Top central banker says Fed officials screwed up on inflation because of Uber-like ‘surge pricing’ that they didn’t think was possible



Will Daniel
Fri, January 6, 2023

Turns out inflation wasn’t “transitory.” Federal Reserve officials were convinced in 2021 that consumer price increases wouldn’t last, and that they needed to maintain near-zero interest rates to help the economy navigate COVID-19. But Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, now admits that was a mistake.

“Many of us—those inside the Federal Reserve and the vast majority of outside forecasters—together made the same errors in, first, being surprised when inflation surged as much as it did and, second, assuming that inflation would fall quickly. Why did we miss it?” he wrote in a Wednesday article for Medium.

Kashkari puts the blame on models that central bankers use to forecast inflation, arguing that they don’t properly account for something called “surge pricing inflation.” He used the analogy of Uber drivers’ experience on a rainy day to describe this type of inflation. Rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft offer their drivers so-called surge pricing when demand for rides spikes. Surge pricing can drastically increase the cost of a ride, thereby reducing demand and incentivizing more drivers to work and boost supply.

Kashkari argued that during the pandemic, the economy was hit with a form of surge pricing by corporations owing to a sharp rise in demand as COVID lockdowns took hold, coupled with shortages created by broken supply chains.

But unlike during surge pricing for rideshare companies, worker wages didn’t surge at the same rate. This dynamic caused inflation and corporate profits to soar, while real wages declined.

Kashkari said that the key to the Fed’s “miss” was that inflation over the past year has been driven by this surge pricing that the Fed models failed to take into account, rather than a tight labor market or changes to consumer inflation expectations—the two most common sources of rising prices during previous periods of high inflation.

“In these workhorse models, it is very difficult to generate high inflation,” he explained. “Either we need to assume a very tight labor market…or we must assume an unanchoring of inflation expectations. That’s it. From what I can tell, our models seem ill-equipped to handle a fundamentally different source of inflation, specifically, in this case, surge pricing inflation.”

Kashkari went on to say that he believed the Fed should continue raising interest rates “at least at the next few meetings” owing to its lack of ability to accurately forecast inflation. Cutting rates shouldn’t even be considered, he added, until officials are “convinced” inflation is “well on its way back down” to their 2% target rate.

“Given the experience of the 1970s, the mistake the FOMC must avoid is to cut rates prematurely and then have inflation flare back up again,” he said, referring to the Fed’s Open Market Committee, which determines interest rate levels. “That would be a costly error.”

Kashkari added that his article wasn’t meant as a criticism of fellow Fed officials, noting that he, too, was wrong about inflation last year.

“It is meant to be an honest assessment of what we missed and why we missed it in order to shed light on what we should learn going forward,” he wrote.

Twitter leak exposes 235 million email addresses from hack


The Twitter logo is seen on the awning of the building that houses the Twitter office in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. Personal emails linked to 235 million Twitter accounts hacked some time ago have been exposed according to Israeli security researcher Alon Gal, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

BARBARA ORTUTAY
Fri, January 6, 2023 

Personal emails linked to 235 million Twitter accounts hacked some time ago have been exposed according to Israeli security researcher Alon Gal — making millions vulnerable to having their accounts compromised or identities exposed if they have used the site anonymously to criticize oppressive governments, for instance.

Gal, who is the co-founder and chief technology officer at cybersecurity firm Hudson Rock, wrote in a LinkedIn post this week that the leak “will unfortunately lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing, and doxxing.”

While account passwords were not leaked, malicious hackers could use the email addresses to try to reset people's passwords, or guess them if they are commonly used or reused with other accounts. That's especially a risk if if the accounts are not protected by two-factor authentication, which adds a second layer of security to password-protected accounts by having users enter an auto-generated code to log in.

People who use Twitter anonymously should have a Twitter-dedicated email address that does not disclose who they are and is used solely for Twitter, experts say.


Though the hack appears to have taken place before Elon Musk took over Twitter, the news of the leaked emails adds another headache for the billionaire, whose first couple months as head of Twitter have been chaotic, to say the least.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a message for comment on the hack.

News of the breach could put the company in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission. The San Francisco company signed a consent agreement with the agency in 2011 that required it to address serious data-security lapses.

Twitter paid a $150 million penalty last May, several months before Musk’s takeover, for violating the consent order. An updated version established new procedures requiring the company to implement an enhanced privacy-protection program as well as beefing up information security.

In November, a group of Democratic lawmakers asked federal regulators to investigate any possible violations by the platform of consumer-protection laws or of its data-security commitments.

The FTC said at the time it is “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” though no formal investigation has been announced. But experts and current and former Twitter employees have been warning of serious security risks flowing from the drastically reduced staff and deepening disorder within the company.

In August, Twitter’s former head of security filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that the company misled regulators about its poor cybersecurity defenses and its negligence in attempting to root out fake accounts that spread disinformation.

Among Peiter Zatko’s most serious accusations is that Twitter violated the terms of the 2011 FTC settlement by falsely claiming that it had put stronger measures in place to protect the security and privacy of its users.

HONOR BEATING 
16-year-old South Asian boy beaten by his family after coming out as gay



Michelle De Pacina
Fri, January 6, 2023 

A 16-year-old South Asian boy from the U.K. was beaten by his family after coming out as gay.

