THE LATEST NEWS: Upgraded

     From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14        4142    15512        1151         189      712

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194

April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37

May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59 

June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95

 July    7         251      8440        1595        817      411

Aug     4         656    10120        1118         532      423 

Sept   22      2228      9326          839       279     124

Oct      6       2102      8255          543       315       59

Nov    3        1436      7830         186        458       23

Dec     1       1633      8475          266        477       28

Jan     7        2025      6729         148         285     140

Feb     2        2990   12012          946        991      175

Mar     2        1778     7756          335         173       28 

Apr     1          439      4056         290          52       12

May    5          225      2404          151            ?       64 

         12          222      1995           136           9       21

         19          201      1801           115           20      31

         26          217      1528          136           14      49

June   2          216       1413         130          10       31

          9          195      1526         148           24       24 

        15          305      1382         289           11       26 

         23         266      1650        346            ?          7 

         29         326      1608        294           39       19 

         30         228      1517         274           23       29 

July    6          316      1627        335           35       12 

         13          407       1742        388          38       12

Summary:

• New deaths getting worse, but only marginally (new deaths/million population):
• #1      USA  407 (1.21)
• #2      Brazil  388 (1.76)
• #3      Germany  145 (1.72)
• #4      France  109 (1.66)
• #5      Italy  106 (1.76)
• #6      Mexico  92 (0.69)
• #7      Australia  52 (2.00)
• #8      Taiwan  48 (2.00)
• #10    India  38 (0.03)
• #12    New Zealand  29 (5.8)
• #13    Thailand  25 (0.35)
• #14    Japan 20 (0.16)
• #16    Canada  15 (0.39)
• #19    South Korea  12 (0.23)
• #40    Singapore  3 (0.5)
• #45    Hong Kong 2 (0.3)
• Note that, while the U.S. had the most deaths, our new deaths/million is lower than that of Europe and Oceania.
• For my own interest, I am including the countries in the Orient and Oceania possibly on our Fall travel schedule.
• New cases yesterday (with new cases per million population):
• #1  Germany  152,149 (1804)
• #2  France  127,642 (1947)
• #3  Italy  111,678 (1853)
• #4  USA  107,981 (322)
• #5  Brazil  71,501 (332)
• #6  Japan  68,191 (543)
• Again, on a new cases/million basis, the U.S. is much lower than Europe.
• New cases yesterday per million population:
• #1    Bermuda  5193
• #2    Brunei  3554
• #3    Singapore  2838
• #4    Isle of Man  2805
• #6    New Zealand  2360
• #7    France  1947
• #8    Italy  1853
• #9    Germany  1804
• #10  Monaco  1733
• #11  Australia  1695
• #13  Taiwan  1249
• #14  Israel  1069
• #22  South Korea  784
• #29  Japan  543
• #32  Hong Kong  414
• #37  Denmark  339
• #38  Brazil  332
• #38  USA  332
• #42  Mexico  276
• #53  UAE  150
• #111  China  0.07

Ever wonder what happened to Beijing and Shanghai?  Last month Beijing reopened schools and Shanghai declared victory over COVID.  Further, as of a few hours ago:

• China reported 366 new cases, for which 245 (or 67%) were asymptomatic.  I suspect the percent of asymptomatic cases someday will be reported to be higher than 50% for the world.  All this is now complicated because of vaccinations and boosters.
• Beijing has had zero new cases and deaths the past couple of days.
• The whole country had no new deaths the past couple of days.
• Since the beginning of the pandemic more than two years ago, China has had ONLY 227,030 cases with symptoms, something we in the USA now suffer from every two days.

So much for the pandemic.  I'll close with a budget statement, one more tidbit of the Trumps, and end with a short description of those fabulous photos from 13 billion light years years ago.

Inflation in June jumped 9.1% from a year ago, a 40-year high.  That $2 trillion "liberal" package that failed because of Senator Joe Manchin, apparently now won't return even as a $1 trillion gift to the environmentalists and social do-gooders, for he is now even more inclined to stop discussions.  The only hope for Democrats is to gain more Senate seats in November.

Remember documentarian Alex Holder who filmed the Trump family and others, plus the carnage of January 6, and was interviewed by the House January 6 Committee and provided some interesting footage?  Well, his production, Unprecedented, was shown this past Sunday on Discovery Plus, which virtually no one watches.

• Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it a 40% rating.  Nothing yet from the audience.
• Interviewed were three elder Trump kids plus Mike Pence.
• By the way, I should mention something about Baron Trump, who is only 16 years old, but a year ago was 6 feet 7 inch tall.  Even Snopes commented.

• So how tall is Baron today?  Not sure if there is anything official.
• The Donald is 6'3" and Melania 5'11".
• Baron is attending Oxbridge Academy School in Florida for $34,880/year.  This school was founded by one of the Koch brothers, strong conservatives.  
• 
  Time magazine reported on Holder's documentary.  Here is a quote:

....for those willing to commit to three hours of reflection from Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric, there wasn’t a ton of payoff. The end product is an odd combination of a Game of Thrones-like dynastic minefield, a poor parody of House of Cards, and a little bit of Veep as Trump’s offspring fumblingly try to give the MAGA crowds what they want. Even the musical score has echoes of those better-known franchises.

Time also provided commentary on those five photos NASA released this week.  I have shown four of them before but will again repeat them, plus the fifth.

• Image of SMACS 0723, containing thousands of galaxies, some as far away as 13.1 billion light years, the bluer the older.

• Carina Nebula is only located 7,600 light years from Earth.  It is a stellar nursery.

• Stephan's Quintet was seen by astronomers in 1877, and is a cluster of five galaxies, the one of the left is closest to us at 40 million light years, while the others are around 290 million light years away.  Many young stars appear as sparkles, while thousands of more-distant galaxies are in the background.

• Southern Ring Nebula are two dying stars orbiting each other 2500 light years from Earth.  At this phase of their life, they give off gas and dust to form the nebulae, or clouds.  The James Webb Space Telescope not only can take this photo, but also analyze its chemistry.

• WASP 96 b shows a scientific graph telling a story.  The telescope is also being utilized to study exoplanets, and this photo shows the make-up of their atmospheres.  WASP 96 b is a Jupiter-like planet at 1150 light years, and these numbers show that there is water in the clouds.

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