HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND

Judge Moxila Upadhyaya yesterday warned Donald Trump:

“It is a crime to try to influence a juror or to threaten or attempt to bribe a witness or any other person who may have information about your case, or to retaliate against anyone for providing information about your case to the prosecution, or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice. Do you understand these warnings and consequences, sir?”

"Yes," Trump replied.

So what does Trump do?

Jack Smith's prosecutors retaliated by seeking a protective order against Trump. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan gave Trump until 5PM to respond. How dumb can be get? He can theoretically be held in jail just for this. Of course he won't be, but could.

The U.S. Women National Team made the Round of 16 in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, but is no longer the favorite to win the whole thing. Next, Sweden. U.S. should win, as they are given -175 odds to make it to the next round, or 64%. Will be on your regular Fox channel at 5 AM EDT (11PM Hawaii time).

I don't follow NFL Preseason games, but these started on Thursday with the Jets at Browns, with a full schedule next weekend, again beginning Thursday, but how to watch these games is complicated. Who won on Thursday? Who cares?

There are some rule changes, but nothing monumental. Super Bowl LVII will be held in Las Vegas, with two telecasts, the usual CBS Sports version, and a new parallel Nickelodeon kids and family-centric broadcast.

I offer four videos you might want to watch from America's Got Talent this week. I hate those animal acts, but Noodle and Bun were different.

Sophia Vergara gave a Golden Buzzer to Brazilian singer Gabriel Henrique. A male version of Whitney Houston?

The most amazing person I've seen on this program, and perhaps ever, 25-year old Zion Clark, with no legs (called the Caudal Regression Syndrome) to a mother in prison and no father, spent a lifetime in foster homes, which gave up on him. But he found himself through wrestling, going on to Kent State to become an All-American and Guinness World Record Holder, plus the subject of an EMMY Award winning Netflix documentary, Zion (this is the whole show, little more than 10 minutes long, Rotten Tomatoes score of 85). Has a goal of winning a gold medal in the Paris Olympics next year. Sure, unstoppable determination, but I was most impressed with his gentle, optimistic attitude.

America's Got Talent ended with a comedic spoof that fooled everyone, me included. She initially got four X's and was buzzed out. 50-year old female comedienne, Krista Komondor, played a hopeless Texas singer Sunny Chatum, armed with a ukulele. This you got to watch.

I have a flower that has annually bloomed now for 40 years. You can read the entire story of the African Blood Lily here. The following photos are Day 1 and 2 of this current blooming, plus three more pots on my lanai with what looks like 17 more flowers.

Khanun developed on July 27 west of Guam, reached Category 4 strength at the beginning of August, blew by Naha, headed for China, then made almost a U-turn, and rolled over northern Okinawa, then turned north toward Kagoshima, Japan. While now only at 40 MPH, strengthening is occurring, and Khanum is now projected to skim the western side of Kyushu and Head toward South Korea.

Hurricane Dora is now a Category 4 at 140 MPH and increasing in strength. Luckily, she is far enough south of Hawaii that we will not be affected much, if at all. However, Dora will continue to move west and become a typhoon for the Orient.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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