The parents and older brother of the teen all pleaded guilty to assaulting the 16-year-old at the Blackburn Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

The boy’s family reportedly used violence against him while telling him he “could be changed.”

According to prosecution attorney Saleema Chaudhry, the teen was scared for his life after coming out, adding that he was disappointed with their reaction after believing he could maintain a good relationship with his parents.

“At the time he told his mum he was scared, but she ignored him,” Chaudhry said, according to Lancashire Telegraph.

The 16-year-old has been placed in foster care, where he reportedly feels accepted.

“He said he is not sure his parents knew what they were doing was wrong. He was sad about what happened, but is happy he has now been accepted for what he is,” Chaudhry added.

Defense attorney Aftab Bakhat argued that the injuries had been “slight” and that the harm done to the child was predominantly psychological.

“What is clear from the presentence reports is that they both have entrenched views which need to be tackled,” Bakhat told the court. “Their son has come out as gay and they have reacted in a horrible, nasty and violent way which is going to psychologically scar their own son.”

As for the brother’s defense attorney, Peter King, he claimed that the actions toward his sibling were out of loyalty rather than homophobia.

“Unfortunately his parents drew on him to try and make the other boy see things their way,” King said. “On the day he chose to support his parents, not because he thought his brother was adopting the wrong way forward, but out of loyalty.”

District Judge Alex Boyd concluded that the offenses of assault were homophobic by nature due to the child’s sexual orientation.

“He has to move away from his family and friends and is now restarting his life in the care system,” Boyd said. “He is doing well despite your actions and the position you placed him in.”

After pleading guilty, the family members were subjected to a 12-month community order.

They were each ordered to pay a 114 pounds (approximately $138) victim surcharge as well as 100 pounds (approximately $121) each in court costs.

The father was sentenced to 30 days of rehabilitative activity requirements, while the mother and brother were sentenced to 20 days.

The parents were also sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work, while the brother was given 80 hours.

The family was also given a restraining order to prohibit them from having contact with the victim for 18 months.

Related Stories:

Gay couple left bloodied and injured after homophobic attack in the UK


First openly gay K-pop idol Holland says he was attacked in Itaewon, called ‘a dirty gay’


Gay kiss on live TV inadvertently bypasses Singapore LGBT content ban

HOME TO CANADIAN SNOWBIRDS
Arizona has one of the worst homelessness crises in the nation, federal data shows

Juliette Rihl, Arizona Republic
Thu, January 5, 2023 

Arizona has one of the worst homelessness crises in the nation, according to new federal data.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in December released its 2022 Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness Report, which includes key findings about homelessness nationwide and compares how cities and states measure against one another. While national numbers largely remained stagnant since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the data showed Arizona’s homelessness crisis worsened significantly.

Homelessness across the country increased by less than 1% between 2020 and 2022, the report showed. Yet Arizona saw a 23% jump in its homeless population.

Of the more than 13,000 people experiencing homelessness in Arizona, most were unsheltered, meaning they were living on the street, in a car or in another place not meant for sleeping.

Arizona was one of just four states where more than two-thirds of unaccompanied youth under age 25 did not have a place to sleep.

Arizona is likely an outlier because of its dire shortage of affordable housing, said Tom Simplot, director of the Arizona Department of Housing. While the state has experienced immense population growth in the past two years, its housing supply hasn’t kept up.

“We can have all the money we could possibly use. We could have all the vouchers we could possibly use. But if we don’t have the units to actually house people, that money is basically worthless,” Simplot said.

Joanna Carr, research and policy director for the Arizona Housing Coalition, agreed.

“Essentially, housing and homelessness are connected,” Carr said. “And it’s the huge demands in our housing market that are contributing to homelessness.”

The HUD report's data was collected by local planning entities that count the number of people experiencing homelessness in their community on a single night every year. Experts agree that the numbers are likely a significant undercount because weather, volunteer availability and other factors can make it hard to get a complete count.

Cleaning 'the Zone':Phoenix resumes cleanups of downtown homeless camp, gets people into shelter

Because Pima County used a different methodology in 2022 to count its homeless population, its numbers last year were inflated compared to other places. This partially skewed Arizona’s population count, though most of the state’s homeless population was concentrated in Maricopa County, not Pima County.

On the same day HUD released its report, the Biden administration announced plans to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025. The multi-pronged strategy includes increasing the supply of permanent supportive housing and emergency shelter space, providing more employment and education opportunities and expanding access to federal funding for Native American communities.

Arizona's affordable housing efforts fall short

Experts agree: More needs to be done — and fast — to address the state’s rapidly growing affordable housing and homelessness crisis.

The state has recently made major investments to address the crisis, including converting seven hotels and motels to emergency shelters, funneling resources to rural communities and continuing to issue tax credits to affordable housing developers, said Simplot of the Arizona Department of Housing.

Still, he said efforts to build more affordable housing need to be considerably ramped up, as the state isn’t keeping pace with its population growth. There are 375,000 Arizonans with an annual income of $25,000 or less, meaning they can afford to pay only $625 per month for rent and utilities without being cost-burdened, according to the department's research.

“I can tell you right now, there are zero apartments available in Arizona at that level,” Simplot said.

