Important Takeaways:
- A new study provides evidence that a spillover of avian influenza from birds to dairy cattle across several U.S. states has now led to mammal-to-mammal transmission—between cows and from cows to cats and a raccoon.
- So far, 11 human cases have been reported in the U.S., with the first dating back to April 2022, each with mild symptoms: four were linked to cattle farms and seven have been linked to poultry farms, including an outbreak of four cases reported in the last few weeks in Colorado.
- “The concern is that potential mutations could arise that could lead adaptation to mammals, spillover into humans and potential efficient transmission in humans in the future,” Diel said.
- Sequencing also showed that the virus was transmitted to cats, a raccoon and wild birds that were found dead on affected farms. The cats and raccoon most likely became ill from drinking raw milk from infected cows.
- Though it isn’t known how the wild birds became infected, the researchers suspect it may have resulted from environmental contamination or aerosols kicked up during milking or cleaning of the milking parlors.
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Important Takeaways:
- What’s been described as the largest IT outage in history will cost Fortune 500 companies alone more than $5 billion in direct losses, according to one insurer’s analysis of the incident published Wednesday.
- The new figures put into stark relief how a single automated software update brought much of the global economy to a sudden halt — revealing the world’s overwhelming dependence on a key cybersecurity company — and what it will take to recover.
- The health care and banking sectors were the hardest hit by CrowdStrike’s mishap, with estimated losses of $1.94 billion and $1.15 billion, respectively, said Parametrix, the cloud monitoring and insurance firm behind Wednesday’s analysis.
- Fortune 500 airlines such as American and United were the next most affected, losing a collective $860 million
- All told, the outage may have cost Fortune 500 companies as much as $5.4 billion in revenues and gross profit, Parametrix said, not counting any secondary losses that may be attributed to lost productivity or reputational damage.
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Important Takeaways:
- For more than a week, some residents of the nation’s fourth largest city were left to sleep in their cars, shuffle perilously with canes and walkers across dark rooms and corridors, and watch food and medications spoil and critical medical equipment become inoperable. At times, they cried in desperation after discovering the bodies of neighbors who succumbed to the heat following a comparatively mild Category 1 hurricane.
- At least 14 Houston-area deaths were confirmed to be hurricane-related, including seven people – ranging in age from 50 to 110 – who died from “heat exposure due to power loss,” according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
- CenterPoint Energy told CNN in a statement it was “committed to doing a thorough review of our Hurricane Beryl response.”
- “We are engaging with community leaders, elected officials, local clergy leadership and others across the area to learn about how we can be more responsive to their needs and concerns,” the statement said.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea sent another wave of trash-filled balloons drifting into South Korea Wednesday, but this time, some of the garbage landed on the grounds of the South Korean presidential compound in Seoul and a U.S. military base nearby, seemingly disrupting some operations there.
- The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol said it monitored the balloons’ flight path in real-time and “accurately measured the landing location, then safely took action after it fell” on the compound’s grounds.
- Authorities didn’t attempt to shoot down the balloon headed for the presidential compound to avoid causing any damage, and because at the time it was unclear what the balloon could be carrying. In the end, it was just more trash, following a pattern of recent North Korean balloon launches in a tit-for-tat propaganda fight with the South.
- A chemical, biological and radiological response team that responded to the presidential compound concluded that “the object was not dangerous or contaminated, so we collected it and will continue to monitor it,” officials said.
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Important Takeaways:
- The White House condemned what it called “disgraceful” protests outside Union Station Wednesday in Washington, D.C., while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an address to lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol.
- “Identifying with evil terrorist organizations like Hamas, burning the American flag, or forcibly removing the American flag and replacing it with another, is disgraceful,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
- “Antisemitism and violence are never acceptable. Period,” Bates added.
- Protesters took down an American flag and replaced it with a Palestinian flag Wednesday, and at one point burned the U.S. flag
- A group of House Republicans restored the U.S. flags around Union Station, and former President Trump used the incident to renew his push for jail sentences for those that desecrate American flags.
- D.C. Metropolitan Police said six protesters were arrested at the scene. At least five protesters were also arrested in the House gallery during the prime minister’s speech, and another five were arrested while marching on Constitution Ave.
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Important Takeaways:
- The largest active wildfire in the United States has scorched almost 270,000 acres in eastern Oregon, as nearly 80 large active wildfires are burning in the US, including a California blaze that exploded in size overnight.
- California wildfire explodes in size overnight
- The Park Fire grew nearly 40,000 acres overnight to an area roughly the size of Washington, DC.
- The fire has burned an average of nearly 50 football fields per minute since it started Wednesday afternoon.
- Triple-digit temperatures and high wind gusts have fueled the fire’s growth.
- Oregon fires ‘scaled up quickly’
- The lightning-sparked Durkee Fire is the largest of 31 large wildfires currently burning across Oregon, which has been the hardest hit by fires in recent days.
- “We have been at this for a number of days, and those days just seem to keep getting harder and harder with the weather that we’re seeing in our area and the intense fire behavior,” Sarah Sherman of the Bureau of Land Management said in a video update.
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Important Takeaways:
- United States and Canadian fighter jets intercepted four Russian and Chinese bombers that were flying in international airspace near Alaska on Wednesday, officials said.
- Wednesday’s joint Russian and Chinese flight was…notable for being the first intercept of Chinese military aircraft near Alaska
- The joint Russian and Chinese flight reflects the growing military ties between the two nations.
- NORAD stressed that the flight “is not seen as a threat” and that it will continue to monitor activity near North America “and meet presence with presence.”
- “We’re keeping a watchful eye on how they’re developing their capacity for operating in the region,” Iris Ferguson, deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for Arctic and Global Resilience, told reporters Monday.
- “As we say in the department, you know, they are our long-term pacing challenge. And I think that includes in the Arctic.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The bodies of kindergarten teacher Maya Goren as well as the soldiers Major Ravid Aryeh Katz, Master Sergeant Oren Goldin, Staff Sergeant Tomer Ahimas and Sergeant Kiril Brodski were found during an operation in the Khan Younis area.
- The military said it had determined that Ms. Goren was murdered in captivity, while the soldiers were killed in combat on 7 October and their bodies then abducted.
- The announcement means 111 of the 251 people taken hostage are still being held in Gaza, including 39 who the military says are presumed dead.
- The Hostages and Missing Families Forum praised what it called the “crucial and decisive military action that provides their families with important closure and eternal rest for the murdered”.
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Important Takeaways:
- Yellowstone’s Biscuit Basin explodes as tourists run away from falling debris
- “At around 10:00 AM MST on July 23, 2024, a small hydrothermal explosion occurred in Yellowstone National Park in the Biscuit Basin thermal area, about 2.1 miles northwest of Old Faithful,” said Yellowstone National Park in a release.
- The parking lot and boardwalks at Biscuit Basin have been temporarily closed following the explosion as geologists with Yellowstone continue their investigation of the incident.
- In their release, Yellowstone National Park explained that Tuesday’s explosion is “relatively common,” as hydrothermal explosions are the result of water becoming steam suddenly underground.
- The National Park assuaged fears of further explosions in the area, stating “today’s explosion does not reflect activity within volcanic system, which remains at normal background levels of activity.”
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