Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
Covid Across the Pond
Flying from Miami to London this week there are suddenly very little differences to note in strategy to handle Covid, and thats concerning considering Florida generally has been one of the most relaxed U.S. States on masks and vaccine mandates.
Restaurants in West Palm generally were too relaxed, and no servers wore masks or kept their distance, as they served big crowds of seasonal tourists. But as more people became sick in Florida, I did see more people being more prudent in mask wearing and social distancing by choosing to dine outdoors.
You can’t blame the 948% rise in one week Covid cases all on a Florida Governor DeSantis, and his political approach to health safety, but it has surely been a major factor.
In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also been slow to contain the pandemic, and Britain has paid a price in terms of hospitalizations and overall deaths. This week hospitals declared emergencies due to bed shortages.
"We are experiencing the fastest growth in COVID cases that we have ever known," Johnson told lawmakers as it was announced 1 in 15 people in Britain is currently infected. That number was higher in places like London where 1 in 10 are infected.
In France President Macron is waging a verbal and a legislative war against people who refuse to get vaccinated.
Under a new bill, people over 12 years of age will be required to prove their vaccination status to access restaurants and bars, cultural venues, and public transport. A negative Covid test will no longer be sufficient.
Macron said Tuesday that his Covid strategy was to “piss off” the unvaccinated as he gambles political pay off may come in fighting and winning the war against Covid, rather trying to deny its impact.
Australia and Djokovic
World number one tennis player Novak Djokovic has had his visa to enter Australia revoked amidst a storm of controversy.
Djokovic was detained at the Melbourne airport, and ordered to be taken to a government detention hotel awaiting deportation. His lawyers are in court arguing for his release.
Djokovic had received an exemption to play in the Australian Open. The Serbian player has not spoken about his vaccination status, but last year he said he was "opposed to vaccination" and the pubic outcry in Australia over his exemption has been huge.
Kazakhstan
Violent protests over a rise in energy prices have led to shots being fired by storm troopers, and Russian forces being called in to help quell the violence.
Dozens may have been killed as protesters stormed Government buildings.
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in an address to the nation that he had appealed to the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation which includes five other ex-Soviet states, to combat what he called "terrorist groups" that had "received extensive training abroad."
Of course leaders always blame forces from abroad while meeting violence with violence, because they don’t want to be seen to be shooting their own people.
Russia gleefully answers these calls for help, as it did in Ukraine when protesters over threw a dictator there in 2014. The problem with Russia is once its brought in for back up, there is no getting Russia out again and that may be Kazakhstans long term problem.
Jan 6 Insurrection
Today U.S. President Biden is expected to squarely and bluntly blame ex President Trump for the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
“President Biden will lay out the significance of what happened at the Capitol, the singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.
She added that Biden “has been clear-eyed about the threat the former president represents to our democracy and how the former president constantly works to undermine basic American values and rule of law.”
Trump cancelled a news conference today and will discuss his election grievances at a rally later this month in Arizona.
What’s clear is the attack on the Capitol was staged, organized and orchestrated amidst Trumps calls for people to take the streets as he denied the legitimacy of the American election. And Trump stood by in the White House and watched the violence while many appealed to him to call it off.
Trump still questions the election results despite dozens of courts not finding any evidence that would change the result.
Trump is singularly the biggest threat to what was once called the ‘greatest democracy on earth’ and that threat has only gained traction since the assault on the Capitol as the Republican party has worked to restrict voting rights and become even more radical in opposing democratic norms.
The rest of the World is deeply shaken by America’s decaying democratic values, and this years mid term elections will set the stage for what could be an even worse Presidential election in 2024.
That’s our news letter for Jan 6. I appreciate those who have signed up and contributed with financial subscriptions. If you value this letter please feel free to share it and donate to free and independent journalism. But you don’t have to!
Dana
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-trump-blame-capitol-assault/2022/01/05/b41b99b6-6e56-11ec-a5d2-7712163262f0_story.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/03/us-covid-omicron-coronavirus-cases-florida?s=09
https://news.yahoo.com/britain-reports-record-covid-19-153001481.html
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220106-french-lawmakers-approve-new-vaccine-pass-after-fierce-debate
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-59889522
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/01/06/russia-led-alliance-to-send-forces-to-unrest-hit-kazakhstan-a75980