More policy solutions are needed to curb the crisis, such as changing zoning laws to make it easier to build more homes and somehow regulating rent increases, said Carr of the Arizona Housing Coalition.

In November, Gov. Katie Hobbs released a plan to mitigate the housing crisis. The plan includes encouraging local zoning changes, providing legal aid to families facing eviction and investing in the Housing Trust Fund, which funds affordable housing development and assistance programs, among other strategies.

Despite the pandemic, national homelessness numbers hold steady

The somewhat good news: The number of people experiencing homelessness nationwide increased by less than 1% between 2020 and 2022, despite the widespread economic hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic that many experts predicted would cause homelessness to spike.

Shelia Harris, left, volunteer, talks with David King, Dec. 16, 2022, before the City of Phoenix started their enhanced cleanup of the area.

In a statement, HUD attributed the absence of a spike to the “robust federal response” that helped keep people in their homes during the pandemic, including emergency rental assistance, the Child Tax Credit and stimulus payments.

The national inventory of shelter beds also increased between 2020 and 2022, the report said.

Several demographic groups, including veterans, families with children and unaccompanied youth, saw significant nationwide decreases in homelessness over the past two years.

But homelessness rose among other groups, including Hispanic or Latino people, people who identify as Native American or Pacific Islander, single individuals and people with disabilities who are chronically homeless.

The number of Black people experiencing homelessness decreased by 5% between 2020 and 2022, though Black people, along with Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, were still overrepresented among the country’s homeless population.

HUD calculated changes over two years — 2020 to 2022 — because many communities did not count the number of unsheltered people in 2021 due to pandemic safety precautions.

Volunteers are needed to help with this year’s point-in-time count on Jan. 25. Every county has a point-in-time count administrator. The Maricopa Association of Governments website provides information on who to contact to volunteer in Maricopa County. The Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness is coordinating volunteers in Pima County.

Juliette Rihl covers housing insecurity and homelessness for The Arizona Republic. She can be reached at jrihl@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @julietterihl.

A grant from the Arizona Community Foundation supports coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Federal report shows Arizona has one of the worst homelessness crises

GOP Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar vote against sex abuse survivors, of course


EJ Montini, Arizona Republic
Thu, January 5, 2023 

Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar.

Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, along with a small band of GOP guerrillas, have spent recent days humiliating, weakening and exacting several pounds of political flesh from House speaker-wannabe Kevin McCarthy, a pathetic victim of his own ambition.

Last month, however, Biggs and Gosar found time to turn their backs on actual victims.

It didn’t receive the attention it deserved.

Shortly before Christmas, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure designed to improve how the Federal Bureau of Investigations handles sex abuse cases involving children.

The proposal had wide bipartisan support, winning approval by a vote of 385 to 28.

All of the opposing votes came from Republicans. And two of those no votes came from … do I need to print their names?

Bipartisan effort to 'prevent re-traumatization'

The bill was formulated after testimony from Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and others concerning sex abuse by one-time USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

The investigation into Nassar (now serving a 200-plus year prison sentence) had numerous problems.

Another view:Biggs, Gosar refuse to help Ukraine. They're wrong

The bill passed by the House requires the FBI to form multi-disciplinary teams to aid sex abuse victims and their families. The idea is to keep cases from being dropped and to prevent re-traumatization of victims during active investigations.

This is done through a team that includes “investigative personnel, mental health professionals, medical personnel, family advocacy workers, child advocacy workers, and prosecutors.”

Biggs, Gosar and 26 other Republicans voted no.

Biggs, Gosar would rather spread conspiracies

Many of those casting votes against protection for sex abuse victims are the same members of the GOP who attack teachers and members of the LGBTQ community with unfounded claims of sexually “grooming” children.

Like when Biggs tweeted: “Many public schools today are grooming American children. Why is there such an effort to sexualize our children when test scores in virtually every academic subject are hitting historic lows?”


And when Gosar tweeted:

“Children do not belong to the government, the public school system, or the groomers that have infiltrated them.”


Politicians like this are more interested in spreading fearmongering conspiracy theories than in seeking solutions that come to light through the testimony of actual victims.
Bill offers training to help victims

The bipartisan bill was sponsored by Democratic U.S. Sens. Chris Coons and Amy Klobuchar and Republicans John Cornyn and Lindsey Graham.

In a statement, Sen. Cornyn said in part, “This legislation requires the FBI to include trauma-informed experts in interviews with victims to ensure they are not retraumatized during the interview process, and I urge President Biden to swiftly sign it into law.”

Sen. Klobuchar added, “As we work to support survivors of child sexual abuse and trafficking, we need to provide law enforcement with the training and skills they need to investigate these crimes and help victims. Our bipartisan legislation will ensure law enforcement officers can partner with child advocacy centers to use the most effective techniques when conducting these critical investigations.”

Geez, who would vote against that?

Do I even need to print their names?

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

Maryland hospital violated Affordable Care Act in denying medical care to trans patient, court rules



Brooke Migdon
Fri, January 6, 2023 

The University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center violated federal law when it refused to provide gender-affirming surgical care to a transgender man because of his gender identity, a federal court ruled Friday.

