick Mackey finished the 1978 race one second ahead of Rick Swenson. The winner is decided by the nose of the first dog across the finish line.

    First female winner – Libby Riddles in 1985.

    Youngest winner – Dallas Seavey, 25, in 2012.

    Oldest winner – Mitch Seavey, 57, in 2017.

    1925 – A diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska, creates an emergency need for medical supplies to be delivered, and dogsledders make the journey. The current race commemorates this mission and partially follows the same route.

    1966 – Dorothy Page, President of the Wasilla-Knik Centennial Committee, decides to organize a dogsled race to celebrate Alaska’s centennial in 1967. Page and Joe Redington Sr., a local musher, work together to launch the first event.

    1967 – The first Iditarod is held, with 58 mushers competing along a 50-mile trail.

    March 1973 – After shorter races in 1967 and 1969, the first full-length race takes place. The course is approximately 1,100 miles long. The first winner is Dick Wilmarth, with a time of 20 days and 49 minutes.

    March 12, 2016 – A man on a snowmobile hits two teams competing in the Iditarod, killing one dog and injuring several other dogs. Alaska state troopers arrest Arnold Demoski, 26, of Nulato. Later, Demoski is sentenced to six months and three days in jail and ordered to pay restitution totaling $36,697.15.

    October 6, 2017 – The Iditarod Trail Committee revises Rule 39 after a musher’s team of dogs test positive for an opioid drug called Tramadol. Before the rule is revised, the ITC determines that intent of the alleged musher could not be proven. The revised rule holds a musher liable for any positive canine drug test, unless they can prove that they are not at fault. The ITC later reveals four-time champion Dallas Seavey as the musher. Seavey denies the allegations.

    December 4, 2018 – The Iditarod Trail Committee clears Seavey of any wrongdoing and releases a statement saying, “After several meetings with Dallas Seavey, and review of all relevant information and evidence, the board does not believe that Dallas had any involvement with, or knowledge of, the events that led to the positive test in his team.”

    2021 – The 2021 ceremonial Mushers’ Banquet is canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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  • Iraq Prison Abuse Scandal Fast Facts | CNN

    Iraq Prison Abuse Scandal Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s some background information about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal which took place during the Iraq war.

    Abu Ghraib prison was a US Army detention center for captured Iraqis from 2003 to 2006. An investigation into the treatment of detainees at the prison was prompted by the discovery of graphic photos depicting guards abusing detainees in 2003.

    The facility was located 20 miles west of Baghdad on 280 acres.

    At the height of the scandal, the prison held as many as 3,800 detainees.

    Most of the detainees lived in tents in the prison yards.

    The abuses took place inside the prison in cell blocks 1A and 1B.

    Eleven US soldiers were convicted of crimes relating to the Abu Ghraib scandal. Seven of those were from Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company. A number of other service members were not charged but reprimanded.

    November 2003 – A detainee dies during an interrogation at Abu Ghraib.

    January 2004 – Spc. Joseph M. Darby discovers photos on a CD-ROM of Iraqi prisoners being abused. He reports the abuse to superiors, prompting an investigation.

    April 4, 2004 – Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba releases his report to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez about misconduct in the 800th Military Police Brigade.

    April 28, 2004 – “60 Minutes II” broadcasts graphic photos of Iraqi detainees being humiliated and tortured.

    April 30, 2004 – The New Yorker publishes an article by Seymour Hersh reporting details in the Taguba report on the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

    April 30, 2004 – Taguba’s report detailing his investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade is released.

    Taguba’s report states that the following abuses happened in this incident:
    – Punching, slapping and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet.
    – Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees.
    – Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing.
    – Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time.
    – Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear.
    – Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped.
    – Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them.
    – Positioning a naked detainee on a box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture.
    – Writing “I am a Rapest (sic)” on the leg of a detainee accused of rape, and then photographing him naked.
    – Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture.
    – A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee.
    – Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee.
    – Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.

    May 4, 2004 – Gen. George W. Casey Jr. announces that in the past 16 months, the US Army has conducted more than 30 criminal investigations into misconduct by US captors during both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

    May 5, 2004 – US President George W. Bush records interviews with Al Arabiya and US-sponsored Al-Hurra networks expressing his disgust with the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees.

    May 6, 2004 – During a joint news conference with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Bush expresses remorse “for the humiliation suffered” by Iraqi prisoners at the hands of US troops.

    May 6, 2004 – The Justice Department announces that it is looking into three suspicious deaths of detainees, two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, and the involvement of the CIA and contractors in the deaths.

    May 7, 2004 – US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testifies before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. “These events occurred on my watch…as Secretary of Defense, I am accountable for them and I take full responsibility…there are other photos – many other photos – that depict incidents of physical violence towards prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman.”

    May 10, 2004 – Bush views some of the photos at the Pentagon and announces his firm support for Rumsfeld.

    May 12, 2004 – Rumsfeld testifies before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee.

    August 24, 2004 – An independent commission headed by former US Secretary of Defense James Schleslinger reports that what took place at the prison was due largely to “sadism” on the part of officers working the night shift, but that responsibility for the mistreatment of prisoners went higher up the chain of command, back to Washington, DC.

    August 25, 2004 – The Fay-Jones report on the Abu Ghraib scandal finds 44 instances of abuse, some of which amounted to torture.

    February 15, 2006 – A new set of graphic photographs and video from Abu Ghraib are aired on the Australian television network SBS’s program “Dateline.” The photos are reportedly from the same period in 2003 that the previous photos were shot, not new incidents.

    June 1, 2006 – Sgt. Santos Cardona, an Army dog handler, is found guilty of two of five counts against him, including aggravated assault and unlawfully using his dog to threaten detainees. He is sentenced to 90 days hard labor and a reduction of rank. He must also forfeit $600 of pay per month for a year.

    September 1, 2006 – Control of Abu Ghraib is handed over to the Iraqis after all of the detainees are transferred elsewhere.

    February 2008 – A documentary about the Abu Ghraib scandal by Oscar-winning director Errol Morris, “Standard Operating Procedure,” debuts at the Berlin Film Festival.

    June 30, 2008 – Former detainees of Abu Ghraib prison file a lawsuit against CACI Premier Technology, a military contractor who supplied the army with interrogators.

    February 21, 2009 – Abu Ghraib reopens after major renovations which include a new gym, barber shop, sewing room, outdoor recreational areas, a library, and computer room. Its name is changed to Baghdad Central Prison.

    September 2009 – Saleh et al v. Titan Corporation et al, a federal class action lawsuit alleging abuse at Abu Ghraib by civilian contractors from CACI International is dismissed by a federal appeals court.

    2012 – Defense contractor Engility Holdings Inc. agrees to pay 71 former detainees at Abu Ghraib and other sites $5.28 million to settle a lawsuit filed in 2008.

    April 2014 – Iraq closes the prison due to security concerns.

    March 20, 2015 – US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein orders the Defense Department to release photos that show detainees being abused in detention centers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    January 18, 2017 – Hellerstein rules that the government must release an estimated 2,000 additional photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and other military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    August 23, 2019 – The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals allows a 2008 lawsuit filed by former detainees against CACI Premier Technology to move forward. The court denied CACI’s request to immediately appeal a lower court’s ruling that the company can be sued and is not immune from civil suit as a government contractor.

    June 28, 2021 – The US Supreme Court denies CACI Premier Technology’s petition, clearing the way for the 2008 lawsuit to proceed.

    Spc. Megan Ambuhl
    372nd Military Police Company
    October 30, 2004 – As part of a plea deal, Ambuhl pleads guilty to one charge of dereliction of duty. She is discharged from the Army without prison time.

    Sgt. Javal S. Davis
    372nd Military Police Company
    February 1, 2005 – Pleads guilty as part of a plea agreement.
    February 5, 2005 – Is sentenced to six months in a military prison.
    Late May 2005 – Is released after serving approximately three months.

    Pfc. Lynndie England
    372nd Military Police Company
    May 2, 2005 – England pleads guilty to reduced charges as part of a pretrial agreement.
    May 4, 2005 – A mistrial is declared after she pleads guilty but then states that she did not know her actions were wrong.
    September 21, 2005 – England’s second court-martial trial begins at Fort Hood, Texas.
    September 26, 2005 – England is found guilty of four counts of maltreating detainees, one count of conspiracy and one count of committing an indecent act.
    September 27, 2005 – Is sentenced to three years in prison and given a dishonorable discharge.
    March 2007 – Is released from military prison after serving half of her 36-month sentence.
    2009 – Her biography, “Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs that Shocked the World,” is published.

    Staff Sgt. Ivan “Chip” Frederick II
    372nd Military Police Company
    October 20, 2004 – Pleads guilty to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault, and committing an indecent act under a plea agreement.
    October 21, 2004 – Is sentenced to eight years in prison and also sentenced to a forfeiture of pay, a dishonorable discharge and a reduction in rank to private.
    October 1, 2007 – Is paroled after serving approximately three years in a military prison.

    Spc. Charles Graner
    372nd Military Police Company
    January 14, 2005 – Graner is found guilty of nine of 10 counts under five separate charges.
    January 15, 2005 – Graner is sentenced to 10 years in prison, downgraded to the rank of private with loss of pay, and receives a dishonorable discharge.
    August 6, 2011 – Graner is released from prison.

    Spc. Sabrina Harman
    372nd Military Police Company
    May 16, 2005 – Is found guilty on six of the seven charges for her role in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.
    May 17, 2005 – Sentenced to six months in prison. Harman is demoted to private, and receives a bad conduct discharge after she finishes the sentence.

    Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan
    Director, Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center during the fall of 2003. Jordan is the only officer charged with prisoner abuse.
    April 28, 2006 – Charged with eight counts, including disobeying an order, dereliction of duty, cruelty, false statements, fraud and interfering with an investigation.
    August 28, 2007 – Acquitted of charges that he failed to control soldiers who abused detainees, but is found guilty of disobeying a general’s command not to talk about allegations of abuse at the prison. On August 29, he is sentenced with a reprimand.
    January 10, 2008 – Cleared of all wrongdoing, and the conviction and reprimand are removed from his record.

    Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski
    Commander of the Army Reserve’s 800th Military Police Brigade, in charge of all 12 Iraqi detention facilities, including Abu Ghraib.
    May 5, 2005 – She is demoted from brigadier general to colonel by President Bush after an extensive investigation and is cited for two of four allegations against her, dereliction of duty and shoplifting. The probe clears her of “making a material misrepresentation to an investigating team” and “failure to obey a lawful order.”

    Col. Thomas Pappas
    Commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.
    May 2006 – Reprimanded, fined, and relieved of command after using muzzled dogs inside interrogation rooms.

    Lt. Col. Jerry L. Phillabaum
    Commander, 320th MP Battalion.
    April 2004 – He is reprimanded and relieved of command of the 320th Military Police Battalion for his role in the scandal.

    Spc. Jeremy Sivits
    372nd Military Police Company
    May 19, 2004 – Sivits pleads guilty as part of a pretrial agreement with prosecutors that leaves him open to testify against other soldiers charged in the scandal. He is sentenced to a year of confinement, discharge for bad conduct, and is demoted.

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  • Mpox in the United States Fast Facts | CNN

    Mpox in the United States Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, in the United States. In 2022, an outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). The virus originated in Africa and is the cousin of the smallpox virus.

    In November 2022, WHO renames the monkeypox virus as mpox after working with International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) to rename the the virus using non-stigmatizing, non-offensive social and cultural nomenclature.

    (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

    Mpox is a poxvirus. It generally causes pimple- or blister-like lesions and flu-like symptoms such as fever. The disease is rarely fatal.

    Mpox spreads through close contact. This includes direct physical contact with lesions as well as “respiratory secretions” shared through face-to-face interaction and touching objects that have been contaminated by mpox lesions or fluids. The virus may also pass to a fetus through the placenta.

