August 4, 2023

Friday, August 4, 2023. Annette News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

Bidenomics is working.

J.P. Morgan Chase. “We revise our outlook for the US economy in favor of a soft landing…We forecast US GDP growth of 2.0% (40/4Q) this year, 0.7% in 2024, and 1.8% in 2025. This is about 0.5pp and 0.7pp higher in 2023 and 2024 than we assumed previously.”

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Kamala is always busy.

[On Wednesday, Vice President Harris met with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene] who wants to get closer to the U.S. without rattling ‘eternal neighbors’ Russia and China.

[Mongolia] offers U.S. access to country’s copper and rare earth reserves and foresees drone cargo shipments from the landlocked country. (Politico).

Want more on this? Click here to read the Joint Statement on the Strategic Third Neighbor Partnership between the United States of America and Mongolia | The White House.

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Did Trump know that he lost? Yes, says former AG Bill Barr.

Bill Barr Drags Trump to Hell: He “Knew Well He Lost the Election.”

Lock up your ketchup bottles: Donald Trump’s former attorney general just blew up what was probably a key defense in his elections case.

When Donald Trump faces off with the Justice Department over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, two of his key defenses are likely to be that (1) the claims he made in the weeks and months following his loss to Joe Biden were protected by the First Amendment and (2) not actually lies because he believed the words that were coming out of his mouth. On the first point, legal experts have said such a defense is unlikely to hold up in court, and prosecutors made clear in the indictment that they are not disputing that Trump had a right “to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won.” (It’s the conspiracy part that they say was illegal.) As for the idea that Trump somehow did not understand that he had, in fact, lost the election? Numerous people have said that he quite obviously knew he’d lost—including, most recently, his former attorney general.

Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, Bill Barr told Kaitlan Collins that Trump “knew well he lost the election,” and that it was likely that Special Counsel Jack Smith has even more evidence than we know of proving as much. “We’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg on this,” Barr said. “I think there is a lot more to come, and I think they have a lot more evidence as to President Trump’s state of mind.” On the First Amendment issue, the former attorney general told Collins: “As the indictment says, they are not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants, he can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy.” He added that the allegations in the indictment were “nauseating” and “despicable,” and that “someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.” (Vanity Fair).

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The most important arraignment in American history happened yesterday.

This happened first.

Trump, the 45th President of the United States, pleaded not guilty to 4 Felony Charges.

The Magistrate warned him - "The most important condition is that you not commit a crime while you are on release. It is a crime to try to influence a juror."

The next hearing will occur on August 28 in front of U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. Judge Chutkan will set the trial date at that hearing.

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Big Shoes to Fill.

The United States has a new infectious disease doctor.

Alabama researcher will succeed Fauci in infectious disease post.

This July 2021 image provided by UAB Photo shows Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, a research scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Marrazzo was named Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023, to succeed Dr. Anthony Fauci as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She will oversee the agency’s $6.3 billion budget, its research and its response to infectious disease outbreaks in the fall.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A research scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was named Wednesday to succeed Dr. Anthony Fauci as the nation’s top infectious disease expert. Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo will become director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the fall. She will oversee the agency’s $6.3 billion budget, its research and its response to infectious disease outbreaks.

Fauci, 82, retired from a five-decade career in December. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he became a household name as he gave updates at daily White House press conferences and in frequent media interviews.

Since Fauci’s retirement, Dr. Hugh Auchincloss Jr. has been serving as acting director.

Marrazzo’s research has focused on sexually transmitted diseases and the prevention of HIV infection. At the university, she is director of the medical school’s division of infectious diseases.

Her appointment was made by Lawrence Tabak, acting director for the National Institutes of Health. (Associated Press).

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Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic Governor of Michigan, provides breakfast - and lunch. Now this.

Maybe it will spread. Feed the children.

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Florida has a surprising endemic.

Leprosy Appears to Be on The Rise in Florida.

A man suffering from leprosy shows his hands.

A 54-year-old Florida man diagnosed with leprosy adds to a growing number of cases detected in the south-eastern United States, which appears to be a new hotspot for the disease.

It follows recent alerts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the first cases of locally-acquired malaria in the US in two decades; four of which were in Florida.

Leprosy incidence, or rates of new leprosy cases, has been increasing in southern parts of the US since 2000, with reported cases more than doubling in south-eastern states over the past decade. Central Florida now accounts for almost one-fifth of US cases.

Yet a shrinking proportion of US leprosy cases are diagnosed in people born outside the country, while a growing number of reported cases appear to lack any of the typical risk factors of the disease.

"Those trends," write the three dermatologists who alerted public health officials to the Florida man's diagnosis, "contribute to rising evidence that leprosy has become endemic in the south-eastern United States."

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is a bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae and the more recently discovered M. lepromatosis. It is a curable yet neglected tropical disease, which still occurs in more than 120 countries.

About 150 cases of leprosy are reported in the US each year. Unique strains of M. leprae have been detected in US patients, though most cases are people who have traveled from countries where leprosy is present or endemic. Click here for the full article from Science Alert.

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Taking action against Violence Against Women.

The city of Chihuahua said it would impose hefty fines on bands that perform songs with lyrics that “promote violence against women.”

A City in Mexico Bans Performances of Songs With Misogynistic Lyrics.

Fed up with persistent violence, officials in the city of Chihuahua in northern Mexico approved a ban last week prohibiting musical acts from performing songs with lyrics that degrade women.

Mayor Marco Bonilla of Chihuahua said in an video update last week that the law banned the performance of songs that “promote violence against women” or encourage their discrimination, marginalization or exclusion.

Mr. Bonilla said that those who violate the ban could face fines ranging from 674,000 pesos to 1.2 million pesos, or between about $39,000 and $71,000.

The City Council approved the ban unanimously on Wednesday amid a rise in killings of women across Mexico in recent years, and as Chihuahua, a city of about 940,000 residents, is struggling with its own cases of violence against women. Recently, Mr. Bonilla said, about seven out of 10 calls to 911 in Chihuahua have involved cases of domestic violence, particularly against women. (New York Times). See the complete article here.

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From the U.S. Ambassador to Australia.

Now, doesn’t that face look familiar?

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