Jesse Hammons, a transgender man diagnosed with gender dysphoria, was denied a hysterectomy to remove his uterus in 2020 after his scheduled surgeon discovered Hammons was transgender, citing a hospital policy that prohibits medical personnel from providing gender-affirming health care to transgender individuals.

St. Joseph Medical Center, now part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), was, up until 2012, owned and operated as a Catholic hospital by Catholic Health Initiatives. As a condition of its purchase agreement, UMMS pledged to continue operating St. Joseph “in a manner consistent with Catholic values and principles.”

That includes complying with a “formal reporting mechanism” to ensure the hospital is held accountable for its Catholic identity. The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) audits the hospital every two years to assess its adherence to a set of religious directives for Catholic health services set by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

While the directives themselves – known as the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Services – state that medical procedures that induce sterility “are permitted when their direct effect is the cure or alleviation of a present and serious pathology,” guidelines for transgender health care set by the NCBC are much more stringent.

“Gender transitioning should never be performed, encouraged, or positively affirmed as a good in Catholic health care,” reads a guidance document issued by the group. It adds that government mandates “do not alter the immorality of gender transitioning interventions” and Catholic hospitals should seek religious exemptions.

“Litigation may be appropriate in response to unjust legal coercion,” the document states.

On Friday, District Court Judge Deborah K. Chasanow ruled that UMMS and St. Joseph Medical Center had violated Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act – which prohibits discrimination in health care on the basis of sex – in denying Hammons a hysterectomy simply because he is transgender.

“The undisputed facts establish that the decision to cancel Mr. Hammons’ hysterectomy pursuant to a policy that prohibits gender-affirming care was discrimination on the basis of his sex,” Chasanow wrote.

“Defendants have not identified evidence that suggests that Mr. Hammons’s surgery was cancelled for any other reason,” she added. “Therefore, Defendants’ position that the denial of Mr. Hammons’s surgery had nothing to do with his sex or gender identity is simply not supported by any evidence.”

UMMS had tried to remove itself as a defendant in Hammons’ case, arguing that only the funding recipient for the “specific discriminatory program” – which in this case is St. Joseph Medical Center – is liable under Section 1557.

Chasanow on Friday denied that claim, arguing that UMMS is “undoubtedly” engaged in the business of providing health care through its network of hospitals.

“A plain reading of the statute supports a conclusion that UMMS could be held liable under Section 1557 for discrimination that occurs in any of its hospitals,” she wrote in the ruling.

Hammons in a statement released by his attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Friday’s win was an important step toward ensuring transgender people are no longer denied equal treatment because of who they are.

“All I wanted was for UMMS to treat my health care like anyone else’s, and I’m glad the court recognized how unfair it was to turn me away,” Hammons said. “I’m hopeful UMMS can change this harmful policy and help more transgender people access the care they need.”

In a statement to The Hill, a UMMS spokesperson said the hospital system is “carefully reviewing” Chasanow’s ruling and disagrees with “many of the conclusions that were reached in this decision.”

“This legal claim stems directly from, and is traceable to, a surgeon mistakenly scheduling a procedure that could not be performed at UM SJMC,” the spokesperson said. “Although our offer to perform gender affirming surgery at a different location was declined by Mr. Hammons, the University of Maryland Medical System remains committed to meeting the unique medical needs of transgender individuals and patients who are routinely scheduled by physicians for appointments and procedures at UMMS member organizations.”

Oklahoma ‘Millstone Act’ seeks to ban gender-affirming care under age of 26



Brooke Migdon
Thu, January 5, 2023

An Oklahoma senate bill filed late Wednesday would prevent a person under the age of 26 from accessing gender-affirming health care, the latest sign that conservatives are seeking to block the procedure for not only children, but people well into adulthood.

The bill filed ahead of the legislature’s February start would bar health care providers in Oklahoma from administering or recommending gender-affirming medical care including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for patients younger than 26 years old, punishable by an unclassified felony conviction and the possible revocation of their medical license for “unprofessional conduct.”

The measure would also prohibit public funds from being used to either “directly or indirectly” provide gender-affirming health care to an individual younger than 26 and bar the state Medicaid program from covering procedures related to a person’s gender transition.

The legislation being introduced by Oklahoma GOP state Sen. David Bullard, who last year authored a new state law that prohibits transgender youth from using school restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of three transgender students against that law.

The bill filed Wednesday is titled the “Millstone Act of 2023” – a reference to a Bible passage that a person would be better off tying a large boulder around their neck to “be drowned in the depths of the sea” than harm a child.

The reference was first made in April when conservative pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who earlier this year tried unsuccessfully to unseat Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), pledged during an interview with the far-right news network Real America’s Voice to introduce his own “Millstone Act” that would cut off funding to “any school district in America that teaches critical race theory or woke sexuality.”

With Bullard’s proposal, Oklahoma joins nearly a dozen other states seeking to heavily restrict or ban access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth and adults in 2023.

Another Oklahoma bill filed in December aims to bar physicians from providing “gender transition procedures” to patients younger than 21 years old, punishable by a $100,000 fine and up to a decade in prison.

