Ep. 95: News Roundup Week of 8/2/21

Heart & Home

Turkey, Greece, Italy, Albania, Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia are all fighting blazes sparked by high temperatures. Thousands of people were forced to flee wildfires burning out of control in Greece and Turkey on Friday. Farmers drove their animals to the beach and tourists escaped on boats in coastal areas. ———— China’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic a year and a half ago escalated Wednesday with dozens more cases around the country and the sealing-off of one city. China had lived virtually free of the virus, with extremely strict border controls and local distancing and quarantine measures. Now, the country is on high alert as an outbreak of cases connected to the international airport in the eastern city of Nanjing affected at least 17 provinces. ——— In Lebanon, banks, businesses and government offices were closed on Wednesday to mark the grim one year anniversary since the horrific explosion at the port of Beirut. The blast killed at least 214 people, injured thousands, and caused as much as $15 billion in damage. The blast toppled Lebanon’s government, which resigned under pressure from protesters and the political elite. The anniversary comes amid an economic and financial meltdown, and a political stalemate that has kept the country without a functioning government for a year. ———- In Japan, Hiroshima marked the 76th anniversary Friday of the world’s first atomic bombing. The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. ——- In the United States, the Dixie Fire that incinerated much of the gold rush-era town of Greenville threatened more than 10,000 buildings in the northern Sierra Nevada. This week, the fire engulfed an area larger than New York City. It’s the largest current wildland blaze in the nation and the third-largest in recorded California history. A total of 4,785 fire personnel are assigned to the blaze. ——— The U.S. Food and Drug Administration expects to have a strategy on Covid-19 vaccine boosters by early September that would lay out when and which vaccinated individuals should get the follow-up shots. Also, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is under pressure to swiftly grant full approval to Covid-19 shots, as vaccine mandates take on new urgency for schools, hospitals and employers amid surging cases from the rapidly spreading Delta variant. ------ The first in the United States, NYC will require by 9/13/21 proof of at least one vaccination For both workers and customers for indoor dining, fitness and entertainment. The program is called the key to New York City pass. ———- More than 17,000 looted ancient artifacts recovered from the United States and other countries were handed over to Iraq’s Culture Ministry on Tuesday, a restitution described by the government as the largest in the country’s history.