It’s Pride Month, and gay Americans should have a lot to celebrate: A new president who has pledged to advocate for LGBTQ people, an easing of a pandemic that has disrupted their communal activism, and increasing public acceptance of their basic rights, including record-high support for same-sex marriage. Instead, the mood is somewhat bleak. Congress has so far failed to extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people. Pandemic-related concerns are still disrupting the usual exuberant Pride festivals. And a wave of anti-transgender legislation in Republican-governed states has been disheartening “The same week I’m seeing all the ‘Happy Pride’ announcements, I received multiple calls from friends about trans kids having to navigate entering psychiatric hospitals because they were suicidal and self-harming,” said M. Dru Levasseur, a transgender attorney who is director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the National LGBT Bar Association. “I’m doing crisis management,” he added. “These untold stories about what life is like for trans kids are contrasting with ‘Happy Pride, everybody.’ ” On June 1, the start of Pride Month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill making his state the eighth this year to ban transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports at public schools. Arkansas, one of those eight states, also has enacted a law banning gender-confirming medical treatments, like hormones and puberty blockers, that greatly reduce the risk of suicide in trans youth. “Our opponents have been absolutely shameless in their attacks on transgender people,” said Kevin Jennings, CEO of the LGBTQ-rights group Lambda Legal. “We know that trans young people are most marginalized and vulnerable students in our schools — being bullied, harassed, mistreated,” Jennings said. “We’re watching state legislators piling on to the bullying.” The trans community already faces a disproportionate level of violence. At least 28 trans and gender nonconforming people have been killed so far this year in the U.S. — on track to surpass the previous one-year high of 44 such killings in 2020. FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., walks to a news conference as the Democratic-led House prepares to pass a bill extending protections for LGBTQ people, Feb. 25, 2021.Activists’ concerns extend beyond transgender issues. For many, the top political priority is passage of the Equality Act, which would extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people. It was approved by the Democratic-controlled U.S. House and is backed by President Joe Biden, but probably needs at least 10 Republican votes to prevail in the closely divided Senate — and thus far has no GOP co-sponsors. Tyler Deaton, who advises a conservative group called the American Unity Fund that supports LGBTQ rights, believes enough Republican votes can be found if language is drafted to ensure the Equality Act doesn’t infringe on religious freedom. “Senators are having those conversations now,” he said, mentioning Republicans such as Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rob Portman of Ohio who have supported some LGBTQ-friendly legislation in the past. Amid the disappointment, Pride festivities are proceeding, but many have been subject to downsizing, postponement and — in some cases — controversy. The Pride parades in San Francisco and Los Angeles have been canceled for a second year in a row because of uncertainty about COVID-19 restrictions. Organizers are offering smaller in-person events this month. Philadelphia has scrapped its large-scale parade; there are plans for a festival instead on September 4. Chicago’s parade has been rescheduled for October 3. In New York, most events for NYC Pride will take place virtually, as they did last year, though some in-person activities are planned. NYC Pride organizers incurred some criticism last month after banning police and other law enforcement personnel from marching in uniform in the annual parade until at least 2025 and asking that on-duty officers keep a block away from the celebration. The Gay Officers Action League said it was disheartened by the decision. Some recent developments have encouraged the LGBTQ community — the overturning of a Trump administration ban on transgender people joining the military; the groundbreaking appointments of Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, as transportation secretary, and Dr. Rachel Levine, who is transgender, as assistant secretary of health. And this week, Gallup reported that 70% of Americans now support same-sex marriage, the highest number since Gallup began polling on the topic in 1996, when support was at 27%. But to many activists, these developments are offset by setbacks to transgender rights. Amy Allen, mother of a 14-year-old transgender boy in the suburbs of Nashville, said her family is dismayed by the multiple anti-trans bills winning approval in Tennessee — including one exposing public schools to lawsuits if they let transgender students use multiperson bathrooms or locker rooms that don’t reflect their sex at birth. FILE – Amy Allen, the mother of an eighth-grade transgender son, speaks at a Human Rights Campaign roundtable discussion on anti-transgender laws, in Nashville, Tenn., May 21, 2021.”We’ve done a pretty good job within our family of really supporting him,” Allen said of her son, Adam. ” Then to have this new layer of the legislation — having to think how that could directly affect his day-to-day life just adds more anxiety.” It’s worrisome enough, Allen said, that she and her husband — who have roots in the Northeast — are considering relocating there if Adam’s situation worsens. Activists have expressed dismay at the lack of corporate backlash to the new anti-transgender laws. A particular disappointment for activists is the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which — despite calls for it to take punitive action — located some of this year’s regional softball and baseball tournament games in states that enacted bans on transgender girls’ sports participation. It’s a sharp contrast to the NCAA’s stance five years ago, when it refused to hold championship events in North Carolina for several months after its legislature passed a bill restricting transgender people’s use of bathrooms in public facilities. “The NCAA should be ashamed of themselves for violating their own policy by choosing to hold championships in states that are not healthy, safe, or free from discrimination for their athletes,” said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign. Among the transgender Americans with mixed feelings about Pride Month is Randi Robertson, who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel during 22 years in the Air Force and now combines work as an airline pilot instructor with transgender-rights advocacy. She is relieved that the Biden administration, unlike its predecessor, pledges support for expanded LGBTQ rights, yet she says activists should be combative rather than complacent. “The fundamentalist, evangelical right has chosen expressly to attack the smallest, most vulnerable part of the LBGT community [transgender people],” she said. “The broader narrative is we’re actually winning. Now is not the time to give up — now is the time to double down and keep the pressure on.” Imani Rupert-Gordon, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, also voiced a nuanced view of Pride Month. “Pride is a time when we get to celebrate who we are,” she said. “It’s also a time when we recognize we still have a lot more to do.”