COVID REMAINS THE CAPITALI$T CRISIS

‘Kraken’ COVID symptoms: What to know about the strain sweeping through the U.S. and now in at least 28 other countries



Eleanor Pringle
Fri, January 6, 2023 

COVID hospitalizations in the U.S. have spiked 16.1% in the past week as a new "escaped" variant of the virus has continued to sweep across the country.

XBB.1.5— dubbed 'Kraken' by Canadian biology professor Dr. Ryan Gregory and his following in the Twitterverse—is the most transmissible COVID variant yet, according to the World Health Organization.

A risk assessment is currently being drawn up for the new mutant strain by WHO's technical advisory group on virus evolution, Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for COVID-19 response at the authority, said on Wednesday.

XBB.1.5 began alarming scientists at the tail end of last year after the number of Kraken cases in the U.S. rose from 1% of all cases at the start of December to 41% just three weeks later.

This week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projected that it comprised around 75% of infections in regions 1 and 2, which include Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The strain is believed to be in at least 28 other countries—including Europe—with cases of XBB.1.5 now thought to make up 4% of COVID cases in the U.K.

What are the symptoms of 'Kraken' COVID variant XBB.1.5?

Dr. Allison Arwady, the Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner, said in a press conference on Tuesday that Kraken "basically just a combination of two of the earlier subtypes, two variants" from the Omicron strain.

She added that although XBB.1.5 is a new mutation its symptoms have not hugely changed because it is a descendant of the variant that was discovered in mid-2020.

Arwady explained: “We're seeing more people actually just have cold-like symptoms”—such as a runny nose, sore throat, cough and congestion—“but are less likely to have those flu-like, really feeling very sick [symptoms such as] the high fevers."

This is especially the case in people who are fully up to date on vaccines or who have preexisting immunity built up from having a COVID infection in the past.

More widely, the CDC's COVID symptoms to look out for are fever or chills, difficulty breathing, fatigue, body aches and headaches, loss in taste or smell, nausea, and diarrhea.

WHO researchers are currently focusing on the variant’s ability to quickly spread and overtake other strains of Omicron, but Van Kerkhove added that disease severity was also being explored.

There is not yet any evidence to suggest that Kraken prompts a more severe reaction, she said.

XBB.1.5 is causing concern as it binds tightly to the cells it infects, WHO officials added, which means the virus replicates easily in a host.

Does being vaccinated help protect against 'Kraken' COVID?

 Dr. Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., previously told Fortune that the best form of protection from mutations is to get a booster vaccination.

Speaking following the Omicron spawn BA.2.75, dubbed Centaurus, Rajnarayanan confirmed that escaped mutations such as Centaurus and Kraken are "immune evasive" to some extent—but won't be able to defy all of the human body's resistance.

https://twitter.com/mvankerkhove/status/1570752012660412416

Professor Paul Hunter, of the U.K.-based National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit, added that the extent to which Kraken can bypass immunization is not yet known.

Pavitra Roychoudhury, the director of COVID-19 Next Generation Sequencing at the University of Washington, told Forbes there are no "spectacular" measures members of the public should be taking bar the bivalent vaccine, which Roychoudhury described as the “best defense against severe illness”.
What has the impact been on health services?

The seven-day average to January 3 of COVID hospitalizations has increased 16.1% compared to the prior weekly rolling average, according to data from the CDC.

From Dec. 21 to 27, 2022, 5,613 people were admitted with positive COVID tests, compared to 6,519 from Dec. 28 to Jan. 3.

However this is still a far cry, down 69.7%, from the peak seven-day average in mid-January 2022 when 21,525 were admitted with COVID.

The WHO also reported a 20% increase in global COVID deaths Thursday over the past month; however, Van Kerkhove was quick to confirm that the trend—or variant—behind the deaths is unknown.

She added it could be due to more people meeting indoors around the public holidays as opposed to threats from a new and more dangerous strain.

Meet the biology professor who named the surging ‘Kraken’ COVID variant. He has more to help make sense of Omicron’s ‘alphabet soup’



Erin Prater
Thu, January 5, 2023 

Everyone knows the names of the major COVID variants Alpha, Delta, and Omicron. But last year, viral evolution shifted, muddying the waters as well as the names of the major variants. Instead of spawning new variants, COVID began evolving within Omicron itself—at a breakneck pace, no less. The organization responsible for figuring out what to call the latest variants of concern—the World Health Organization—stopped using Greek letters after Omicron, arguing that all the new variants weren’t different enough to warrant nicknames.

Do you remember the previously ubiquitous COVID strains BA.4, BA.5, or BQ.1.1? Have you heard of the currently surging XBB.1.5, and do you understand what the tangle of letters and numbers mean? You probably don't—and some experts say it's because of the names. You could be forgiven for thinking another strain of Omicron poses no new threat—especially if you’ve already had Omicron or received the new Omicron booster.

New strains of Omicron are becoming increasingly more transmissible and evasive, with the ability to dodge immunity from prior vaccination and infection. And using the term “Omicron” or something like XBB.1.5 to describe them just isn’t cutting it anymore, Dr. Ryan Gregory, a biology professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, told Fortune.

“Kraken” is what he calls XBB.1.5, which the WHO just declared the most transmissible Omicron variant yet. For months, Gregory has worked to offer up “street names” for complicated COVID strains, in a bid to better communicate the evolving Omicron threat to the public.

