DAILY DOSE: July 19, 2021
Posted on 07/19/2021
1. SHRINKING LAKES IN WESTERN USA. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation started emergency water releases from reservoirs upstream in the Colorado River. The measures took place to keep Lake Powell full enough to continue to generate hydroelectric power. Lake Powell is America’s second largest reservoir. Lake Powell reservoir is expected to hit a critical low level of 1,075 meters by April 2022. This amount is just 25 feet above the level at which hydropower can no longer be generated.
Lake Oroville is Northern California’s largest reservoir. Lake Oroville has dipped so low this summer during California’s blistering heat that officials say they may have to shut off the hydropower plant there.
2. BIDEN CALLS OUT CHINESE STATE HACKERS. The Biden administration and some European nations formally blamed China for a massive hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software. The parties accused the Chinese government of working with criminal hackers on ransomware and other illicit cyber operations. U.S officials allege that China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) has been using criminal contract hackers who have engaged in cyber extortion schemes and theft for their own profit, officials said. “The United States and countries around the world are holding the People’s Republic of China (PRC) accountable for its pattern of irresponsible, disruptive, and destabilizing behavior in cyberspace, which poses a major threat to our economic and national security,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday. The MSS, he added, had “fostered an ecosystem of criminal contract hackers who carry out both state-sponsored activities and cybercrime for their own financial gain.”
A STRONGLY WORDED LETTER – NATO has issued a formal condemnation of China’s malicious cyber operations for the first time.
3. China Communist Party Threatens Nukes to Japan over Threat of Taiwan Interference. “We will use nuclear bombs first. We will use nuclear bombs continuously. We will do this until Japan declares unconditional surrender for the second time,” a threatening video circulated among official Chinese Communist Party channels warns.
“When we liberate Taiwan, if Japan dares to intervene by force – even if it only deploys one soldier, one plane or one ship – we will not only return fire but also wage full-scale war against Japan itself.”
Earlier, Japan Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said, “We must defend Taiwan, under our alliance with the U/S.”
4. Ethiopia completed the filling of a dam on the Blue Nile river for a second year. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is a US$ 4 billion hydropower project that Egypt and Sudan are opposed to.
5. On July 19, 2021, Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, tweeted, “Correcting a statistic I gave at the press conference today, 19 July. About 60% of hospitalisations from covid are not from double vaccinated people, rather 60% of hospitalisations from covid are currently from unvaccinated people.”
The U.S. government puts the United Kingdom on the highest “danger level,” tells Americans to avoid all travel due to COVID-19 levels.
6. American Academy of Pediatrics says that children older than age 2 should wear masks, regardless of COVID gene therapy vaccination status, when U.S. schools reopen in the fall.