    Anyone can become ill from mpox, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that more than 99% of mpox cases in the United States in the 2022 outbreak have been among men who have sex with men. However, mpox is not generally considered a sexually transmitted disease.

    Mpox is usually found in West and Central Africa, but additional cases have been seen in Europe, including the United Kingdom, and other parts of the world in recent years. Those cases are typically linked to international travel or imported animals infected with the poxvirus.

    CDC Mpox Map and Case Count

    WHO Situation Reports

    Timeline and 2022 Outbreak

    1958 – Mpox is discovered when monkeys kept for research cause two outbreaks in Copenhagen, Denmark.

    1970 – The first human case is recorded in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

    2003 – An outbreak in the United States is linked to infected pet prairie dogs imported from Ghana and results in more than 80 cases.

    July 16, 2021 – The CDC and local health officials in Dallas announce they are investigating a case of mpox in a traveler from Nigeria. “The individual is a City of Dallas resident who traveled from Nigeria to Dallas, arriving at Love Field airport on July 9, 2021. The person is hospitalized in Dallas and is in stable condition,” the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services says in a statement.

    May 17, 2022 – The first confirmed US case of mpox in the 2022 outbreak is reported to the CDC in a traveler who returned to Massachusetts from Canada.

    May 19, 2022 – WHO reports that death rates of the outbreak have been between 3% and 6%.

    May 23, 2022 – The CDC announces the release of mpox vaccine doses from the nation’s Strategic National Stockpile for “high-risk people.” In the United States, the two-dose Jynneos vaccine is licensed to prevent smallpox and specifically to prevent mpox.

    May 26, 2022 – CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announces that the United States is distributing the vaccine to states with reported cases and recommends vaccination for people at highest risk of infection due to direct contact with someone who has mpox.

    June 22, 2022 – The CDC announces a partnership with five commercial laboratories to ramp up testing capacity in the United States.

    June 23, 2022 – New York City launches the first mpox vaccination clinic in the United States.

    June 28, 2022 – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Biden administration announce an enhanced vaccination strategy and report that more than 9,000 doses of vaccine have been distributed to date.

    July 22, 2022 – Two American children contract mpox – a first in the United States. According to the CDC, the two cases are unrelated.

    July 23, 2022 – WHO declares mpox a public health emergency of international concern, “an extraordinary event that may constitute a public health risk to other countries through international spread of disease and may require an international coordinated response.”

    July 27, 2022 – After weeks of mpox vaccines being in limited supply, more than 786,000 additional doses are made available in the United States, according to HHS.

    July 29, 2022 – New York declares a state disaster emergency in response to the mpox outbreak.

    August 1, 2022 – California and Illinois declare states of emergency. California has reported more than 800 cases, while Illinois has had more than 500, according to data from the CDC.

    August 2, 2022 – An mpox response team is created by the Biden administration. President Joe Biden names Robert Fenton from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as the White House national mpox response coordinator.

    August 2, 2022 – A report from Spain’s National Institute for Microbiology indicates two men, ages 31 and 44, who died from mpox in unrelated cases had both developed encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, which can be triggered by viral infections. Encephalitis is a very rare condition known to be associated with mpox. It has been reported in people with mpox in West Africa and in a patient in the United States in 2003 during the small outbreak linked to imported prairie dogs.

    August 4, 2022 – The Biden administration declares the mpox outbreak a national public health emergency.

    August 5, 2022 – A report published by the CDC finds that 94% of cases were among men who had recent sexual or close intimate contact with another man. Further, 54% of cases were among Black Americans and Latinos.

    August 9, 2022 – In an effort to stretch the limited supply of the Jynneos mpox vaccine, federal health officials authorize administering smaller doses using a different method of injection. The new injection strategy allows health-care providers to give shallow injections intradermally, in between layers of the skin, with one-fifth the standard dose size instead of subcutaneously, into the fatty layer below the skin, with the larger dose.

    August 18, 2022 – The White House announces the acceleration of the HHS vaccine distribution timeline, with an additional 1.8 million doses of the Jynneos vaccine being made available. Additional vaccines will be distributed to communities hosting large LGBTQI+ events.

    August 19, 2022 – Washington’s King County, which includes Seattle, declares mpox a public health emergency, with more than 270 recorded cases.

    September 12, 2022 – The first US death due to mpox is confirmed in Los Angeles County, California.

    May 11, 2023 – WHO declares the mpox outbreak is no longer a global health emergency.

    October 26, 2023 – CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, votes unanimously to recommend that certain individuals ages 18 and older who are at high risk for getting mpox continue to get the vaccine as a routine part of their sexual health care.

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  • No antibiotics worked, so this woman turned to a natural enemy of bacteria to save her husband's life | CNN

    No antibiotics worked, so this woman turned to a natural enemy of bacteria to save her husband's life | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    In February 2016, infectious disease epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee was holding her dying husband’s hand, watching him lose an exhausting fight against a deadly superbug infection.

    After months of ups and downs, doctors had just told her that her husband, Tom Patterson, was too racked with bacteria to live.

    “I told him, ‘Honey, we’re running out of time. I need to know if you want to live. I don’t even know if you can hear me, but if you can hear me and you want to live, please squeeze my hand.’

    “All of a sudden, he squeezed really hard. And I thought, ‘Oh, great!’ And then I’m thinking, ‘Oh, crap! What am I going to do?’”

    What she accomplished next could easily be called miraculous. First, Strathdee found an obscure treatment that offered a glimmer of hope — fighting superbugs with phages, viruses created by nature to eat bacteria.

    Then she convinced phage scientists around the country to hunt and peck through molecular haystacks of sewage, bogs, ponds, the bilge of boats and other prime breeding grounds for bacteria and their viral opponents. The impossible goal: quickly find the few, exquisitely unique phages capable of fighting a specific strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria literally eating her husband alive.

    Next, the US Food and Drug Administration had to greenlight this unproven cocktail of hope, and scientists had to purify the mixture so that it wouldn’t be deadly.

    Yet just three weeks later, Strathdee watched doctors intravenously inject the mixture into her husband’s body — and save his life.

    Their story is one of unrelenting perseverance and unbelievable good fortune. It’s a glowing tribute to the immense kindness of strangers. And it’s a story that just might save countless lives from the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs — maybe even your own.

    “It’s estimated that by 2050, 10 million people per year — that’s one person every three seconds — is going to be dying from a superbug infection,” Strathdee told an audience at Life Itself, a 2022 health and wellness event presented in partnership with CNN.

    “I’m here to tell you that the enemy of my enemy can be my friend. Viruses can be medicine.”

    sanjay pkg vpx

    How this ‘perfect predator’ saved his life after nine months in the hospital

    During a Thanksgiving cruise on the Nile in 2015, Patterson was suddenly felled by severe stomach cramps. When a clinic in Egypt failed to help his worsening symptoms, Patterson was flown to Germany, where doctors discovered a grapefruit-size abdominal abscess filled with Acinetobacter baumannii, a virulent bacterium resistant to nearly all antibiotics.

    Found in the sands of the Middle East, the bacteria were blown into the wounds of American troops hit by roadside bombs during the Iraq War, earning the pathogen the nickname “Iraqibacter.”

    “Veterans would get shrapnel in their legs and bodies from IED explosions and were medevaced home to convalesce,” Strathdee told CNN, referring to improvised explosive devices. “Unfortunately, they brought their superbug with them. Sadly, many of them survived the bomb blasts but died from this deadly bacterium.”

    Today, Acinetobacter baumannii tops the World Health Organization’s list of dangerous pathogens for which new antibiotics are critically needed.

    “It’s something of a bacterial kleptomaniac. It’s really good at stealing antimicrobial resistance genes from other bacteria,” Strathdee said. “I started to realize that my husband was a lot sicker than I thought and that modern medicine had run out of antibiotics to treat him.”

    With the bacteria growing unchecked inside him, Patterson was soon medevaced to the couple’s hometown of San Diego, where he was a professor of psychiatry and Strathdee was the associate dean of global health sciences at the University of California, San Diego.

    “Tom was on a roller coaster — he’d get better for a few days, and then there would be a deterioration, and he would be very ill,” said Dr. Robert “Chip” Schooley, a leading infectious disease specialist at UC San Diego who was a longtime friend and colleague. As weeks turned into months, “Tom began developing multi-organ failure. He was sick enough that we could lose him any day.”

    Patterson's body was systemically infected with a virulent drug-resistant bacteria that also infected troops in the Iraq War, earning the pathogen the nickname

    After that reassuring hand squeeze from her husband, Strathdee sprang into action. Scouring the internet, she had already stumbled across a study by a Tbilisi, Georgia, researcher on the use of phages for treatment of drug-resistant bacteria.

    A phone call later, Strathdee discovered phage treatment was well established in former Soviet bloc countries but had been discounted long ago as “fringe science” in the West.

    “Phages are everywhere. There’s 10 million trillion trillion — that’s 10 to the power of 31 — phages that are thought to be on the planet,” Strathdee said. “They’re in soil, they’re in water, in our oceans and in our bodies, where they are the gatekeepers that keep our bacterial numbers in check. But you have to find the right phage to kill the bacterium that is causing the trouble.”

    Buoyed by her newfound knowledge, Strathdee began reaching out to scientists who worked with phages: “I wrote cold emails to total strangers, begging them for help,” she said at Life Itself.

    One stranger who quickly answered was Texas A&M University biochemist Ryland Young. He’d been working with phages for over 45 years.

    “You know the word persuasive? There’s nobody as persuasive as Steffanie,” said Young, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics who runs the lab at the university’s Center for Phage Technology. “We just dropped everything. No exaggeration, people were literally working 24/7, screening 100 different environmental samples to find just a couple of new phages.”

    While the Texas lab burned the midnight oil, Schooley tried to obtain FDA approval for the injection of the phage cocktail into Patterson. Because phage therapy has not undergone clinical trials in the United States, each case of “compassionate use” required a good deal of documentation. It’s a process that can consume precious time.

    But the woman who answered the phone at the FDA said, “‘No problem. This is what you need, and we can arrange that,’” Schooley recalled. “And then she tells me she has friends in the Navy that might be able to find some phages for us as well.”

    In fact, the US Naval Medical Research Center had banks of phages gathered from seaports around the world. Scientists there began to hunt for a match, “and it wasn’t long before they found a few phages that appeared to be active against the bacterium,” Strathdee said.

    Dr. Robert

    Back in Texas, Young and his team had also gotten lucky. They found four promising phages that ravaged Patterson’s antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a test tube. Now the hard part began — figuring out how to separate the victorious phages from the soup of bacterial toxins left behind.

    “You put one virus particle into a culture, you go home for lunch, and if you’re lucky, you come back to a big shaking, liquid mess of dead bacteria parts among billions and billions of the virus,” Young said. “You want to inject those virus particles into the human bloodstream, but you’re starting with bacterial goo that’s just horrible. You would not want that injected into your body.”

    Purifying phage to be given intravenously was a process that no one had yet perfected in the US, Schooley said, “but both the Navy and Texas A&M got busy, and using different approaches figured out how to clean the phages to the point they could be given safely.”

    More hurdles: Legal staff at Texas A&M expressed concern about future lawsuits. “I remember the lawyer saying to me, ‘Let me see if I get this straight. You want to send unapproved viruses from this lab to be injected into a person who will probably die.’ And I said, “Yeah, that’s about it,’” Young said.

    “But Stephanie literally had speed dial numbers for the chancellor and all the people involved in human experimentation at UC San Diego. After she calls them, they basically called their counterparts at A&M, and suddenly they all began to work together,” Young added.

    “It was like the parting of the Red Sea — all the paperwork and hesitation disappeared.”