And as pseudonyms go, he’s got a lot more where the kraken came from.

With input from both professional and “citizen” scientists around the globe, Gregory has compiled a list of memorable monikers from Greek mythology and other realms— Chiron, Argus, Basilisk, and Typhon—for the Omicron spawn that medical experts believe pose the greatest threats in the near future. He told Fortune he was inspired by a Twitter user who dubbed the Omicron strain BA.2.75 “Centaurus” this summer, and saw the media and some experts pick that up.

Since Gregory began using "Kraken"—an aggressive sea monster from Scandinavian folklore—shortly after Christmas, it's quickly gained steam, as reported by Bloomberg. The term has been picked up by a host of other international and national news outlets including Insider and Sky [hotlink ignore="true"]News. Centaurus was named in journal articles and used by the likes of Nature and the Guardian. And some variant trackers are now using the proposed names as hashtags on Twitter.

Gregory likened Omicron and its variants to different species within the mammal family of vertebrates.

“If you said, ‘Oh, what’s that thing in my yard?’ and I said, ‘It’s a mammal,’ you’d say, ‘Is it something that will eat me? Will it steal my vegetables? Does it carry disease? Is it somebody’s pet?'” he explained.

"Omicron" remains a useful descriptor, he maintained. But more than a year after the highly transmissible Omicron strain burst onto the global scene, someone needs to name new, concerning variants.

If the WHO won’t, he's decided, he will.

Gone are the days of Greek letters?

When COVID variants began materializing, the WHO devised the strategy of naming them after Greek letters, skipping some that might be confusing—like Nu, which sounds like “new,” which would apply to all variants at some point—or offensive to some, like Xi, the first name of China’s president.

Generally, the approach worked, Gregory said. But Omicron muddled matters.

Dr. Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., is on Gregory’s informal team to develop nicknames for particularly troublesome Omicron spin-offs.

Even as a seasoned scientist and professor, Rajnarayanan said he’s found it difficult to effectively communicate with nonscientists regarding the tangled mess of variants scientists are monitoring.

“When you keep calling 200 different lineages of different potential the same name, it becomes a problem,” he recently told Fortune.

Experts like Gregory and Rajnarayanan worry that a lack of a new and specific names for Omicron variants could lead members of the public to draw false conclusions—like that the virus isn’t evolving, or that a months-ago infection with Omicron will confer protection against newer strains of Omicron, which isn’t necessarily true.

‘The public can’t keep these numbers straight’

So far, the WHO has declined to give particularly concerning Omicron variants a Greek letter. Fortune reached out to the international health organization to ask why and didn’t receive a response.

Its resistance is based in science, since new Omicron variants can be traced back to older Omicron variants. But it’s not practical, Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research and founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, told Fortune last fall.

“And it’s not a good defense for not naming them,” he added. “I would implore them to do so. The public can’t keep these numbers straight.”

Topol says he would have called BA.5, dominant globally until recently, Pi or Sigma because it’s “so distinct” from the original Omicron, BA.1, as well as the so-called stealth Omicron, or BA.2.

Two particularly worrying recent variants—BQ.1.1 and XBB—should also be assigned Greek letters because researchers have called them “extreme in terms of immune-evasiveness and resistance to monoclonal antibodies,” he said at the time.

“They could be given new Greek letter names instead of the ones some people invent,” he said of the new strains. “If different people are going to make up names, it’s going to be just as confusing as the numbers or letters.”

Basilisk here, Hydra there

When describing potentially threatening variants, the WHO currently uses so-called Pango lineages—combinations of letters and numbers you’ve likely heard of, like BA.2.75.2 and BA.4.6.

Pango labels have maintained their specificity as the virus mutates unrestrained, Gregory said. But such labels are almost too precise for the general public. And aside from being forgettable, they’re easily confused.

“When I talk to people, I say BA.1, they think I’m saying BL.1—and that’s a different variant,” Rajnarayanan said. “Even the two-letter system causes confusion.”

Gregory equates Pango names to technical species names, like Mus musculus for mouse or Rattus norvegicus for rat. Such technical names aren’t often used by the general public. Some species of animals, however—like Oncorhynchus mykiss, or rainbow trout—get a common name because “we encounter them a lot, they’re important to us, they’re dangerous or useful or delicious or whatever,” he said.

And so it should be with COVID variants, he contends. Particularly rampant, “high-flying” variants like XBB, a blend of BJ.1 and BM.1.1.1, should get a nickname—Gryphon, per his system—for ease of communicating the threat to the general public.

It’s especially important, he says, as a menagerie of Omicron spawn spike in different locations around the world in a fashion unlike any seen in the pandemic so far.

“If we want to make it clear that what’s rising in the U.K. is not the same as what’s rising in the U.S.—the ‘alphabet soup’ is going to be very difficult for that,” he said. He's convinced that if his system was adopted, with, say Basilisk and Cerberus in the U.K., and Hydra and Aeterna in the U.S., "you can immediately recognize which names are the same and which are not.”

If COVID keeps spawning new mutations, there are other lists of names to tap—planets, stars, constellations, galaxies, Gregory said.

What in the world will he think of next?