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Month: June 2021
British PM Urges G-7 Leaders to Donate COVID Vaccines
The G-7 nations announced Friday that they will donate a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to low- and medium-income nations. The U.S., as previously announced, will donate 500 million shots, while Britain will donate 100 million. “I hope my fellow @G7 leaders will make similar pledges so that, together, we can vaccinate the world by the end of next year,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted on Twitter Friday. G-7 Will Donate 1 Billion COVID Vaccines to WorldUS shots will begin shipment in August President Biden says; Britain will donate 100 million jabsChildhood vaccinations
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday, focusing on 10 jurisdictions, found that between March and May of 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak resulted in a marked decline in routine childhood vaccinations compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019. The study said the decline placed “U.S. children and adolescents at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases,” such as measles and polio.The CDC study also found the vaccination rate increased from June to September 2020, but “this increase was not sufficient to achieve catch-up coverage.”The CDC recommended health care providers “assess the vaccination status of all pediatric patients, including adolescents, and contact those who are behind schedule to ensure that all children and adolescents are fully vaccinated” to avoid disease outbreaks. Caribbean cruise infections
Meanwhile, two passengers who shared a room on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship tested positive for COVID-19 during required end-of-cruise testing on the Celebrity Millenium ship. The two are asymptomatic, in isolation and are being monitored by a medical team. Passengers on the ship were required to show proof of vaccination and negative results from a COVID test conducted within 72 hours of departure. Children too young for vaccination also were required to have negative COVID test results. Royal Caribbean said the ship’s crew was fully vaccinated. Global COVID cases
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Friday the number of global COVID-19 infections has reached nearly 175 million. The U.S. remains the location with the most cases at 33.4 million infections, but India is rapidly catching up with more than 29 million infections. India’s health ministry reported more than 91,000 new COVID-19 cases Friday in the previous 24 hours.Public health officials say they suspect that India’s cases may be undercounted.
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European Soccer Championship Begins Friday After 1-Year Delay
The first match of soccer’s European championship gets underway Friday at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, with Turkey taking on Italy.The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship was postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic that brought many of the world’s activities to a halt.It is notable that Friday’s opening match will be played in Italy, the first country outside of Asia to get hit by the pandemic and the world’s first to impose a nationwide lockdown.Euro 2020 was suspended last March as countries worked to contain virus outbreaks that have killed more than 1 million Europeans, including 127,000 Italians.Organizers of the tournament, the Union of European Football Associations, hope to allay concerns that it is still unsafe for tens of thousands of fans to gather in stadiums across Europe by undertaking several safety measures. They include crowd limitations, staggered fan arrival times, social distancing and hand sanitizer.Fans attending the match in Rome are required to show documentation they have been vaccinated, tested negative in the 48 hours before the match, or previously have had the coronavirus.Euro 2020, the 16th UEFA championship, is scheduled through July 11. For the first time, matches will be played across Europe. The host cities are Rome, London, Saint Petersburg, Baku, Munich, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Glasgow and Seville.