    The purified cocktail from Young’s lab was the first to arrive in San Diego. Strathdee watched as doctors injected the Texas phages into the pus-filled abscesses in Patterson’s abdomen before settling down for the agonizing wait.

    “We started with the abscesses because we didn’t know what would happen, and we didn’t want to kill him,” Schooley said. “We didn’t see any negative side effects; in fact, Tom seemed to be stabilizing a bit, so we continued the therapy every two hours.”

    Two days later, the Navy cocktail arrived. Those phages were injected into Patterson’s bloodstream to tackle the bacteria that had spread to the rest of his body.

    “We believe Tom was the first person to receive intravenous phage therapy to treat a systemic superbug infection in the US,” Strathdee told CNN.

    “And three days later, Tom lifted his head off the pillow out of a deep coma and kissed his daughter’s hand. It was just miraculous.”

    Patterson awoke from a coma after receiving an intravenous dose of phages tailored to his bacteria.

    Today, nearly eight years later, Patterson is happily retired, walking 3 miles a day and gardening. But the long illness took its toll: He was diagnosed with diabetes and is now insulin dependent, with mild heart damage and gastrointestinal issues that affect his diet.

    “He isn’t back surfing again, because he can’t feel the bottoms of his feet, and he did get Covid-19 in April that landed him in the hospital because the bottoms of his lungs are essentially dead,” Strathdee said.

    “As soon as the infection hit his lungs he couldn’t breathe and I had to rush him to the hospital, so that was scary,” she said. “He remains high risk for Covid but we’re not letting that hold us hostage at home. He says, ‘I want to go back to having as normal life as fast as possible.’”

    To prove it, the couple are again traveling the world — they recently returned from a 12-day trip to Argentina.

    “We traveled with a friend who is an infectious disease doctor, which gave me peace of mind to know that if anything went sideways, we’d have an expert at hand,” Strathdee said.

    “I guess I’m a bit of a helicopter wife in that sense. Still, we’ve traveled to Costa Rica a couple of times, we’ve been to Africa, and we’re planning to go to Chile in January.”

    Patterson’s case was published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in 2017, jump-starting new scientific interest in phage therapy.

    “There’s been an explosion of clinical trials that are going on now in phage (science) around the world and there’s phage programs in Canada, the UK, Australia, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, India and China has a new one, so it’s really catching on,” Strathdee told CNN.

    Some of the work is focused on the interplay between phages and antibiotics — as bacteria battle phages they often shed their outer shell to keep the enemy from docking and gaining access for the kill. When that happens, the bacteria may be suddenly vulnerable to antibiotics again.

    “We don’t think phages are ever going to entirely replace antibiotics, but they will be a good adjunct to antibiotics. And in fact, they can even make antibiotics work better,” Strathdee said.

    In San Diego, Strathdee and Schooley opened the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics, or IPATH, in 2018, where they treat or counsel patients suffering from multidrug-resistant infections. The center’s success rate is high, with 82% of patients undergoing phage therapy experiencing a clinically successful outcome, according to its website.

    Schooley is running a clinical trial using phages to treat patients with cystic fibrosis who constantly battle Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a drug-resistant bacteria that was also responsible for the recent illness and deaths connected to contaminated eye drops manufactured in India.

    And a memoir the couple published in 2019 — “The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband From a Deadly Superbug” — is also spreading the word about these “perfect predators” to what may soon be the next generation of phage hunters.

    VS Phages Sanjay Steffanie

    How naturally occurring viruses could help treat superbug infections

    “I am getting increasingly contacted by students, some as young as 12,” Strathdee said. “There’s a girl in San Francisco who begged her mother to read this book and now she’s doing a science project on phage-antibiotic synergy, and she’s in eighth grade. That thrills me.”

    Strathdee is quick to acknowledge the many people who helped save her husband’s life. But those who were along for the ride told CNN that she and Patterson made the difference.

    “I think it was a historical accident that could have only happened to Steffanie and Tom,” Young said. “They were at UC San Diego, which is one of the premier universities in the country. They worked with a brilliant infectious disease doctor who said, ‘Yes,’ to phage therapy when most physicians would’ve said, ‘Hell, no, I won’t do that.’

    “And then there is Steffanie’s passion and energy — it’s hard to explain until she’s focused it on you. It was like a spiderweb; she was in the middle and pulled on strings,” Young added. “It was just meant to be because of her, I think.”

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  • This city never slept. But with China tightening its grip, is the party over? | CNN Business

    This city never slept. But with China tightening its grip, is the party over? | CNN Business

    Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter which explores what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world.


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    As the scattered patrons hop from one deserted bar to the next, it’s hard to believe the near-empty streets they are zigzagging down were once among the most vibrant in Asia.

    It is Thursday evening, a normally busy night, but there are no crowds for them to weave through, no revelers spilling onto the pavements and no need for them to wait to be seated. At some of the stops on this muted bar crawl, they are the only ones in the room.

    It wasn’t always this way. It might seem unlikely from this recent snapshot, but Hong Kong was once a leading light in Asia’s nightlife scene, a famously freewheeling neon-lit city that never slept, where East met West and crowds would spill from the bars throughout the night and long into the morning – even on a weekday.

    Such images were beamed around the world in 1997, when Britain handed over sovereignty of its prized former colony to China, and locals and visitors alike welcomed in the new era with a 12-hour rave featuring Boy George, Grace Jones, Pete Tong and Paul Oakenfold.

    China’s message at the time was that even if change was coming to Hong Kong, its spirit of “anything goes” would be staying put. The city was promised a high degree of autonomy for the next 50 years and assured that its Western ways could continue. Or, as China’s then leader Deng Xiaoping put it: “Horses will still run, stocks will still sizzle and dancers will still dance.”

    And for long after the British departed, the dancing did indeed continue. Hong Kong retained not only the spirit of capitalism, but many other freedoms unknown in the rest of China – not just the gambling on horse races that Deng alluded to, but political freedoms of the press, speech and the right to protest. Even calls for greater democracy were tolerated – at least, for a time.

    But little more than halfway into those 50 years, Deng’s promise now rings hollow to many. Spasms of mass protests – against “patriotic education” legislation in 2012, the Occupy Central movement in 2014 and pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019 – led China to restrict civil liberties with a sweeping National Security Law. Hundreds of pro-democracy figures have since been jailed and tens of thousands of residents have headed for the exits.

    That crackdown and Hong Kong’s fading freedoms have been well-documented, but it is only more recently that a less-reported knock-on effect of China’s crackdown has started to emerge: In the streets and the bars, the trendy clubs and Michelin-starred restaurants, the city that never slept has begun to doze.

    Nightlife in the city has become a pale shadow of its heyday as a regional rest and relaxation magnet, when its reputation rested on it being easier to navigate than Japan, less boring than Singapore and freer than mainland China.

    Now, apparently in tandem with the diminishing political freedoms, business in the city’s once-thriving bars is drying up. And while some argue over whether politics or Covid is at fault, few dispute that something needs to be done.

    Bars earned about $88.9 million in the first half of 2023, 18% less than the $108.5 million brought in during the same period in 2019, according to official data.

    In an effort to arrest the decline, the Hong Kong government has launched a “Night Vibes” campaign featuring bazaars at three waterfront areas, splurged millions on a recent fireworks show to celebrate China’s National Day and reintroduced a dragon dance, lit by incense sticks, in its neighborhood of Tai Hang.

    Those efforts have attracted a mixture of criticism and mockery – with many pointing out the irony of the campaign’s opening ceremony featuring two white lions, a color associated in Chinese culture with funerals. Meanwhile, the bazaars have been interrupted by a mix of typhoons and security concerns over the use of fireworks.

    Still, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee insists the events are a success, saying at least 100,000 people have checked out the bazaars and that 460,000 tourists from mainland China visited for National Day. And the white lions? Officials say they were “fluorescent.”

    A Hong Kong government spokesman told CNN this week that the activities were “well-received by local residents and tourists”. A recent Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival brought in 140,000 patrons and shopping malls supporting the Night Vibes campaign said they had seen “growth in visitor flow and turnover,” he added.

    A man walks past a closed bar along a near-empty street in the Soho area of Hong Kong.

    There are some who point the finger solely at Covid.

    “It’s obvious that it’s worse than before. This is the side effect of Covid, which has changed the way of life,” said Gary Ng, an economist with French investment bank Natixis.

    And few would dispute that Covid took its toll. During the pandemic, Hong Kong made a virtue of cleaving closely to a mainland Chinese-style zero-tolerance approach that, though not quite as draconian, was still extreme enough to send large numbers of expatriates heading for the exit, with many of them decamping to rival Asian cities like Singapore, Thailand and Japan.

    Hong Kong, where incoming travelers faced weeks in quarantine and restaurant tables were limited to two customers, was suddenly the boring one and Singapore – in a telling comparison – the more lively.

    Under Hong Kong’s pandemic restrictions, live music was all but banned in small venues for more than 650 days.

    But others say Hong Kong is in denial and that its nightlife problems go much deeper than the pandemic. Other places have recovered, they say, why not Hong Kong?

    These observers note the city’s response to Covid should itself be seen through the lens of the city’s ever disappearing freedoms.

    Months before the virus emerged, China had been tightening its grip on Hong Kong in response to pro-democracy protests that had spread throughout the city.

    It introduced restrictions on freedoms – such as of expression and of the press – which were supposedly guaranteed at the time of the handover.

    Songs and slogans perceived as linked to the protests were outlawed, memories of past protests scrubbed from the internet, sensitive films censored and newspaper editors charged with sedition and colluding with foreign forces.

    The government has maintained that legal enforcement is necessary for Hong Kong to restore stability and prosperity and stop what China says is “foreign forces” from meddling in the city.

    “We strongly disapproved of and firmly rejected those groundless attacks, slanders and smears against the HKSAR on the protection of such fundamental rights and freedoms in Hong Kong,” a spokesman said, referring to Hong Kong’s official name, in a reply to CNN.

    But, the critics hit back, none of that lends itself to an atmosphere where people will want to sit back, relax and shoot the breeze.

    “People may feel like they have to self-censor when having a chat at restaurants or bars because, who knows who may be listening. They may as well stay home for the same chat where they feel safe,” said Benson Wong, one of the hundreds of thousands who have left Hong Kong.

    Wong, a former associate professor who specialized in local politics, said he used to enjoy eating out at dai pai dongs – open-air stalls selling Cantonese classics and (usually) plenty of beer – where patrons once talked freely about everything from celebrity gossip to politics.

    Now though, he said, “one won’t feel happy if they have to watch everything they say.”

    A man sits inside a bar in Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's renowned nightlife hub.

    Whether it was Covid or the crackdown, or some combination of the two, an exodus of middle-class Hong Kongers and affluent expats has taken place in recent years.

    Last year, the city saw a net outflow of 60,000 residents, its third drop in as many years, taking the number of usual residents down to 7.19 million as of the end of 2022 — a drop of almost 144,000 from the end of 2020.

    Tens of thousands of them are Hong Kongers who have taken up special visas and pathways to citizenship offered by Western countries such as Britain, Canada and Australia in the wake of China’s crackdown.

    But there has also been a steady drip of departures from the expat population that, like a post-colonial hangover, had remained in the city long after Britain’s departure. They were largely professionals in finance and law with a reputation for working hard and partying even harder, regardless of the politics.

    Local media is now awash with reports of banking and law firms relocating their offices, in part or full, to rival financial hubs such as the no-longer-boring Singapore.

    Unfortunately for bar and restaurant owners, the two demographics leaving are among their biggest customers.

    “The expats have relocated, as well as [Hong Kongers] with a higher income. Their departure of course will have an impact,” said Ng, from Natixis.

    Increasingly, these two groups are being replaced by people from mainland China, who now account for more than 70% of the 103,000 work or graduate visas granted since 2022, according to the Immigration Department. The newly dominant migrants, economists point out, tend to have very different spending habits.