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Phoenix police detain Wall Street Journal reporter; investigation opened


Miguel Torres, Arizona Republic
Fri, January 6, 2023

Phoenix police opened an administrative investigation into the detainment of a Wall Street Journal reporter on Nov. 23 in north Phoenix, officials said. The investigation will be conducted by the department's Professional Standards Bureau.

Dion Rabouin, a finance reporter for the Journal, stood outside a Chase Bank at around 2:40 p.m. in north Phoenix, conducting brief interviews with people walking inside for a story about banking.

A Phoenix police officer, Caleb Zimmerman, approached Rabouin about a trespassing call he said was placed by bank employees, according to reporting by ABC 15.

In a police report filed by Zimmerman, bank employees claimed they told Rabouin to leave the property after getting complaints from customers who felt uncomfortable.

In a video provided by a concerned citizen Katelyn Parady, Rabouin told Zimmerman that no one at the bank had asked him to leave but he would if he was given a chance.

In the video, Zimmerman handcuffed Rabouin as Rabouin repeated that he would voluntarily leave.

According to the report, Zimmerman wrote that Rabouin didn’t provide identification and told him he was trespassing.

Zimmerman claimed that he had spoken with an employee at the bank and was told that the bank was willing to “aid in prosecution if Dion was unwilling to leave,” and wanted Rabouin removed from the property.

Throughout the video, Rabouin told Zimmerman that he would walk away from the property if he would uncuff him.

But Zimmerman held that he had to trespass him from the property, which involves personally removing him from the property and writing up a trespass notification that identifies Rabouin to the property owner so they can make sure he does not return.

Zimmerman pressed Rabouin into the back seat of his patrol SUV and pulled Rabouin’s ID from his pants, but Rabouin sat with his feet out of the vehicle, preventing Zimmerman from closing the door.

According to an interview with ABC 15, Rabouin was afraid of what would happen if he got into the car and Zimmerman closed the door.

“I didn’t trust what was going to happen," he told ABC15. “While the woman was recording, I thought the odds of him not doing anything to me, whether physically or anything else, are a lot higher. Once he closes that door, he could take off. He could take me somewhere. I could be placed under arrest.”

The video showed Zimmerman and Rabouin at a standstill, facing each other and stating their positions. Zimmerman claimed Rabouin refused to leave when asked to by the property owner and was trespassing, while Rabouin kept repeating he had never been asked to leave but would do it now.

Rabouin explained to Zimmerman in the video that someone at the bank had come outside and asked if he had been soliciting, and he said he wasn’t.

”They said they were going to go inside and talk to someone, and then you showed up and I said I would leave,” he told Zimmerman on the recording.

Eventually, two other officers showed up and were seen on the video watching over Rabouin as Zimmerman used Rabouin’s ID to write a trespassing notice.

Parady tried to stay close to Rabouin, but at one point, an unidentified police officer told Parady to step back, exclaiming, “Eight feet is the law,” citing a defunct Arizona law deemed unconstitutional in September.

Minutes later, Zimmerman uncuffed and let Rabouin go.

Rabouin’s Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray, wrote a letter to Phoenix police Chief Michael Sullivan, stressing his concern about how officers treated Rabouin.

“I am appalled and concerned that officers at your department would attempt to interfere with Mr. Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and purport to limit anyone's presence in a public location. Such conduct is offensive to civil liberties, and also a pretty good news story,” Murray wrote.

Phoenix police spokesperson Sgt. Melissa Soliz told The Arizona Republic the department received a copy of the letter and opened an administrative investigation.

Rabouin said he got a call from a Phoenix official weeks later and was told that after reviewing the case the department found the officer did nothing wrong, according to ABC 15.

Black Wall Street Journal reporter detained, cuffed while working on bank story

TheGrio Staff
Fri, January 6, 2023

Dion Rabouin submitted an internal complaint, claiming that a few weeks after the incident, a Phoenix official called to inform him they found no evidence of police misconduct relating to his detainment on Nov. 23, 2022.

Phoenix police are conducting an administrative probe into a Black Wall Street Journal reporter’s detainment while working on a bank story.

ABC15 News reported that the Nov. 23, 2022, incident involving Dion Rabouin prompted Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray to send a letter to Phoenix Chief Michael Sullivan requesting a review and demanding they take action to protect journalists’ rights.

“I am appalled and concerned that officers at your department would attempt to interfere with Mr. Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and purport to limit anyone’s presence in a public location,” Murray wrote, according to ABC15.

Dion Rabouin interviews Michelle Girard of NatWest Markets during the 2018 Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit at The Times Center on Sept. 20, 2018, in New York City. Rabouin has filed an internal complaint against the Phoenix Police Department after he was detained while working on a story for The Wall Street Journal. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)More

The event prompts further accusations that Phoenix violated First Amendment rights.

Rabouin, a journalist for the Journal based in New York, visited family in Phoenix for the Thanksgiving break.

He asserted that he dressed casually when he visited a Chase Bank location in north Phoenix to conduct man-on-the-street interviews for a report about savings accounts.

While he was on the sidewalk outside the building, two employees allegedly approached Rabouin and asked what he was doing before heading back inside.

The bank allegedly never asked him to leave, and he was unaware that the sidewalk was private property.

Rabouin said he identified himself to a police officer who showed up and told them bank employees knew what was going on, to which he replied, “Well, you can’t do that.”