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Hong Kong Censors to Vet Films for National Security Breaches
Hong Kong censors are to vet all films for national security breaches under expanded powers announced on Friday, in the latest blow to the financial hub’s political and artistic freedoms.Authorities in semi-autonomous Hong Kong have embarked on a sweeping crackdown to root out Beijing’s critics after huge and often violent democracy protests convulsed the city in 2019.A new China-imposed security law and an official campaign dubbed “Patriots rule Hong Kong” has since criminalized much dissent and strangled the democracy movement.The latest target is films. In a statement on Friday, the government said the Film Censorship Ordinance had been expanded to include “any act or activity which may amount to an offense endangering national security”. “When considering a film as a whole and its effect on the viewers, the censor should have regard to his duties to prevent and suppress acts or activities endangering national security,” states the new guidance, which is effective immediately.It also cites “the common responsibility of the people of Hong Kong to safeguard the sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China.” The move sparked concerns that Chinese mainland style political censorship of films had now arrived in Hong Kong. “This new censorship will make it even harder for local filmmakers in Hong Kong to use their democratic rights to create art and challenge unjust power structures,” Oscar-nominated director Anders Hammer told AFP. Hammer, a Norwegian national, received an Oscar nod for his documentary about Hong Kong’s democracy protests “Do Not Split”.”It’s two years since the pro-democracy protests started and I’m saddened to see another serious example of Beijing’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s civil liberties,” he added.Culture controlsFilms are rigorously vetted on the Chinese mainland and only a handful of Western films or documentaries ever see a commercial release each year.Hong Kong’s Film Censorship Authority has traditionally employed a much lighter touch. Historically, the city has boasted a thriving film scene and for much of the latter half of the last century, Cantonese cinema was world-class.In more recent decades, slick mainland Chinese and South Korean blockbusters have come to dominate the regional film scene. Hong Kong still maintains some key studios, a handful of lauded directors and a thriving indie scene.But there are growing signs authorities want to see an increase in mainland-style controls over the cultural and art scenes in Hong Kong.Over the past week, health officials have conducted spot checks on a protest-themed museum and a separate exhibition, stating that neither had the correct licenses. The museum had been operating for years without issue. In March, an award-winning documentary about Hong Kong’s massive pro-democracy protests was pulled hours before its first commercial screening after days of criticism from a pro-Beijing newspaper. It said the film’s content breached the new national security law.Earlier this year a university cancelled a prestigious press photography exhibition that featured pictures of the 2019 protests, citing security concerns. And M+, a multi-million-dollar contemporary art museum expected to open soon, has said it will allow security officials to vet its collection for any security law breaches before it opens to the public later this year.A government spokesperson said film censors would strike a “balance between protection of individual rights and freedoms on the one hand, and the protection of legitimate societal interests on the other”.
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Google Pledges to Resolve Ad Privacy Probe with UK Watchdog
Google has promised to give U.K. regulators a role overseeing its plan to phase out existing ad-tracking technology from its Chrome browser as part of a competition investigation into the tech giant. The U.K. competition watchdog has been investigating Google’s proposals to remove so-called third-party cookies over concerns they would undermine digital ad competition and entrench the company’s market power. To address the concerns, Google on Friday offered a set of commitments including giving the Competition and Markets Authority an oversight role as the company designs and develops a replacement technology. “The emergence of tech giants such as Google has presented competition authorities around the world with new challenges that require a new approach,” Andrea Coscelli, the watchdog’s chief executive, said. The Competition and Markets Authority will work with tech companies to “shape their behavior and protect competition to the benefit of consumers,” he said. The promises also include “substantial limits” on how Google will use and combine individual user data for digital ad purposes and a pledge not to discriminate against rivals in favor of its own ad businesses with the new technology. If Google’s commitments are accepted, they will be applied globally, the company said in a blog post. Third-party cookies – snippets of code that log user info – are used to help businesses more effectively target advertising and fund free online content such as newspapers. However, they’ve also been a longstanding source of privacy concerns because they can be used to track users across the internet. Google shook up the digital ad industry with its plan to do away with third-party cookies, which raised fears newer technology would leave even less room for online ad rivals.
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Criminal Organizations Hire Hackers to Look for Targets
Ransomware cases are on the rise worldwide and criminal groups based in Russia are suspected of being behind some of the biggest recent attacks. Michelle Quinn reports on the changing world of ransomware.Camera: Matt DibbleProduced by: Michelle Quinn
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Kenya Strives to Eradicate Blindness-Causing Trachoma
Authorities in Kenya are taking steps to eradicate trachoma, an infectious disease that is a leading cause of blindness in Africa. About 7 million people in central Kenya are at risk for the disease, as Brenda Mulinya reports from Nairobi.
Camera: Amos Wangwa
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G-7 Will Donate 1 Billion COVID Vaccines to World