    Yan Wai-hin, an economics lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the city’s previously robust nightlife was propped up largely by a base of expats and middle-class locals steeped in the time-honored drinking culture of enjoying a nice cold one after a long day.

    “The makeup of the population is different now,” Yan said. “Now we have more immigrants from the mainland, and they tend to love to go back to mainland China to spend instead.”

    At Hong Kong’s most famous nightlife district, Lan Kwai Fong, the music may be fading, but it hasn’t stopped completely.

    The area was long synonymous with jam-packed streets of revelers who would spill out from the bars as the air filled with the sounds of boisterous chatter, clinking glasses and dance music blasting away late into the night.

    But during a recent visit by CNN, there was little to distinguish the area from any other street.

    People stand and drink in Lan Kwai Fong in 2017, back when the place was still pumping.

    “It has been very challenging so far and it has not got back to normal by a long shot,” said Richard Feldman, who runs the gay bar Petticoat Lane at the California Tower in Lan Kwai Fong.

    The chairman of the Soho Association, who has been running businesses in the city for more than three decades, Feldman said business was slightly better between Friday and Saturday than weekdays and shops with a good reputation have been less affected.

    But across the board, he too said the number of Western faces were dwindling in what was once a favored expat haunt.

    “It was a mix of expats and local professionals who would go out for drinks and a late night dance. But that demographic has eased quite a bit in the past year,” said another bar owner Becky Lam. “We are getting more mainland customers.”

    Lam, joint founder of a number of Hong Kong bars and restaurants, including wine bar Shady Acres in Central, said while mainland Chinese were willing to spend, they tended to gravitate towards restaurants rather than bars and were less likely to stay out late.

    On a weekday, she said, the bars she runs have been getting only half of the customers compared to pre-pandemic days.

    “They’ll settle for the Happy Hours and that’s it. We are not talking about 2 a.m. to 3 a.m.,” she said.

    There are other problems gnawing away at the nightlife sector.

    “People’s habits have changed since Covid, as many are so used to staying at home watching TV and Netflix,” Feldman said.

    During the pandemic, Hong Kong imposed a lengthy ban on bars and dine-in services to stem social gatherings, in what many saw as a nod to mainland China’s “zero-Covid” strategy.

    This affected shops and malls, which shortened their business hours due to the lack of customers. In many cases, those shortened hours have now become the new normal, with some shops now closing as early as 9 p.m. as opposed to the pre-Covid standard of 10:30 p.m.

    Lan Kwai Fong during its heyday in 2017

    Also conspiring against the city’s nightlife is a strong Hong Kong dollar compared to the Chinese yuan, which affects how both Hong Kongers and potential tourists spend their money.

    “People from the mainland are less likely to come here to shop, while people in Hong Kong are going to Shenzhen to spend their money,” said Marco Chan, head of research at real estate and investment firm CBRE.

    While mainland tourists now think twice about coming to Hong Kong, many Hongkongers have been spending their weekends in mainland China, where many services come at a fraction of the price, Chan said.

    Known as the “Godfather of Lan Kwai Fong,” Allan Zeman – the entrepreneur who turned the small square in Hong Kong’s Central district into a renowned nightlife hub – cuts a more optimistic figure than most and insists business is not as bad as it appears.

    He estimates mainland Chinese customers now account for 35% of the patrons in Lan Kwai Fong and says they are big spenders.

    Allan Zeman, chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Group, says mainland Chinese tourists are still spending generously.

    “They’ll go up to a club, like the California Tower on the roof, and they’ll spend like 400,000 to 550,000 Hong Kong dollars ($51,000 to $70,000) just for drinks,” he said.

    His take is that it is Hong Kong’s strong currency and a relative lack of incoming flights compared to the pre-Covid era that are stalling the city’s comeback. “I think it’s temporary,” he said.

    But bar owner Lam said Hong Kong needs to reexamine its regulatory approach, if it is to thrive at night once more.

    Lam pointed to a drive in recent years by the authorities to remove the city’s famous neon lights in the name of safety as an example of the current misguided approach, saying Hong Kong’s most defining nighttime icons were being dismantled one sign at a time.

    She also said her bar, Shady Acres, had been told to serve customers only indoors and shut all doors and windows after 9 p.m. as part of its licensing requirement.

    “These kinds of hurdles are really big in Hong Kong,” Lam said. “But I look at our neighboring cities like Bangkok, Shanghai and Taipei. These cities have an exciting nightlife as they really make it late night fun with music, street art and late night dining.”

    Feldman, of Petticoat Lane, had another suggestion. “Hong Kong used to be a far more international destination. Now it is a domestic destination,” he said.

    The city, said Feldman, should “do everything it can to attract people not only from China but from all over the world.”

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  • 82-year-old Korean man has heart attack after choking on ‘live octopus’ dish | CNN

    82-year-old Korean man has heart attack after choking on ‘live octopus’ dish | CNN


    Seoul, South Korea
    CNN
     — 

    An 82-year-old man in South Korea had a heart attack after choking on a piece of “live octopus,” or san-nakji, a local delicacy comprised of freshly severed – and still wriggling – tentacles.

    Fire station authorities in Gwangju, a city near the country’s southern tip, received a report on Monday morning that a piece of san-nakji had become stuck in a man’s throat, according to a fire station official.

    When first responders arrived on site, the man had a cardiac arrest, and they conducted CPR, the official said.

    The official did not say whether the man survived.

    San-nakji refers to a small octopus that is sliced and served raw, often eaten in South Korea’s coastal areas or seafood markets.

    Though the dish’s name translates to “live octopus,” this is slightly misleading – the octopus is killed before serving, with its tentacles cut into portions.

    However, it is served immediately after slicing, and is so fresh that the tentacles’ nerves are still active – causing the octopus to appear “live” as it continues moving on the plate.

    San-nakji is often served with sesame oil, sesame seeds, and sometimes ginger, and has a chewy texture.

    It made an appearance on a 2015 episode of Anthony Bourdain’s CNN series “Parts Unknown,” when the famed chef and television host traveled to South Korea to sample everything from soju to Korean fried chicken – and san-nakji, with Bourdain using his chopsticks to peel a sticky tentacle off the plate.

    The dish has also previously made headlines, with local media reporting multiple cases over the years of diners dying after choking or asphyxiating on “live octopus.”

    In perhaps the best-known case, dubbed the “octopus murder,” a South Korean man was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012 for allegedly killing his girlfriend and claiming it was a san-nakji accident – before he was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2013 for insufficient evidence.

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  • Bidens’ dog, Commander, involved in more White House biting incidents than previously reported | CNN Politics

    Bidens’ dog, Commander, involved in more White House biting incidents than previously reported | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden’s 2-year-old German shepherd, Commander, has been involved in more biting incidents than previously reported at the White House, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

    While the US Secret Service has acknowledged 11 reported biting incidents involving its personnel, sources who spoke to CNN said the real number is higher and includes executive residence staff and other White House workers. Those bites have ranged in severity, from one known bite requiring hospitalization to some requiring attention from the White House Medical Unit to some going unreported and untreated.

    While the first family works for solutions to the ongoing issue, CNN has learned, Commander is not on the White House campus.

    “The President and First Lady care deeply about the safety of those who work at the White House and those who protect them every day. They remain grateful for the patience and support of the U.S. Secret Service and all involved, as they continue to work through solutions,” Elizabeth Alexander, communications director for the first lady, said in a statement released first to CNN.

    Alexander continued, “Commander is not presently on the White House campus while next steps are evaluated.”

    It’s unclear if there is an official count of the bites, and US Secret Service chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi told CNN there is not a complete number. CNN spoke to four sources familiar with the incidents who work at the White House complex, and additional sources with knowledge of what happened. None could put an exact number on the incidents, some of which may not have been followed up on like the 11 known cases. Though DC-area hospitals and urgent cares are required to report patients treated for dog bites to the DC Department of Health, the White House Medical Unit is not required to report dog bites since it is under federal jurisdiction.

    One source familiar with the incidents pointed to efforts from their colleagues to adjust Secret Service workplace habits amid broader concerns about workplace safety as they work to support the first family at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The situation has also revealed broader tensions between the Bidens and the US Secret Service. Sources suggest the relationship between the first family and the US Secret Service was first strained when the family’s elder dog, Major, caused an injury to an unnamed Secret Service agent before ultimately being sent away more permanently to Delaware. That incident caused a breach in trust, a source familiar with the dynamic said.

    Major also had biting incidents with an engineer, per a witness to the incident, and a National Park Service employee, previously reported by CNN in spring 2021.

    While the Bidens enjoyed a good relationship with Secret Service during the vice presidency, the Major situation caused “stress” for the first couple in their early days at the White House. That laid the foundation for a “combustible” relationship with Secret Service, which has since been exacerbated by numerous “last minute changes” to schedules – including spending most weekends away from the White House at Camp David or one of their Delaware residences – and “unrealistic requests” that strain the agency’s resources, the source familiar with the relationship dynamic said.

    There had also been questions of USSS agents’ political loyalty to former President Donald Trump, as detailed by Biden allies to The Washington Post during the presidential transition in late 2020.

    Guglielmi strongly disputed any reports of tension between Secret Service and the Bidens.

    “On this I can say with firsthand knowledge that it is categorically false. There is an immense degree of trust and respect between the Secret Service and the first family and we know those feelings are mutual,” Guglielmi told CNN.

    Despite assertions that Commander would receive training, the biting incidents keep happening. The last confirmed bite took place last Monday. The White House has also declined to answer CNN’s inquiry on a specific number of biting incidents involving Commander.

    “We’re beyond the point of worrying about trust being broken. We have to speak up,” a source familiar with the president’s Secret Service detail said.

    That source, who requested anonymity to speak freely, described a “hostile” and “dangerous” work environment, suggesting that some agents have been warned to go through certain entrances and avoid certain areas to evade an interaction with the dog. The Secret Service communicates to its agents by radio when the dog is outdoors, and officers avoid the area.

    That source said a supervisor told them that there had been a large number of incidents of Commander biting this past summer “as a way to warn me of how concerning the situation was.”

    The Secret Service is in communication with the White House on “how best to operate” in the environment.

    “The Secret Service is tasked with ensuring the security of the White House complex, while minimizing operational impact to those who work and live there. We take the safety and wellbeing of our employees extremely seriously, and while special agents and officers neither care for nor handle the first family’s pets, we continue to work with the White House to update our guidance on how to best operate in an environment that includes pets,” Guglielmi said.

    The documented bites have ranged in severity. One of the previously reported incidents was described as “playful.”

    “Looks like the dog was being playful but playful can go wrong quickly,” a USSS Uniformed Division captain said in an October 2022 email obtained by the conservative group Judicial Watch.

    But a November 2022 incident, which was also previously reported, required a Uniformed Division USSS officer to be hospitalized for evaluation, according to those emails. And last week’s incident required treatment “by medical personnel” on the White House complex.

    Commander becoming ‘a serious issue’ at the White House

    The White House has largely downplayed the cacophony of media reports and analysis following CNN’s reporting on last week’s incident, pointing reporters to previous statements on the stressful environment at the White House. But to Jonathan Wackrow, a former US Secret Service Agent on then-first lady Michelle Obama’s detail and now a CNN contributor, the situation cannot be ignored.

    “Imagine you’re the owner of a business, a CEO of a company, you bring your dog in, and your dog keeps biting employees. You’re creating an unsafe work environment. And that’s what’s happening now,” said Wackrow.

    “There’s uniqueness here where it’s the residence of the president of the United States, but it’s also the workplace for hundreds, if not thousands, of people. And you can’t bring a hazard into the workplace and that’s what is essentially happening with this dog. One time, you can say it’s an accident, but now multiple incidents is a serious issue,”

    The Bidens, a White House official said, have taken the situation seriously.