Officer Caleb Zimmerman reported that bank staff claimed Rabouin refused to leave, and the reporter initially declined to identify himself.

A bystander started recording on her cell phone after seeing the scene unfold. Katelyn Parady’s video starts several minutes after the exchange between Rabouin and Zimmerman begins, with the reporter being placed in handcuffs.

Rabouin claimed that he told the officer he would leave if he weren’t on public property, but the officer shifted his body to keep him from doing so.

Zimmerman noted in his incident report that he had sufficient grounds to detain Rabouin for trespassing.

Backup officers came around eight minutes into the cell phone video. After two more minutes, with other cops present as witnesses, Zimmerman releases Rabouin from his handcuffs.

Rabouin submitted an internal complaint, claiming that a few weeks later, a Phoenix official called to inform him they found no evidence of police misconduct that day.

“As journalists, we don’t really want to be the story. We want to report the story,” Rabouin said, ABC15 reported. “I think it’s important to talk about. This is a department that’s under DOJ investigation for excessive force, under investigation for the way they operate and handle business, and despite that, they continue to operate this way.”

Tesla, EV rivals absorb costs after China pulls plug on subsidy

ELON MUSK  TESLA VS WARREN BUFFETS BYD

Thu, January 5, 2023 

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s decision to end a more than decade-long subsidy for electric vehicle purchases has forced automakers, including Tesla, to deepen discounts to maintain sales as demand eases in the world's largest market.

The government originally planned to phase out the support scheme for EV makers and battery suppliers by the end of 2020, but extended it until the end of December in response to the pandemic.

As China grapples with the upheaval of an upsurge in COVID-19 cases and its economy grows at the slowest pace in decades, Tesla, Xpeng and SAIC-GM-Wuling have opted to hold consumer prices flat in January.

The subsidy accounted for around 3% to 6% of the cost of the best-selling electric vehicles in China last year, a Reuters analysis found.

Other EV makers, including Tesla's larger rival BYD and SAIC-Volkswagen, have raised prices for some models but opted to absorb most of the cost of the subsidy, the Reuters tally showed.

The subsidy, paid to the automaker at the point of purchase, began in 2009 and was scaled back over time. It paid out nearly $15 billion to encourage EV purchases through 2021, according to an estimate by China Merchants Bank International.

As some consumers rushed to take advantage of the subsidy while there was time, BYD doubled its retail sales in China in December from a year earlier, while Tesla's retail sales in China fell by 42%.

J.P. Morgan said in a research note on Thursday, it expects "a transitional pain period," with January and February industry-wide sales of EVs and plug-ins in China down between 40% to 60% from year-end levels.

DYNASTIES AND DISCOUNTS

BYD raised prices on its best-selling EVs, named after Chinese dynasties.

Tesla, meanwhile, is defending its market share by selling the basic, rear-wheel drive Model Y for 288,900 yuan ($42,053.63) in China, unchanged from December.

It is also offering another 10,000 yuan in cash incentives and insurance rebates for buyers in January, which means it has effectively cut prices in China by up to 12% since early September, when that model was sold for 316,900 yuan.

Buyers of BYD's best-selling electric cars have to pay 2,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan more in January, depending on the model they choose, compared to those who placed the orders in 2022, posted prices show. That represents a price hike of between 2% and 3%.

China's Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in December it expected sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids to grow by 35% in 2023, accounting for a third of total vehicle sales.

But William Li, chief executive of automaker Nio, said it could take until May for China's EV market to begin to recover.

"It will take time for both the supply chain and consumer demand to recover," Li told reporters last month.

Russia taking of Ukraine nuclear plant a hit to clean energy future -Holtec


A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant outside Enerhodar

Thu, January 5, 2023 
By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of Holtec, a private U.S. nuclear power company working in Ukraine, said Russia's occupation the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is a serious hit to the future of clean energy.

Russia took over the plant, Europe's biggest, soon after its Feb. 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The plant has suffered shelling and cut power lines during the war, raising concerns of a nuclear catastrophe. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the shelling.

Kris Singh, the chief executive of New Jersey-based Holtec International said in an open letter published on Thursday that Russia President Vladimir Putin's military occupation of the plant should be viewed as a "serious blow to humanity's clean energy future."

Singh said it has "normalized a new horrendous instrument of war".

Nuclear power backers, including the Biden administration, say the electricity source is critical to fight climate change, because it generates virtually emissions-free power. Nuclear's critics say it's too costly and building new plants is too time-consuming to do much to curb climate change, though some acknowledge that current reactors should keep running if they operate safely.

In Ukraine, Holtec works on storage of spent nuclear fuel and wants to build next-generation small modular reactors there.

Russia's war in Ukraine and the taking of Zaporizhzhia could be costly for its international nuclear business. Last year a Finnish-led consortium scrapped a contract for Russia's state-owned Rosatom to build a nuclear power plant in Finland, citing delays and increased risks due to the war in Ukraine.

The Hanhikivi 1 project would have increased Finland's dependency on Russia for its energy.

Singh urged the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to call on its member states to agree resolutions that make attempts to interfere with peaceful generation of nuclear power "punishable by expulsion of the aggressor state."

The IAEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.