On Thursday, before the opening Friday of the G-7 Summit in Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the group is set to donate a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries.Johnson’s announcement came after U.S. President Joe Biden said earlier in the day that his administration is donating 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, half of the G-7 vaccine trove.”We’re going to help lead the world out of this pandemic working alongside our global partners,” Biden said.Britain will donate 100 million shots.“As a result of the success of the U.K.’s vaccine program, we are now in a position to share some of our surplus doses with those who need them,” Johnson said. “In doing so, we will take a massive step towards beating this pandemic for good.”The U.S. shots will begin shipment in August “as quickly as they roll off the manufacturing line,” Biden said in Cornwall on Thursday, adding that 200 million doses will be delivered by the end of this year and 300 million in the first half of 2022.Biden said the donation will be made with no strings attached.“Our vaccine donations don’t include pressure for favors or potential concessions. We’re doing this to save lives, to end this pandemic,” he said.Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, joined Biden for the announcement.“We are testing our vaccines response to newly arising variants,” Bourla said, noting that so far not a single variant has escaped the protection provided by the vaccine.With the pledge, the U.S. also aims to liberate itself from the uncomfortable reputation of being a vaccine hoarder.The move is a signal that the U.S. “isn’t as intensely parochial and inward focused,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House. That has been a deep concern globally, said Vinjamuri, during former President Donald Trump’s administration as well as in the early months of the Biden administration, when Washington was not sharing doses despite a massive oversupply.COVAXThe doses, delivered by the U.S. through COVAX, the United Nations vaccine-sharing mechanism, are in addition to the 80 million already committed by the U.S. to be delivered by the end of June. In addition, the U.S. has given $2 billion to COVAX.The U.S. initially pledged an additional $2 billion for COVAX but is now redirecting the money to help pay for the 500 million donated doses, which has an estimated cost of $3.5 billion.Humanitarian organizations applauded the move.Tom Hart, acting CEO at The ONE Campaign, an organization that works to end poverty and preventable diseases, said in a statement, “This action sends an incredibly powerful message about America’s commitment to helping the world fight this pandemic and the immense power of U.S. global leadership.”However, it is unclear just how much G-7 countries can help. The member countries are at different stages of vaccinating their own populations. Japan and Canada, which have vaccination rates of under 10%, are not in a position to be as generous.Aside from donating vaccines, the G-7 is also under pressure to waive vaccine patents. The U.S. has supported waiving intellectual property rights on vaccines, the so-called TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization. The European Union, however, is pushing for a different proposal, compulsory licensing to scale up vaccine production.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA that the different approaches will not be a point of contention at the G-7.“I anticipate convergence, because we’re all converging around the idea that we need to boost vaccine supply in a number of ways,” said Sullivan.The Biden administration knows that Europe will likely hold firm on not supporting the waiver, said Vinjamuri of Chatham House, adding that getting all members of the WTO to agree on a waiver is a long and challenging process, and it’s simply easier to donate vaccines rather than allow countries to produce them without fear of being sued.White House press secretary Jen Psaki told VOA the U.S. will continue WTO negotiations but would not provide details on whether Biden will put his diplomatic weight behind it at the G-7.Biden-Johnson summitPrior to his vaccine announcement, Biden met Thursday with Johnson, with whom he has had disagreements in the past. Biden had once called Johnson a clone of Trump.The leaders agreed on a new Atlantic Charter, modeled on statement made by then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 to promote democracy and free trade, that was instrumental in shaping the world order after World War II.The 2021 Atlantic Charter underscores that, with similar values and combined strength, the two countries will work together to face the enormous challenges facing the planet – from COVID and climate change to maintaining global security.Biden, who is of Irish descent, is also concerned that Brexit could undermine the Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 deal facilitated by the United States that brought peace to Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K.Under the Brexit deal, Northern Ireland remains party to the EU’s single market, yet is no longer part of the union, which means a customs border must be implemented. The Biden administration wants to ensure that nothing in Brexit could endanger prospects for peace.Biden’s support for the Good Friday Agreement is “rock-solid,” Sullivan told VOA.“That agreement must be protected, and any steps that imperil or undermine it will not be welcomed by the United States,” said Sullivan. He would not say whether Johnson is undermining the agreement.Despite these tensions, Biden is very committed to anchoring the G-7 in the U.S.-U.K. partnership, said Vinjamuri. “Really using America’s deep and historic relationship with Britain to affirm the values of democracy, of liberalism, of freedom.”Johnson’s government has just concluded an integrated review of its foreign policy strategy, which included a reaffirmation of the special relationship between the two allies.
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Fight Over Canadian Oil Rages on After Pipeline’s Demise