    “They’ve been working diligently with Secret Service, with trainers, with veterinarians, with the residence staff and others on this – they have been taking this very seriously, and for months,” the official said.

    The Bidens have long been dog owners, and much like any other family member, the topic of their dog’s behavior is a “sensitive subject” for staff to raise, the source familiar with the dynamic said.

    “The pets are like their children, and they are bonded to them because they are loved and cared for just like all members of the family,” said Michael LaRosa, former press secretary to the first lady.

    Champ, also a German shepherd, lived at the vice president’s residence, which has a much smaller security footprint. Champ passed away at the Biden family home in Wilmington, Delaware, in June 2021 at the age of 13.

    LaRosa suggested that the loss of Champ, who died, and Major, who was sent away, both within a six-month period, was a “jarring experience” and an “abrupt disruption to their family life.”

    “The public nature of those challenges with the dogs and then losing them made it all more stressful for both the president and first lady,” LaRosa said.

    first puppy bidens white house

    Bringing Champ and Major to the White House was an adjustment, Jill Biden told Kelly Clarkson during a 2021 appearance on her talk show.

    “They have to take the elevator, they’re not used to that, and they have to go out on the South Lawn with lots of people watching them. So that’s what I’ve been obsessed with, getting everybody settled and calm,” she said.

    When she’s in Washington, the first lady takes the dog for a walk in the early mornings before heading to school for the day. But during the day, there’s a rotating cast of executive residence staff who take the dog out, and also transport Commander and the cat, Willow, to the Bidens’ weekend destinations (in separate cages), a source familiar with the process said.

    The lack of consistency could be part of the behavioral problem, according to Ryan Bulson, a local dog trainer and president of Mid-Atlantic German Shepherd Rescue.

    “It’s a German shepherd. They need structure. They need consistency. They need boundaries. They are a guardian breed. … When you’re looking at different people holding that leash, I would guarantee that there is no consistency amongst all of them,” Bulson said, pointing to the different tensions and distances with which the different walkers would leash the dog, and different wording of commands, like “heel” or “walk.”

    Bulson, speaking through his expertise with German shepherds and as a dog trainer, has not specifically worked with Commander, nor does he have inside knowledge into the walking process.

    White House officials have previously said that Commander would be receiving remedial training, though they were unable to answer whether that had taken place in the aftermath of reporting on 10 incidents this summer.

    Bulson said it’s critical after any training is complete that the owners of the dog and any other handlers are speaking from the same script and continuing to do the hard work of ongoing training together.

    He warned that re-training Commander, who has displayed aggressive behavior and subsequently repeated it, could be a challenge.

    Asked if it was too late, Bulson said it’s up to the Bidens.

    “If they don’t, as the humans, change their behaviors, then yes, it’s too late. They’re going to have to change their behaviors first before you can even think about changing the dog’s behaviors. Because they’re enabling, that’s what it boils down to. If they don’t change the way they handle and care for the dog … and learn and make a conscious effort to and legitimately say, ‘I am going to change my ways to set the dog up for success,’ if they can’t do that, that dog’s never going to be able to be helped in their care. They have to make that decision,” he said.

    The situation also underscores an uneven set of rules applying to a White House pet – though the legal ground itself is murky.

    Local DC laws “are not applicable on federal properties, including White House grounds,” a DC Council official said. The White House falls under federal jurisdiction.

    However, there aren’t many federal laws that address, regulate, or protect animals, creating a “gap,” said Kathy Hessler, assistant dean for animal legal education at George Washington University Law School.

    “It’s possible that certainly people could allege absent any federal regulation that the DC code would apply. And I think the opposite could also be argued. It’s not clear to me what outcome would happen in that kind of a dispute,” Hessler said.

    Under DC code applying to any other Washingtonian dog, Hessler explained, dog bites are supposed to be reported. That initiates a process for quarantining the animal to make sure there’s no risk of rabies. And then a determination is made, based on the facts surrounding the bite, on whether the dog is dangerous. That can result in a fine of a few hundred dollars, with impoundment a more serious potential consequence.

    As incidents involving Commander mount, Hessler warned that the situation can no longer be ignored for the well-being of the dog, White House staff and the Biden family.

    “I think the simple thing would be to remove Commander from that environment, at least temporarily, to see if these behaviors can be ameliorated, if they’re repeating in a different situation — so that people can get more data upon which they can make an informed decision about whether this is going to work, or whether some different decisions need to be taken for the benefit of everybody,” Hessler said.

    It’s all led to a difficult situation for the first family, for those who feel they have been put in danger, and, sadly, for the dog.

    “It doesn’t matter if we were talking about the president, the pope, it doesn’t matter to me. I take that title out of the equation. I look at the dog. … At the end of the day, I feel the worst for the dog first. Second of all, I feel just as bad for the people that dog had bitten. Because the dog has been set up to fail. If you can’t give the dog what the dog needs, then get a goldfish,” Bulson said.

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  • Sumatran rhino birth offers glimmer of hope for species almost hunted to extinction | CNN

    Sumatran rhino birth offers glimmer of hope for species almost hunted to extinction | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros calf has been born in a national park in Indonesia, the third successful pairing between a local female rhino named Ratu and Andalas, a former resident of Ohio’s Cincinnati Zoo.

    The unnamed female was born on Saturday at the Way Kambas National Park on southern Sumatra island, Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry said on X, formerly Twitter.

    Environment and forestry minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said it was “happy news not just for Indonesia but the rest of the world.”

    Sumatran rhinos were once found in great numbers across Southeast Asia but fewer than 80 remain in fragmented areas across Indonesia, according to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF).

    The calf’s birth represents hope for a species threatened with extinction due to illegal poaching and habitat loss.

    Photos shared by the forestry ministry showed the newborn calf, weighing about 27 kilograms (60 pounds), covered in black hair and looking bright-eyed next to her mother.

    In one picture, Ratu was seen giving her baby a gentle nudge.

    Within 45 minutes of her natural birth, the calf was able to stand and began feeding from her mother within four hours, the ministry said.

    Sumatran rhinos are the world’s smallest rhinos, standing at roughly 4 to 5 feet tall (about 1.5 meters), with an average body length of around 8.2 feet (2.5 meters).

    They are more closely related to extinct woolly rhinos than other rhino species and are covered in long hair.

    Sumatran rhinos typically live in dense tropical forest, both lowland and highland, on Sumatra and are generally solitary in nature, according to IRF. Females give birth to one calf every three to four years and gestation periods can last between 15 to 16 months.

    Habitat loss has driven them to occupy smaller areas of the Indonesian jungle and conservationists are concerned about the survival of the species.

    “As this reclusive species seems to disappear further into dense jungles, direct sightings have become rare and indirect signs like footprints are getting harder to find,” the IRF said.

    “The beacon of hope for the species is the breeding program at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary… that has produced three calves and continues its breeding efforts to create an insurance population of rhinos.”

    The species was declared locally extinct in neighboring Malaysia in 2019.

    A 25-year-old female named Iman died of cancer on November 24, 2019 at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary. Her death came months after Tam – the last surviving male rhino – succumbed to organ failure, officials said.

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  • ‘No one is safe’: France vows action as bedbugs sweep Paris | CNN

    ‘No one is safe’: France vows action as bedbugs sweep Paris | CNN


    Paris
    CNN
     — 

    The French government has vowed action to “reassure and protect” the public as its capital Paris reports a “widespread” rise in bedbugs.

    French Transport Minister Clement Beaune said Friday he would “bring together transport operators next week” to “undertake further action” to “reassure and protect” the public from the reported surge in the numbers of the blood-sucking insect.

    The announcement comes as calls for government action from Paris officials and trade unions mount after several videos of bedbugs spotted in public transport and other locations such as cinemas have surfaced on social media.

    Speaking to French TV station LCI on Friday, deputy mayor of Paris Emmanuel Gregoire called the phenomenon “widespread.”

    “You have to understand that in reality no one is safe, obviously there are risk factors but in reality, you can catch bedbugs anywhere and bring them home,” he said.

    Three years ago, the French government launched an anti-bedbug campaign, which includes a dedicated website and an information hotline, as numbers of the insect surged.

    But Gregoire said that despite that plan, “there are 3.6 million people who come into Paris every day, and bedbugs do not stop on the outskirts of the city.”

    An expert from France’s national health and sanitary body, Anses, said the problem was “an emerging phenomenon in France and almost everywhere in the world.”

    “It’s mainly due to the movement of people, populations traveling, the fact that people stay in short-term accommodation and bring back bedbugs in their suitcases or luggage,” Johanna Fite from the Anses department of risk assessment told CNN.

    She added there was an “escalation” in numbers because bedbugs were increasingly resistant to insecticides.

    “We are observing more and more bedbug populations which are resistant, so there is no miracle treatment to get rid of them,” Fite said.

    However, the Paris deputy mayor warned against “hysteria” over the issue, noting there had been an “increase in Parisians who are referring to the town hall’s information services for information on bedbugs”.

    “Professional companies which intervene in residential areas are telling us that currently the proportion of interventions for bedbugs is atypical compared to normal and is increasing rapidly,” he said.

    The news comes as Paris gets ready to host the 2024 Olympics Games, but officials say they are not worried.

    “There is no threat to the Olympic Games,” Gregoire said.

    “Bedbugs existed before and they will exist afterward,” he added, saying the games were an “opportunity” for everybody to work together on the issue.

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  • Missing toddler found sleeping in woods using her dog as a pillow after walking 3 miles barefoot | CNN

    Missing toddler found sleeping in woods using her dog as a pillow after walking 3 miles barefoot | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A 2-year-old girl who walked barefoot more than three miles with her family’s two dogs was found sleeping off a wooded Michigan trail using the smaller dog as a pillow, authorities said.

    Troopers were called to a house in rural Faithorn, Michigan, around 8 p.m. on Wednesday after the toddler, Thea Chase, had wandered away from the home, Michigan State Police Lt. Mark Giannunzio told CNN on Friday.

    Faithorn is a small town about a mile east of Wisconsin’s border in northern Michigan.

    Brooke Chase, Thea’s mother, said she had an instinct to check on her daughter who had been playing in the yard, and learned the toddler’s uncle told Thea to go inside because she had no shoes on.

    When Chase and her brother-in-law realized Thea wasn’t in the house, she said she began to yell. They searched for about 20 minutes before calling Chase’s husband and police.

    “When we get a call like that, everything else stops,” Giannunzio said.

    Michigan State Police put out requests for drones, search-and-rescue and canine teams, while members of the close-knit community formed their own search party to help locate the child, who was assumed to be somewhere in the heavily wooded area near the home, Giannunzio said.

    Around midnight, four hours after police were first notified, a family friend searching for Thea on an all-terrain vehicle came across the Chase family’s rottweiler, Buddy, who started barking as he approached, according to Chase.

    The 2-year-old was discovered a short way off the trail, sleeping on the ground with her head atop Hartley, the family’s English Springer. When the ATV driver tried to get near the toddler to wake her up, the smaller dog growled, Chase said.

    “She has those dogs wrapped around her finger,” the mother said.

    Chase added she was “in a fog” for the roughly four hours that search teams looked for her daughter. While she stayed in the home with Thea’s younger brother, troopers searched the house multiple times and tried to comfort the mother.

    When Thea was returned home on the back of the ATV, the child was giggling and saying, “Hi, Mommy,” Chase said.

    The outdoor temperature was about 60 degrees when the toddler was found. Thea was determined to be fine after a medical evaluation, according to Giannunzio.

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  • A 4-year-old police dog named Yoda detained fugitive Danilo Cavalcante, bringing an end to the exhaustive, nearly 2 week-long manhunt | CNN

    A 4-year-old police dog named Yoda detained fugitive Danilo Cavalcante, bringing an end to the exhaustive, nearly 2 week-long manhunt | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Moments after law enforcement officials spotted convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante’s head peeking through the underbrush, they released a police dog who bit and subdued Cavalcante, leading to his apprehension nearly two weeks after he escaped prison, officials said.

