DAILY DOSE: January 9, 2021
Posted on 01/09/2021
1. Three additional cases of the COVID-19 strain first found in the United Kingdom have been identified in New York, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo. The U.K. variant strain is quickly spreading in the U.S. Cuomo informed the press that, “There’s no mystery as to how it got here — it got on a plane and flew here from Europe, just like the original strain did.”
2. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, COVID-19 deaths have already killed more than 76,000 people in the U.K.
3. There is a nationwide power blackout in Pakistan. Pakistan Minister for Power Omar Ayub are working on a solution. Major cities including the capital Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and most of the country without power. The blackout reportedly occurred due to a broken 500KV power transmission line, while the Pakistan air force remains on red alert.
4. POWEDER KEG AS POLITICAL CHAOS RILES U.S., PENDULUM SWINGS
After Trump defeated former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, protests erupted in D.C. and across the U.S. Similar events are unfolding as political forces are being realigned again.
In June 2020, there was a burning of St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House and daily protests and fires near the White House during the George Floyd/BLM protests. U.S. Secret Service was worried about elements of the BLM protest invading the White House and moved President Trump to the bunker. Fast-forward months later, the U.S. had a major election and with the Republican loss of the Georgia races, the Democrat party controls the House, Senate, and Presidency. After the storming of the U.S. capitol by elements at the Trump election protest, which ended up with 5 people dead, President Trump in a message conceded the election to Joe Biden, though Trump and many of his voters still contest the integrity of the presidential election (length of time of mail-in voting, illegal voters, and vote counting etc). Despite Trump’s loss, Republicans picked up seats in the U.S. House.
Soon after, a cartel of social media and tech companies began to purge right-wing political commentators and groups from their platforms, while permitting other political commentators free reign to spout off violence. These tech companies began closing accounts of any people or organizations associated or supporting the U.S. president. Twitter banned Trump’s account and censored a number of tweets from the official POTUS account. Apple Inc. threatened to remove Parler app, an app popular with people leaving Twitter, from its app store over content on the platform. Google play removed the Parler app. Democrat policymakers such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and some factions have called for Trump to be removed by the 25th amendment or impeached again.
5. Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador condemns Facebook, Twitter for blocking President Trump (AP).
6. China had initiated a large-scale COVID-19 vaccination campaign after a shot developed by an affiliate of state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm was approved for use January 7, 2021. China seeks to reportedly inoculate as many as 50 million people before the Lunar New Year holiday in February 2021.