The Keystone XL is dead after a 12-year attempt to build the oil pipeline, yet the fight over Canadian crude rages on as emboldened environmentalists target other projects and pressure President Joe Biden to intervene — all while oil imports from the north keep rising.Biden dealt the fatal blow to the partially built $9 billion Keystone XL in January when he revoked its border-crossing permit issued by former President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, sponsors TC Energy and the province of Alberta gave up and declared the line “terminated.”Activists and many scientists had warned that the pipeline would open a new spigot on Canada’s oil sands crude — and that burning the heavily polluting fuel would lock in climate change. As the fight escalated into a national debate over fossil fuels, Canadian crude exports to the U.S. steadily increased, driven largely by production from Alberta’s oil sands region.Even before the cancellation, environmentalists had turned their attention to other projects, including the proposal by energy delivery company Enbridge to expand and rebuild its Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota, the target of protests this week that led to the arrest of some 250 activists.”Don’t expect these fights to go away anytime soon,” said Daniel Raimi, a fellow at Resources for the Future, an energy and environmental think tank in Washington. “This is going to encourage environmental advocates to do more of the same.”Bill McKibben, an author who was arrested outside the White House while protesting the Keystone XL in 2011, said its defeat provides a template to kill other pipelines, including Line 3 and the Dakota Access pipeline from North Dakota’s Bakken oil field.Describing Keystone XL as “a carbon bomb,” McKibben said Line 3 is the same size and “carries the same stuff. How on earth could anyone with a straight face say Line 3 passes the climate test?”Enbridge said the cancellation of Keystone XL will not affect its projects, describing them as “designed to meet current energy demand safely and in ways that better protect the environment.”A second TC Energy pipeline network, known simply as Keystone, has been delivering crude from Canada’s oil sands region since 2010. The company says the line that runs from Alberta to Illinois, Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast has moved more than 3 billion barrels of oil.Canada is by far the biggest foreign crude supplier to the U.S., which imported about 3.5 million barrels a day from its neighbor in 2020 — 61% of all U.S. oil imports.The flow dropped slightly during the coronavirus pandemic but has largely rebounded. Import volumes have almost doubled since the Keystone XL was first proposed in 2008, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said Thursday that it expects no immediate effect on production from Keystone XL’s cancellation, but the group predicted more oil would be moved to the U.S. by rail.A series of fiery accidents occurred in the U.S. and Canada after rail shipments of crude increased during an oil boom on the Northern Plains, including a 2013 incident in which 47 people were killed after a runaway train derailed in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic.The dispute over Keystone XL and other lines raised diplomatic tensions between the two countries, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau adopted a conciliatory tone with Biden, who canceled the pipeline on his first day in the White House.Canada uses much less oil than it produces, making it a huge exporter, and 98% of those exports go to the U.S., according to the Natural Resources Canada.Trudeau raised Keystone XL as a top priority with Biden while acknowledging that the president had promised in his campaign to cancel the line.Both leaders have taken heat at home over Keystone, with Republicans slamming Biden for shutting it down while construction was under way, costing hundreds of jobs. The project was meant to expand oil exports for Canada, which has the third-largest oil reserves in the world, and provincial officials in Alberta wanted Trudeau to do more to save it.The White House declined to comment on the cancellation. Spokesperson Vedant Patel declined to say if Biden plans to address increased crude exports from Canada or intervene in other pipeline disputes.His action on Keystone “signals at least some appetite to get involved,” but pipelines that have operated for years would be tougher targets, Raimi said.Winona LaDuke, executive director of the Indigenous-based environmental group Honor the Earth, called on Biden to withdraw an Army Corps of Engineers permit for Line 3 and to order a new study.”He could stop the project,” she said. “Don’t ask us to be nice to Enbridge. They’re all over our land. They’re hurting us.”The Biden administration has been “disturbingly quiet” on Line 3 and the Dakota Access line, said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. He urged the administration to declare both unacceptable.Fiercely opposed by Native Americans, the Dakota Access pipeline was the impetus for protests that were quashed by law enforcement. The Biden administration has not sought to stop the line, and it’s still in court after a judge revoked its permit but allowed oil to keep flowing.Alberta sank more than $1 billion into Keystone XL last year to kick-start construction. Officials in the province are considering a trade action against the U.S. to seek compensation.Keystone XL’s price tag ballooned as the project languished, increasing from $5.4 billion to $9 billion.Another question: What to do with pipe already in place at the U.S.-Canada border and other infrastructure along its route.Jane Kleeb, a pipeline opponent in Nebraska, said state regulators should revoke the permit they approved for a route through the state. Otherwise, she said, TC Energy might try to sell the easements to another company.Until the state acts, farmers and ranchers will continue to face TC Energy attorneys in court, “protecting their property from an eminent domain land grab by a foreign corporation,” she said.
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The Unanswered ‘Jeopardy!’ Question: Who’s the New Host?