    The dog, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois male named Yoda, was from one of two tactical teams that moved in on Cavalcante at around 8 a.m. in a wooded Pennsylvania area, ending an intensive manhunt that drew hundreds of law enforcement officials to the area without any shots fired during the arrest.

    Yoda was a significant force in the takedown, preventing Cavalcante from using a stolen rifle in his possession that lay within arms-reach, said Lt. Colonel George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police during a news conference Wednesday.

    “He was just essential as far as the tracking and searching, as were numerous other K-9s that were here,” Robert Clark, supervisory deputy US Marshal for Pennsylvania’s eastern district, told CNN on Wednesday. “All these K-9 resources were utilized from different tactical teams from the area, and they were just incredible resources.”

    US Marshal describes manhunt that led to escaped inmate’s capture

    Cavalcante escaped from Chester County Prison on August 31, leaving the surrounding community gripped with fear as he evaded capture despite being spotted numerous times.

    The 34-year-old was convicted last month in the 2021 killing of his former girlfriend, Deborah Brandão. He is also wanted in a 2017 homicide case in Brazil, a US Marshals Service official said.

    Cavalcante was captured in Chester County, swarmed by at least 20 law enforcement officers, Bivens said. Yoda joined the search from the US Border Patrol Tactical Unit stationed out of Michigan, Clark told CNN.

    Authorities say it took about five minutes from when authorities began moving in to apprehend Cavalcante, with Yoda’s help.

    Danilo Cavalcante is seen lying in the woods surrounded by officers and Yoda, a US Border Patrol BORTAC K9, on Wednesday.

    The fugitive was sleeping when police finally located him, lying on top of a rifle he had stolen from a nearby resident late Monday night. Officers took Cavalcante by surprise, and he tried to flee by crawling through the thick underbrush with the stolen rifle in hand, Bivens said.

    The tactical teams made the decision to deploy Yoda – knowing Cavalcante was armed – before upgrading to deadly force, according to Clark. Only the crown of Cavalcante’s head was visible when Yoda moved in on him, Clark said.

    Yoda is a “bite and hold” police dog, Clark said, trained to hold down an individual until commanded to release the hold. The dog bit Cavalcante on his scalp and then bit him again in the “lower extremity area” to keep him down, Clark said.

    “When the dog got to him, he then went flat with the dog on him – the dog was able to detain him there,” Bivens said. “I was told the rifle was within arm’s length.”

    Cavalcante then “continued to resist” and was “forcibly taken into custody” by the officers, Bivens said.

    Police dogs play “a very important role” in tracking down and safely capturing an individual, Bivens said during the news conference.

    “Far better that we’re able to release a patrol dog like this and have them subdue the individual than have to use lethal force,” Bivens said.

    Escaped inmate Danilo Cavalcante is shown after being captured on September 13, 2023.

    It’s standard practice for K-9s to move first, going quickly and directly to a suspect on command, Bivens told CNN.

    The dogs are trained to take a person “off guard” to prevent them from escaping or using any weapons in their vicinity. Their training grants officers a few extra seconds to approach the suspect and apprehend them without lethal force, Bivens added.

    “They don’t just keep biting and releasing or trying to cause additional injury,” Bivens said, referring to how K-9 dogs are trained.

    “They simply grab onto and try and hold that person in place until officers can get there,” he added, noting police dogs are not meant to be released at a distance or without supervision. “There are officers close by who can then move in, the handler can Immediately pull the dog back off… and then officers take over from there.”

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  • No identifiable relationship between deaths of 12 horses at Kentucky racetrack, investigation says | CNN

    No identifiable relationship between deaths of 12 horses at Kentucky racetrack, investigation says | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    An investigation into 12 horse fatalities at the famed horse racing track Churchill Downs found no causal relationship between the horse deaths and the track, but the report cited concerns about increased risk for some horses due to the frequency and cadence of their exercise schedules.

    The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) launched the investigation in the spring of 2023 to find the causes of the breakdowns, prevent further injury, and determine whether conditions at the famed track in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to the death of the 12 horses, the report said.

    HISA describes the deaths at Churchill Downs, famous as the site of the Kentucky Derby, as “a sober reminder of the complexity and difficulty of the mission, and ultimately a moment of reckoning for the sport and HISA’s role within it.”

    After the 12 deaths in the spring, HISA advised moving the remaining spring races to Ellis Park in Evansville, Indiana, so additional investigation could be conducted at Churchill Downs before competition resumed. At the time, the authority said it was “deeply concerned by the unusually high number” of horse deaths and called for an “emergency veterinary summit.”

    HISA hired racetrack expert Dennis Moore to determine the conditions of the track. He examined the main dirt racetrack for several days and analyzed factors including the cushion depth, moisture content, surface grades, and material composition.

    Moore found the relevant metrics remained consistent with prior years.

    “The metrics did not indicate a correlation between the track surface and the equine catastrophic injuries sustained during the race meet,” according to Moore’s findings.

    The report also reviewed the location of the injuries on the racetrack to discover any patterns, but the study did not yield “any insightful information,” and no discernible pattern.

    Dr. Alina Vale also examined the results of the necropsies, a term often used for autopsies of animals, and determined there was no identifiable pattern in the reports that pointed toward a single causal factor of the fatalities. No prohibited substances were found in any of the 12 horses, Vale said in the report.

    Another veterinary expert, Susan Stover of the University of California at Davis, found that all 12 horses had run more races in their career than the average racehorse.

    Although the investigation found no causal relationship between the racetrack surface and the fatalities, “analysis of training histories did indicate an increased risk profile for some of the horses due to the frequency and cadence of their exercise and racing schedules.”

    The investigation listed the causes of the death for the 12 horses. Four horses suffered fractures sustained in racing on the dirt track, two fractures sustained in racing on the turf track, two soft tissue injuries sustained in racing on the dirt track, two cases of exercise-associated sudden death, one traumatic paddock injury, and one fracture sustained in training on the dirt track.

    The findings of this report were shared with Churchill Downs before the resumption of the racetrack this month, according to the investigation.

    “HISA has shared recommendations on track surface testing and maintenance with Churchill Downs and offers additional procedural improvements for the tracking and reporting of injuries to better inform the development of additional rules.”

    In a statement provided to CNN, Churchill Downs said they’ve implemented several of the recommendations from the HISA report.

    “We appreciate the diligent investigation and analysis from the team at HISA,” Darren Rogers, senior director of communications at Churchill Downs, said. “We have already implemented several of the recommendations listed in the report as well as additional internal key safety enhancements in time for the opening of our September Meet. Churchill Downs will continue to explore and invest in initiatives that support equine safety as our highest priority,”

    The track plans to resume racing on September 14.

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  • Bangladesh’s worst ever dengue outbreak a ‘canary in the coal mine’ for climate crisis, WHO expert warns | CNN

    Bangladesh’s worst ever dengue outbreak a ‘canary in the coal mine’ for climate crisis, WHO expert warns | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Bangladesh is battling its worst dengue outbreak on record, with more than 600 people killed and 135,000 cases reported since April, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, as one of its experts blamed the climate crisis and El Nino weather pattern for driving the surge.

    The country’s health care system is straining under the influx of sick people, and local media have reported hospitals are facing a shortage of beds and staff to care for patients. There were almost 10,000 hospitalizations on August 12 alone, according to WHO.

    WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news briefing Wednesday that of the 650 people who have died since the outbreak began in April, 300 were reported in August.

    While dengue fever is endemic in Bangladesh, with infections typically peaking during the monsoon season, this year the uptick in cases started much earlier – toward the end of April.

    Tedros said WHO is supporting the Bangladeshi government and authorities “to strengthen surveillance, lab capacity, clinical management, vector control, risk communication and community engagement,” during the outbreak.

    “We have trained doctors and deployed experts on the ground. We have also provided supplies to test for dengue and support care for patients,” he said.

    A viral infection, dengue causes flu-like symptoms, including piercing headaches, muscle and joint pains, fever and full body rashes. It is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito and there is no specific treatment for the disease.

    Dengue is endemic in more than 100 countries and every year, 100 million to 400 million people become infected, according to WHO.

    All 64 districts across Bangladesh have been affected by the outbreak but the capital Dhaka – home to more than 20 million people – has been the worst-hit city, according to WHO. Though cases there are starting to stabilize.

    “Cases are starting to decline in the capital Dhaka but are increasing in other parts of the country,” Tedros said.

    Dhaka is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and rapid unplanned urbanization has exacerbated outbreaks.

    “There is a water supply problem in Dhaka, so people keep water in buckets and plastic containers in their bathrooms or elsewhere in the home. Mosquitoes can live there all year round,” Kabirul Bashar, professor at Jahangirnagar University’s Zoology department, wrote in the Lancet journal last month.

    “Our waste management system is not well planned. Garbage piles up on the street; you see a lot of little plastic containers with pools of water in them. We also have multi-story buildings with car parks in the basements. People wash their vehicles down there, which is ideal for the mosquitoes.”

    To cope with the onslaught of infections, Bangladesh has repurposed six Covid-19 hospitals to care for dengue patients and requested help from WHO to help detect and manage cases earlier, WHO said.

    Climate crisis spreading and amplifying outbreaks

    The record number of dengue cases and deaths in Bangladesh comes as the country has seen an “unusual episodic amount of rainfall, combined with high temperatures and high humidity, which have resulted in an increased mosquito population throughout Bangladesh,” WHO said in August.

    Those warm, wet conditions make the perfect breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes and as the planet continues to rapidly heat due to the burning of fossil fuels, outbreaks will become more common in new regions of the world.

    The global number of dengue cases has already increased eight-fold in the past two decades, according to WHO.

    “In 2000, we had about half a million cases and … in 2022 we recorded over 4.2 million,” said Raman Velayudhan, WHO’s head of the global program on control of neglected tropical diseases in July.

    As the climate crisis worsens, mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever will likely continue to spread and have an ever greater impact on human health.

    “We are seeing more and more countries experiencing the heavy burden of these diseases,” said Abdi Mahamud, WHO’s alert and response director in the health emergencies program.

    Mahamud said the climate crisis and this year’s El Nino weather pattern – which brings warmer, wetter weather to parts of the world – are worsening the problem.

    This year, dengue has hit South America severely with Peru grappling with its worst outbreak on record. Cases in Florida prompted authorities to put several counties on alert. In Asia, a spike in cases has hit Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia, among other nations. And countries in sub-Sarahan Africa, like Chad, have also reported outbreaks.

    Calling these outbreaks a “canary in the coalmine of the climate crisis,” Mahamud said “global solidarity” and support is needed to deal with the worsening epidemic.

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  • Biden administration cancels years-long attempt to drill in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge | CNN Politics

    Biden administration cancels years-long attempt to drill in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will cancel seven Trump-era oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and protect more than 13 million acres in the federal National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, stymieing a years-long attempt to drill in the protected region.

    The cancellation will affect Alaska’s state-owned oil development agency, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which bought the leases covering about 365,000 acres on ANWR’s Coastal Plain during the Trump administration.

    “With today’s action, no one will have rights to drill for oil in one of the most sensitive landscapes on Earth,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told reporters on a press call. “Public lands belong to all Americans, and there are some places where oil and gas drilling and industrial development simply do not belong.”

    President Joe Biden echoed Haaland’s comments in a statement and said that his administration will “continue to take bold action” on climate change.

    Wednesday’s actions, Biden said, “will help preserve our Arctic lands and wildlife, while honoring the culture, history, and enduring wisdom of Alaska Natives who have lived on these lands since time immemorial.”