Jeopardy! needed a host, and Lucille Ball had an enthusiastic suggestion for creator Merv Griffin: The smooth-voiced, debonair emcee of the High Rollers game show.That was 1984. Decades later, filling the void left by the late Alex Trebek involves sophisticated research and a parade of guest hosts doing their best to impress viewers and the studio that’s expected to make the call before the new season begins taping later this summer.Think of Sony Pictures Television as clutching the rose, and Mayim Bialik, Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric and Jeopardy! champs Ken Jennings and Buzzy Cohen among the suitors so far, with more to come including Robin Roberts, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and LeVar Burton.Sony has “the most robust team of people I have ever seen looking at this and analyzing it in a very cerebral way,” said executive producer Mike Richards. “It’s a real change from the way casting has traditionally been done on television.””It’s usually been a gut instinct of the head executive: ‘How about that person?'” Richards said.That was producer-entertainer Griffin’s approach when he brought a syndicated version of Jeopardy! to TV, five years after the quiz show’s last network iteration wrapped in 1979 on NBC. A word from Ball, of I Love Lucy fame, and Trebek’s skill and experience sealed his hire.Audience and critical regard for the Canadian-born Trebek grew over the years, which makes finding a worthy replacement both a gesture of respect for the late host and the means to protect a corporate asset. While ratings have shifted under the guest hosts, Jeopardy! remains among the top-ranked syndicated programs in viewership.’Model of perfection’Trebek helped build the show’s “display of excellence with his own excellence. And it’s tremendously difficult to find somebody to replace him, not only because of the status that he had in the American imagination,” said Deepak Sarma, a Case Western Reserve University professor and Netflix cultural consultant. “Anyone who is going to take his position will be judged in the end against this model of perfection.”Game show hosts of Trebek’s era were usually radio and TV broadcasting veterans steeped in the genre, and almost invariably white men. Among the Jeopardy! subs are men and women of color and prospects from a variety of fields, including NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers.The approach makes sense to Louis Virtel, a longtime fan whose vantage point is informed by writing for a game show (Match Game) and competing on Jeopardy! in 2015.”It’s great to see all these different fill-ins. I’m open to suggestions, and I think most people are,” said Virtel, a Jimmy Kimmel Live! writer and co-host of the Keep It podcast. “Jeopardy! is a one-of-a-kind show, and the replacement should be tailored to the game.”What makes for a good Jeopardy! host?”I think establishing a sense of comfort (so) the audience just eases into the game,” Virtel said. “Also a sense of stakes, that a real tough game is being played. It’s called Jeopardy! for a reason. The host is there to make sure we’re all on our toes.”The tryouts are an unusually public form of auditioning, one that could cause flop sweat even for veteran emcees. For actor Bialik of Blossom, The Big Bang Theory and Call Me Kat, any nerves were crowded out by the demands of the job — and she’s a neuroscientist.”There is very little room for not being 100% dialed in to the job of hosting when you are on that stage,” Bialik said in an email. It proved the most “joyful, challenging, transcendent act I have undertaken — second only to giving birth to my second son on the floor of my living room.”Backlash possibleBack in the day, there were only a handful of pioneers like Betty White, the first female game show host to win a Daytime Emmy (for 1983’s Just Men!), and Adam Wade, a Black singer who hosted the 1975 game show Musical Chairs. Wayne Brady, Steve Harvey and Meredith Vieira are among those who made further inroads, with pressure only growing on the entertainment industry to reflect America more broadly on screen.But taking over for an authority figure like Trebek is harder on women and others not typically seen in such roles, said Sarma.”The sorts of expectations placed on a person of color in a leadership position are usually higher than those placed on a white person in position of power,” he said, and any error or “slight movement against the norm is jumped upon … as some tremendous mistake.”There could be backlash from those resentful that Trebek isn’t replaced like-for-like, which Sarma said isn’t far-fetched in this period of social discord.”Sony is in a pickle,” he said.Series producer Richards, the second temporary host after Trebek’s pancreatic cancer death last November at age 80, holds an optimistic view despite the prospect of online trolls and whatever their gripes about the newbie may be.”My hope is that whoever is chosen will be given a chance to prove why they were chosen, without too much static,” he said. “Ultimately, we are trying to put out the best product for our fans. That tends to narrow your focus to a pretty nice North Star, as opposed to, ‘What’s the internet going to say?'”
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2 Passengers on Royal Caribbean Cruise Test Positive for COVID
Two passengers on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship have tested positive for COVID-19.Cruise operator Royal Caribbean said Thursday the two guests on the Celebrity Millennium ship tested positive during required end-of-cruise testing.Royal Caribbean said the two passengers who shared a room are asymptomatic, in isolation and are being monitored by a medical team.”We are conducting contact tracing, expediting testing for all close contacts and closely monitoring the situation,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement.The cruise operator said the “comprehensive protocols” that the Celebrity Millennium had observed had exceeded “CDC guidelines to protect the health and safety of our guests.”Celebrity Millennium set sail Saturday from St. Maarten and has made several stops around the Caribbean.Royal Caribbean said its crew was fully vaccinated. Passengers were required to show proof of vaccination and negative results from a COVID test conducted within 72 hours of departure. Children too young for vaccination also were required to have negative COVID test results.
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Hire a Hacker: Criminal Organizations Work with Hackers to Look for Targets, Collect Ransom Proceeds
Ransomware cases are on the rise worldwide and criminal groups based in Russia are suspected of being behind some of the biggest recent attacks. Michelle Quinn reports on the changing world of ransomware.Camera: Matt DibbleProduced by: Michelle Quinn
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Biden Says US Will Donate 500 Million COVID Vaccines to World
On Thursday, the eve of the G-7 summit in Cornwall, England, U.S. President Joe Biden formally announced what had been disclosed a day earlier — that his administration would donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to 92 low- and middle-income countries. Here’s the latest from White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara, who is traveling with the president.
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Cyber Regulation Could Be Coming Following Spate of Hacks, Ransomware Attacks
The United States may soon look to regulate private companies, mandating higher standards for cybersecurity following a series of damaging hacks and ransomware attacks against key firms and critical infrastructure.U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominees to fill two top cyber roles in his administration warned Thursday that malign actors are currently operating with impunity and that too many private sector organizations have, so far, failed to take the necessary precautions.FILE – In this June 8, 2013 photo, Chris Inglis, then deputy director of the National Security Agency testifies on Capitol Hill. Inglis is being nominated as the government’s first national cyber director at the Department of Homeland Security.”Enlightened self-interest, that’s apparently not working,” Chris Inglis, tapped to be the country’s first national cyber director, told members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Market forces, that’s apparently not working.””When they’re conducting critical activities upon which the nation’s interests depend, it may well be we need to step in and we need to regulate or mandate in the same way we’ve done that for the aviation industry or the automobile industry,” he added.Jen Easterly, nominated to head up the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, agreed.”As a nation, we remain at great risk of a catastrophic cyberattack,” she said. “It seems to me that voluntary standards are probably not getting the job done and that there is probably some sort of role for making some of these standards mandatory, to include notification.”The question of how best to take on a range of cyberthreats, from state-sponsored hackers to ransomware networks, has been thrust into the spotlight following a series of high-profile attacks in recent months, starting with discovery of the hack of SolarWinds, a Texas-based software management company, last December.That breach, described by U.S. intelligence agencies as a Russian espionage operation, exposed as many as 18,000 A JBS meatpacking plant is seen in Plainwell, Michigan, June 2, 2021.More recently, ransomware networks forced Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, pauses to speak with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, June 10, 2021.”Congress needs to act,” Mark Warner, the Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Axios Thursday at a virtual event, when asked about the recent attacks.”The Biden administration has moved aggressively, but they can only do a certain amount of things,” Warner said. “We need to put this mandatory reporting bill in place.”Last month, Biden signed an executive order that requires internet service providers to share certain information about breaches into their networks, mandates higher standards for software development, and creates a playbook for how government agencies should respond to a breach.On Thursday, Inglis told lawmakers that the recent series of high-profile hacks and ransomware attacks “signal the urgent need to secure our national critical infrastructure” and that if confirmed as national cyber director, he would work to strengthen not just the technology but the people using the technology, as well.”What we need to do is make these systems defensible — they’ll never be secure,” Inglis said. “We need to then defend them … such that we can change the decision calculus of adversaries.”Every one of us needs to learn how to cross the cyber street in the same way we learned to cross a physical street when we were young,” he added.
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Restrictions Lift as COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Fall in Washington
Washington-area residents are increasingly out and about as COVID-19 cases fall in the U.S., including the capital region. But reluctance to get vaccinated persists in some quarters, despite extensive campaigns promoting inoculation — and warnings of the dangers of failing to get the jab. VOA’s Laurel Bowman has our story.Camera: Laurel Bowman
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US Again Condemns Nigeria’s Twitter Ban
The U.S. has condemned Nigeria’s continuing ban of Twitter in the country, saying the action “has no place in a democracy.”“Freedom of expression and access to information both online and offline are foundational to prosperous and secure democratic societies,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday in a statement calling for the African nation to reverse its Twitter suspension.He said the U.S. “condemns the ongoing suspension of Twitter by the Nigerian government and subsequent threats to arrest and prosecute Nigerians who use Twitter. The United States is likewise concerned that the Nigerian National Broadcasting Commission ordered all television and radio broadcasters to cease using Twitter.”The U.S. had joined the European Union, Britain, Ireland and Canada last weekend in criticizing the Nigerian action. The Abuja government indefinitely banned Twitter after the U.S. social media company deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari’s account for violating its rules.Tweet about unrestBuhari’s tweet referred to the country’s civil war four decades ago in a warning about recent unrest, referring to “those misbehaving” in violence in the southeastern part of the country. Officials there blame the prohibited separatist group IPOB for attacks on police and election offices.”Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” the president had posted on Twitter.Buhari’s office denied the Twitter suspension was a response to the removal of that post.”There has been a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real-world violent consequences,” presidency spokesperson Garba Shehu said in a statement.Shehu said the removal of Buhari’s tweet was “disappointing” and that “major tech companies must be alive to their responsibilities.”Twitter said it was working to restore the social media network in Nigeria, but government officials warned they would prosecute violators.
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Biden Administration Won’t Require Shots for Federal Workers Returning to Offices
U.S federal workers will not be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to the office, according to guidance from the Biden administration released Thursday.The guidance says federal agencies should base their reopening plans on the percentage of employees who are vaccinated, but said revealing vaccination status would be voluntary.The guidance urged agencies to build in more flexibility for some workers, including more remote work and working outside normal business hours.About 60% of the 4-million-person federal workforce has been operating remotely during the pandemic, Reuters reported.Agencies are required to submit their plans for reopening by next week, the guidance stated, and they should be ready to implement the plans by July 19.According to the guidance, agencies’ “eventual post-pandemic operating state may differ in significant ways from [their] pre-pandemic operating state.”
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Sunrise Special: Solar Eclipse Thrills World’s Northern Tier
The top of the world got a sunrise special Thursday — a “ring of fire” solar eclipse. This so-called annular eclipse began at the Canadian province of Ontario, then swept across Greenland, the North Pole and finally Siberia, as the moon passed directly in front of the sun.An annular eclipse occurs when a new moon is around its farthest point from us and appearing smaller, and so it doesn’t completely blot out the sun when it’s dead center. The upper portions of North America, Europe and Asia enjoyed a partial eclipse, at least where the skies were clear. At those locations, the moon appeared to take a bite out of the sun. The moon is seen blotting out 81 percent of the sun during a solar eclipse in Washington, D.C., Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. (Photo by Diaa Bekheet)It was the first eclipse of the sun visible from North America since August 2017, when a dramatic total solar eclipse crisscrossed the U.S. The next one is coming up in 2024.A total lunar eclipse graced the skies two weeks ago.