    The 2017 GOP tax bill opened a small part of the pristine wildlife refuge for drilling, a measure championed by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican. But it was never developed or drilled – or came close to doing so. Haaland suspended the leases in June 2021, and some major oil companies, including Chevron, canceled their leases in the area the following year.

    However, the 2017 tax law mandates leasing in ANWR, meaning the Biden administration will have to launch a new leasing process and hold another lease sale by the end of 2024, albeit likely with tighter environmental provisions.

    “We intend to comply with the law,” a senior Biden administration official said, adding they didn’t have a timeline for an additional lease sale apart from the law’s deadline of holding one by December 2024.

    The Interior Department is also proposing federal protections for 13 million acres of land in the NPR-A, limiting future oil and gas development and taking steps to implement conservation protections it announced in March, alongside the controversial Willow oil drilling project. The proposed rule would expressly prohibit new oil and gas leasing in 10.6 million acres, or over 40% of the NPR-A, according to an Interior Department press release.

    The protected area would span areas including Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon and Peard Bay Special Areas – home to migrating caribou, polar and grizzly bears and migratory birds.

    The new regulations would also reverse a Trump-era rule expanding oil and gas development in the area and shrinking protections for habitat and animals, while also protecting subsistence hunting and gathering from Alaska Native communities who live in the area.

    Haaland and White House senior adviser John Podesta pointed to the impacts of climate change quickening warming in the area.

    “Alaska is ground zero for climate change,” Podesta told reporters. “The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Today’s actions help protect their future, America’s future and they build on President Biden’s historic climate and conservation record.”

    The administration’s initial suspension of the leases was challenged in court by Alaska’s state-owned oil developer, but AEIDA lost their lawsuit in early August.

    AEIDA did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

    The Biden administration’s move on Wednesday was cheered by environmental groups and some Democrats in Congress.

    “It’s a significant step to permanent protection of the Arctic refuge, but it’s not mission accomplished,” Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California, told CNN. “That terrible law requires them to do a leasing process, but not on a deeply flawed environmental review and not without considering more protective alternatives and the best available science.”

    Although Alaska Natives are split on Arctic drilling, some groups commended the Biden administration and urged Congress to undo the 2017 law mandating drilling in ANWR.

    “We urge the administration and our leaders in Congress to repeal the oil and gas program and permanently protect the Arctic Refuge,” Bernadette Dementieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, said in a statement.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • New Delhi doesn’t want its monkeys to ruin G20. But it has a plan | CNN

    New Delhi doesn’t want its monkeys to ruin G20. But it has a plan | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Authorities in India are determined to keep a lid on any monkey business ahead of world leaders jetting in next week, by placing life-size cutouts of angry langurs across the capital to dissuade smaller pesky primates from wreaking havoc or hogging the limelight while the nation takes center stage.

    India is gearing up to welcome the leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) countries in New Delhi next weekend, including US President Joe Biden, in an event that has been given utmost prominence at home.

    Little is being left to chance, not even the city’s notoriously mischievous population of rhesus macaques.

    The small monkeys are found across the capital, running across roads, bouncing between rooftops, causing a general nuisance and occasionally attacking unexpected pedestrians.

    As the government embarks on a major beautification drive, freshly painting walls, planting trees and placing colorful flowers in key areas across town, New Delhi’s authorities have taken steps to ensure the animals don’t ruin those efforts.

    Enter the langur – or at least, cardboard cutouts of langurs – and men trained to sound like the bigger primates.

    “(The monkeys) don’t want to come near the large cutouts of the langurs as they get scared,” Satish Upadhyay, vice-chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Council, told Indian news agency ANI. “Monkeys cannot be displaced, harmed or hit.”

    Upadhyay added they have also deployed between 30 and 40 men who can mimic the sounds of langurs to trick the rhesus monkeys into thinking they are nearby.

    The council has also left food for the monkeys in forested areas to encourage them to remain there, he added.

    Monkeys are revered in Hindu-majority India and culling programs of wild or stray animals have previously proved hugely controversial. Hence the need for more humane solutions.

    The langur monkey is much larger and more aggressive than the smaller rhesus macaque and have long been used in the past by authorities to scare off marauding gangs of the latter.

    Live langurs were rented and put on duty when the Commonwealth Games were held in New Delhi in 2010, Reuters news agency reported.

    Much of central New Delhi will come to a halt for the G20 with a huge operation to keep global leaders moving freely between the hotels and meeting venues.

    Billboards advertising the summit and featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face have been placed on corners of many streets, while the police and security presence is set to increase in the days leading up to the meeting.

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  • Honoring the legacy of game show host and activist Bob Barker | CNN

    Honoring the legacy of game show host and activist Bob Barker | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    For over thirty years, Bob Barker was known and loved as the host of the hit game show “The Price is Right.” He famously ended each episode telling viewers to spay or neuter their pets. Barker spent decades giving his time and money to better the lives of creatures big and small. Here are several organizations you can donate to in honor of Bob Barker’s legacy.

    Barker often joined forces with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to fight for various animal welfare issues – from protecting captive orcas to opposing product-testing on rabbits. “We love this man,” PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk said in 2018. “But what do you give someone who has everything and gives his all to animals? The answer is a rescued horse named in his honor.” PETA also named its headquarters in Los Angeles “The Bob Barker Building” honoring the show host’s multi-million dollar donation.

    Barker helped relocate captive big animals to comfortable sanctuaries. In 2013, Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary welcomed three elephants from the Toronto Zoo after their program was shut down. Barker’s $1 million donation ensured safe transport of Iringa, Thika and Toka. “If an elephant is going to be in captivity,” Barker said, “the PAWS sanctuary is the best place in the world for them.” The 2,300-acre sanctuary also houses lions, bears, and tigers.

    Awards and Achievements

    While Barker was recognized for his on-screen work with 19 Daytime Emmys, he also earned praise for his activism. The Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals honored Barker with their 2007 President’s Award. The nonprofit animal welfare organization has been helping animals since 1877 with services including cruelty investigations and a disaster animal response team.

    Aside from simple activism, the TV veteran championed animal legal and ethics studies at law schools around the world. Barker was named an Honorary Fellow by the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. “Almost single-handedly in little more than a decade, Bob’s sagacity and generosity have propelled animal ethics from a marginal issue into the academic mainstream. This is a colossal achievement,” said University of Oxford Professor Andrew Linzey.

    Bob Barker poses with his bust at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

    In his younger years, Barker attended Drury University, then known as Drury College, on a basketball scholarship. He has since given millions of dollars to his alma mater, funding a scholarship, an internship fund, and setting up the university’s animal studies program. “Drury University is able to place bright young minds into this important field thanks to his support,” said Drury President Timothy Cloyd. “Gifts such as these have a ripple effect on the lives of our graduates and the world around them.”

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  • Surfer fights for his life after shark attack in Australia | CNN

    Surfer fights for his life after shark attack in Australia | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A surfer is fighting for his life in the hospital after he was attacked by a shark off Australia’s east coast, police said Friday.

    The 44-year-old man was surfing near Lighthouse Beach, Port Macquarie when a shark launched a “sustained and prolonged attack,” New South Wales (NSW) police said in a statement.

    The surfer tried to fight the shark for about 30 seconds before swimming back to shore where he realized the extent of his injuries, CNN regional affiliate 9News reported.

    Police said a bystander applied a tourniquet before paramedics transferred the surfer to Port Macquarie Hospital in critical condition.

    “[He is in] a serious condition with life threatening injuries, sustained from the lower leg injuries, and also significant blood loss,” NSW Police Chief Inspector Martin Burke said.

    A witness told 9News the scene was “really scary”.

    “I have never seen anything like it,” the unnamed teenager said. “His foot ripped off and basically he was bleeding everywhere.”

    Lighthouse Beach will remain closed for at least 24 hours, Port Macquarie Hastings ALS Lifeguards said on Facebook. Meanwhile, a drone will be used to conduct surveillance flights and monitor shark activity in the area, the group said.

    Experts from the Department of Primary Industries (Fisheries) have begun an investigation into the incident, according to Surf Life Saving NSW.

    Australia ranked behind only the United States in the number of unprovoked shark encounters with humans last year, according to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File.

    The museum describes “unprovoked bites” as incidents in which a bite on a human takes place in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark. “Provoked bites” are classified as when a human initiates interaction with a shark in some way.

    According to the Australian Shark Incident Database, there were 10 shark encounters in New South Wales in 2022, resulting in seven injuries and one death.

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  • Fact check: The first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 election | CNN Politics

    Fact check: The first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 election | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Republican presidential candidates delivered a smattering of false and misleading claims at the first debate of the 2024 election – though none of the eight candidates on stage in Milwaukee delivered anything close to the bombardment of false statements that typically characterized the debate performances of former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner who skipped the Wednesday event.

    Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina inaccurately described the state of the economy in early 2021 and repeated a long-ago-debunked false claim about the Biden-era Justice Department. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie misstated the sentence attached to a gun law relevant to the investigation into the president’s son Hunter Biden. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis misled about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, omitting mention of his early pandemic restrictions.

    Below is a fact check of those claims and various others from the debate, some of which left out key context. In addition, below is a brief fact check of some of Trump’s claims from a pre-taped interview he did with Tucker Carlson, which was posted online shortly before the debate aired. Trump made a variety of statements that were not true.

    DeSantis and the pandemic

    DeSantis criticized the federal government for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, claiming it had locked down the economy, and then said: “In Florida, we led the country out of lockdown, and we kept our state free and open.”

    Facts First: DeSantis’s claim is misleading at best. Before he became a vocal opponent of pandemic restrictions, DeSantis imposed significant restrictions on individuals, businesses and other entities in Florida in March 2020 and April 2020; some of them extended months later into 2020. He did then open up the state, with a gradual phased approach, but he did not keep it open from the start.

    DeSantis received criticism in March 2020 for what some critics perceived as a lax approach to the pandemic, which intensified as Florida beaches were packed during Spring Break. But that month and the month following, DeSantis issued a series of major restrictions. For example, DeSantis:

    • Closed Florida’s schools, first with a short-term closure in March 2020 and then, in April 2020, with a shutdown through the end of the school year. (In June 2020, he announced a plan for schools to reopen for the next school year that began in August. By October 2020, he was publicly denouncing school closures, calling them a major mistake and saying all the information hadn’t been available that March.)
    • On March 14, 2020, announced a ban on most visits to nursing homes. (He lifted the ban in September 2020.)
    • On March 17, 2020, ordered bars and nightclubs to close for 30 days and restaurants to operate at half-capacity. (He later approved a phased reopening plan that took effect in May 2020, then issued an order in September 2020 allowing these establishments to operate at full capacity.)
    • On March 17, 2020, ordered gatherings on public beaches to be limited to a maximum of 10 people staying at least six feet apart, then, three days later, ordered a shutdown of public beaches in two populous counties, Broward and Palm Beach. (He permitted those counties’ beaches to reopen by the last half of May.)
    • On March 20, 2020, prohibited “any medically unnecessary, non-urgent or non-emergency” medical procedures. (The prohibition was lifted in early May 2020.)
    • On March 23, 2020, ordered that anyone flying to Florida from an area with “substantial community spread” of the virus, “to include the New York Tri-State Area (Connecticut, New Jersey and New York),” isolate or quarantine for 14 days or the duration of their stay in Florida, whichever was shorter, or face possible jail time or a fine. Later that week, he added Louisiana to the list. (He lifted the Louisiana restriction in June 2020 and the rest in August 2020.)
    • On April 3, 2020, imposed a statewide stay-home order that temporarily required people in Florida to “limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities.” (Beginning in May 2020, the state switched to a phased reopening plan that, for months, included major restrictions on the operations of businesses and other entities; DeSantis described it at the time as a “very slow and methodical approach” to reopening.)