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India Breaks World Record After Posting 6,000 COVID Deaths in a Day
India posted a single-day world record Thursday of more than 6,000 COVID-19 deaths after one state revised a set of numbers.The eastern state of Bihar, one of India’s largest and poorest states, revised its death toll Wednesday from about 5,500 to 9,500 after the state’s high court ordered the government to review its records.Many experts have said India’s death toll is far higher than official reports after a devastating surge of new infections in April and May saw the emergence of hundreds of makeshift crematoriums and scores of bodies floating in rivers.The revised count pushed India’s one-day death toll to 6,148, outpacing the 5,444 recorded by the United States on February 12, according to Reuters.The world’s second-most populous nation now has 29.1 million total confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 355,705 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, second only to the United States with 33.4 million total cases and 598,766 deaths.In other news, a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Medicine reveals a slightly higher risk of a bleeding disorder from the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Researchers discovered some people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in Scotland had developed a condition called ITP, or immune thrombocytopenic purpura, which causes bruising in some cases and also serious bleeding in others.The study also found very small increased risks of arterial blood clots and bleeding possibly associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
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UEFA Orders Change to Ukraine Football Jersey
Soccer’s governing body in Europe, UEFA, ruled Thursday that Ukraine can keep a map that includes Crimea on its jerseys, but must remove part of a slogan that it said has military connotations.
Russia had filed complaints with UEFA about the jersey that Ukraine will wear at the 24-nation European Championships that begin Friday.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 in a move that has not been recognized by the international community.
UEFA said Ukraine must remove the slogan “Glory to the heroes” that appears on the inside of the jersey’s collar.
A second slogan, “Glory to Ukraine,” is allowed to remain.
UEFA said it previously approved “Glory to Ukraine” but it found after further analysis the combination of the two slogans had “historic and militaristic significance.”
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Hong Kong Opens Vaccine Drive to Children Aged 12 and Older
Hong Kong will allow children age 12 and above to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine as it seeks to boost immunization rates in the city. Government officials said Thursday they will offer the vaccine to about 240,000 children from 12 to 15 years old starting Friday, joining other countries that have started vaccinating children. The move comes as Hong Kong is urging its 7.5 million population to get inoculated. Since its vaccination drive began in late February, just over 15% of the population has been fully vaccinated. The city has seen widespread vaccine hesitancy due to a mistrust of the government and outsized fears of side effects after several people died following inoculations, despite a determination that the deaths were not directly related to the vaccine. “The government attaches high importance to getting adolescents and students vaccinated, and it is the government’s hope that more students, parents and teachers will be vaccinated,” said Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip. Since they are below 18, children must obtain parental approval before they can be vaccinated. Health minister Sophia Chan urged parents to let their children get vaccinated to “help them to go back to school for their normal lives as soon as possible.” Students in kindergarten through secondary school are currently attending only half-day classes as part of preventive measures during the pandemic. The semi-autonomous Chinese city is offering the Pfizer vaccine — better known as BioNTech in the city — and the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine. Hong Kong officials say those wanting to receive the Pfizer vaccine must do so by the end of August before the doses expire, and that vaccination centers administering the Pfizer vaccine will cease operations in September. The private sector is offering a slew of incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated. Companies are offering gold bars, a Tesla car and even an apartment in lucky draws open to vaccinated residents. Hong Kong ended a 6-week streak with no local infections last week when a 17-year-old girl tested positive despite having no travel history. Her mother and sister later also tested positive.
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Insect-Tracking Drones to Boost Rare Bug Conservation in New Zealand
A “swarm” of bug-tracking drones and tiny radars are being developed to help conservation of rare insects in New Zealand. The new tag-and-track technology is being developed at the University of Canterbury on New Zealand’s South Island. Researchers hope it could lead to a deeper understanding of New Zealand’s threatened and endangered insects. The research draws on years of experience in the area of bird conservation, where radio tracking methods have helped to protect many vulnerable species. Experts have said that at a stretch the technology could also be used to study large invertebrates such as giant land snails but was simply too big and heavy for most insects. Researchers have now made about 20 tiny so-called harmonic radar tags that are fitted to insects. They would then be tracked by a “swarm” of drones. Steve Pawson, from the university’s College of Engineering, says bird-tracking technology has been a major inspiration. “They have been doing radio tracking on many of these species over several decades now and the information that they learn from that really informs the conservation management. So, understanding how far do these things move, where do they go foraging, what are their foraging behaviors? Even things as simple as how long things live for. Unfortunately, the radio tracking technologies that are out there at the moment are too heavy to use on small insects. There is only a handful of our heaviest insects that can carry those and so we are really limited in our understanding of how invertebrates are moving through the environment, and if we have that knowledge then we can incorporate it in our decision making and our planning for conservation management operations,” Pawson said. Trials will start on ground-based insects before the New Zealand team tries to tackle the complexities of tracking insects in flight. Field testing could begin in 2023. Academics have said the study could also have applications in other disciplines, from biosecurity to medical imaging. Among New Zealand’s endangered insects is the iconic Wētā. They are one of the South Pacific nation’s most recognizable creatures with their large bodies, spiny legs, and curved tusks. Several species of Wētā are under threat from predation by birds and reptiles, and habitat loss.
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