    -From CNN’s Daniel Dale

    Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations, said: “Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this.”

    Facts First: Haley’s figure is accurate. The total public debt stood at about $19.9 trillion on the day Trump took office in 2017 and then increased by about $7.8 trillion over Trump’s four years, to about $27.8 trillion on the day he left office in 2021.

    It’s worth noting, however, that the increase in the debt during any president’s tenure is not the fault of that president alone. A significant amount of spending under any president is the result of decisions made by their predecessors – such as the creation of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid decades ago – and by circumstances out of a president’s control, notably including the global Covid-19 pandemic under Trump; the debt spiked in 2020 after Trump approved trillions in emergency pandemic relief spending that Congress had passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

    Still, Trump did choose to approve that spending. And his 2017 tax cuts, unanimously opposed by congressional Democrats, were another major contributor to the debt spike.

    -From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Katie Lobosco

    North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum claimed that Biden’s signature climate bill costs $1.2 trillion dollars and is “just subsidizing China.”

    Facts First: This claim needs context. The clean energy pieces of the Inflation Reduction Act – Democrats’ climate bill – passed with an initial price tag of nearly $370 billion. However, since that bill is made up of tax incentives, that price tag could go up depending on how many consumers take advantage of tax credits to buy electric vehicles and put solar panels on their homes, and how many businesses use the subsidies to install new utility scale wind and solar in the United States.

    Burgum’s figure comes from a Goldman Sachs report, which estimated the IRA could provide $1.2 trillion in clean energy tax incentives by 2032 – about a decade from now.

    On Burgum’s claim that Biden’s clean energy agenda will be a boon to China, the IRA was specifically written to move the manufacturing supply chain for clean energy technology like solar panels and EV batteries away from China and to the United States.

    In the year since it was passed, the IRA has spurred 83 new or expanded manufacturing facilities in the US, and close to 30,000 new clean energy manufacturing jobs, according to a tally from trade group American Clean Power.

    -From CNN’s Ella Nilsen

    With the economy as one of the main topics on the forefront of voters’ minds, Scott aimed to make a case for Republican policies, misleadingly suggesting they left the US economy in record shape before Biden took office.

    “There is no doubt that during the Trump administration, when we were dealing with the COVID virus, we spent more money,” Scott said. “But here’s what happened at the end of our time in the majority: we had low unemployment, record low unemployment, 3.5% for the majority of the population, and a 70-year low for women. African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians had an all-time low.”

    Facts First: This is false. Scott’s claims don’t accurately reflect the state of the US economy at the end of the Republican majority in the Senate. And in some cases, his exaggerations echo what Trump himself frequently touted about the economy under his leadership.

    By the time Trump left office and the Republicans lost the Senate majority in January 2021, US unemployment was not at a record low. The US unemployment rate dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.5% in September 2019, the country’s lowest in 50 years. While it hovered around that level for five months, Scott’s assertion ignores the coronavirus pandemic-induced economic destruction that followed. In April 2020, the unemployment rate spiked to 14.7% — the highest level since monthly records began in 1948. As of December 2020, the unemployment rate was at 6.7%.

    Nor was the unemployment rate for women at a 70-year low by the end of Trump’s time in office. It reached a 66-year low during certain months of 2019, at 3.4% in April and 3.6% in August, but by December 2020, unemployment for women was at 6.7%.

    The unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians were also not at all-time lows at the end of 2020, but they did reach record lows during Trump’s tenure as president.

    -From CNN’s Tara Subramaniam

    Scott said that the Justice Department under President Joe Biden is targeting “parents that show up at school board meetings. They are called, under this DOJ, they’re called domestic terrorists.”

    Facts First: It is false that the Justice Department referred to parents as domestic terrorists. The claim has been debunked several times – during the uproar at school boards over Covid-19 restrictions and anti-racism curriculums; after Kevin McCarthy claimed Republicans would investigate Merrick Garland with a majority in the House; and even by a federal judge. The Justice Department never called parents terrorists for attending or wanting to attend school board meetings.

    The claim stems from a 2021 letter from The National School Boards Associations asking the Justice Department to “deal with” the uptick in threats against education officials and saying that “acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials” could be classified as “the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” In response, Garland released a memo encouraging federal and local authorities to work together against the harassment campaigns levied at schools, but never endorsed the “domestic terrorism” notion.

    A federal judge even threw out a lawsuit over the accusation, ruling that Garland’s memo did little more than announce a “series of measures” that directed federal authorities to address increasing threats targeting school board members, teachers and other school employees.

    -From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz

    Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina, said the US is spending “less than three and a half percent of our defense budget” on Ukraine aid, and that in terms of financial aid relative to GDP, “11 of the European countries have given more than the US.”

    Facts First: This is partly true. Haley’s claim regarding the US aid to Ukraine compared to the total defense budget is slightly under the actual percentage, but it is accurate that 11 European countries have given more aid to Ukraine as a percentage of their total GDP than the US.

    As of August 14, the US has committed more than $43 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, according to the Defense Department. In comparison, the Fiscal Year 2023 defense budget was $858 billion – making aid to Ukraine just over 5% of the total US defense budget.

    As of May 2023, according to a Council of Foreign Relations tracker, 11 countries were providing a higher share in aid to Ukraine relative to their GDP than the US – led by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

    -From CNN’s Haley Britzky

    Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that the Trump administration “spent funding to backfill on the military cuts of the Obama administration.”

    Facts First: This is misleading. While military spending decreased under the Obama administration, it was largely due to the 2011 Budget Control Act, which received Republican support and resulted in automatic spending cuts to the defense budget.

    Mike Pence, a senator at the time, voted in favor of the Budget Control Act.

    -From CNN’s Haley Britzky

    Christie said President Biden’s son Hunter Biden was “facing a 10-year mandatory minimum” for lying on a federal form when he purchased a gun in 2018.

    Facts First: Christie, a former federal prosecutor, clearly misstated the law. This crime can lead to a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, but it doesn’t have a 10-year mandatory minimum.

    These comments are related to the highly scrutinized Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden, which is currently ongoing after a plea deal fell apart earlier this summer.

    As part of the now-defunct deal, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and enter into a “diversion agreement” with prosecutors, who would drop the gun possession charge in two years if he consistently stayed out of legal trouble and passed drug tests.

    The law in question makes it a crime to purchase a firearm while using or addicted to illegal drugs. Hunter Biden has acknowledged struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time, and admitted at a court hearing and in court papers that he violated this law by signing the form.

    The US Sentencing Commission says, “The statutory maximum penalty for the offense is ten years of imprisonment.” There isn’t a mandatory 10-year punishment, as Christie claimed.

    During his answer, Christie also criticized the Justice Department for agreeing to a deal in June where Hunter Biden could avoid prosecution on the felony gun offense. That deal was negotiated by special counsel David Weiss, who was first appointed to the Justice Department by former President Donald Trump.

    -From CNN’s Marshall Cohen

    Burgum and Scott got into a back and forth over IRS staffing with Burgum saying that the “Biden administration wanted to put 87,000 people in the IRS,” and Scott suggesting they “fire the 87,000 IRS agents.”

    Facts First: This figure needs context.

    The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed last year without any Republican votes, authorized $80 billion in new funding for the IRS to be delivered over the course of a decade.

    The 87,000 figure comes from a 2021 Treasury report that estimated the IRS could hire 86,852 full-time employees with a nearly $80 billion investment over 10 years.

    While the funding may well allow for the hiring of tens of thousands of IRS employees over time, far from all of these employees will be IRS agents conducting audits and investigations.

    Many other employees will be hired for the non-agent roles, from customer service to information technology, that make up most of the IRS workforce. And a significant number of the hires are expected to fill the vacant posts left by retirements and other attrition, not take newly created positions.

    The IRS has not said precisely how many new “agents” will be hired with the funding. But it is already clear that the total won’t approach 87,000. And it’s worth noting that the IRS may not receive all of the $80 billion after Republicans were able to claw back $20 billion of the new funding as part of a deal to address the debt ceiling made earlier this year.

    -From CNN’s Katie Lobosco

    Trump repeated a frequent claim during his interview with Carlson that streamed during the GOP debate that his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House was “covered” under the Presidential Records Act and that he is “allowed to do exactly that.”

    Facts First: This is false. The Presidential Records Act says the exact opposite – that the moment presidents leave office, all presidential records are to be turned over to the federal government. Keeping documents at Mar-a-Lago after his presidency concluded was in clear contravention of that law.

    According to the Presidential Records Act, “upon the conclusion of a President’s term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term, the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President.”

    The sentence makes clear that a president has no authority to keep documents after leaving the White House.

    The National Archives even released a statement refuting the notion that Trump’s retention of documents was covered by the Presidential Records Act, writing in a June news release that “the PRA requires that all records created by Presidents (and Vice-Presidents) be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the end of their administrations.”

    -From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz

    While discussing electric vehicles, Trump claimed that California “is in a big brownout because their grid is a disaster,” adding that the state’s ambitious electric vehicle goals won’t work with the grid in such shape.

    Facts First: Trump’s claim that California’s grid is currently in a “big brownout” and is a “disaster” isn’t true. California’s grid suffered rolling blackouts in 2020, but it has performed quite well in the face of extreme heat this summer, owing in large part to a massive influx of renewable energy including battery storage. These big batteries keep energy from wind and solar running when the wind isn’t blowing and sun isn’t shining. (Batteries are also being deployed at a rapid rate in Texas, a red state.)

    Another reason California’s grid has stayed stable this year even during extreme temperature spikes is the fact that a deluge of snow and rain this winter and spring has refilled reservoirs that generate electricity using hydropower.

    As Trump insinuated, there are real questions about how well the state’s grid will hold up as California’s drivers shift to electric vehicles by the millions by 2035 – the same year it will phase out selling new gas-powered cars. California state officials say they are preparing by adding new capacity to the grid and urging more people to charge their vehicles overnight and during times of the day when fewer people are using energy. But independent experts say the state needs to exponentially increase its clean energy while also building out huge amounts of new EV chargers to achieve its goals.

    -From CNN’s Ella Nilsen

    Trump and the border wall

    Trump claimed to Carlson, “I had the strongest border in the history of our country, and I built almost 500 miles of wall. You know, they’d like to say, ‘Oh, was it less?’ No, I built 500 miles. In fact, if you check with the authorities on the border, we built almost 500 miles of wall.”

    Facts First: This needs context. Trump and his critics are talking about different things when they use different figures for how much border wall was built during his presidency. Trump is referring to all of the wall built on the southern border during his administration, even in areas that already had some sort of barrier before. His critics are only counting the Trump-era wall that was built in parts of the border that did not have any previous barrier.

    A total of 458 miles of southern border wall was built under Trump, according to a federal report written two days after Trump left office and obtained by CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez. That is 52 miles of “primary” wall built where no barriers previously existed, plus 33 miles of “secondary” wall that was built in spots where no barriers previously existed, plus another 373 miles of primary and secondary wall that was built to replace previous barriers the federal government says had become “dilapidated and/or outdated.”

    Some of Trump’s rival candidates, such DeSantis and Christie, have used figures around 50 miles while criticizing Trump for failing to finish the wall – counting only the primary wall built where no barriers previously existed.

    While some Trump critics have scoffed at the replacement wall, the Trump-era construction was generally much more formidable than the older barriers it replaced, which were often designed to deter vehicles rather than people on foot. Washington Post reporter Nick Miroff tweeted in 2020: “As someone who has spent a lot of time lately in the shadow of the border wall, I need to puncture this notion that ‘replacement’ sections are ‘not new.’ There is really no comparison between vehicle barriers made from old rail ties and 30-foot bollards.”

    Ideally, both Trump and his opponents would be clearer about what they are talking about: Trump that he is including replacement barriers, his opponents that they are excluding those barriers.

    -From CNN’s Daniel Dale

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