TV News LIES

China is now facing what is likely the world's largest COVID surge of the pandemic. China's public health officials say that possibly 800 million people could be infected with the coronavirus over the next few months. And several models predict that a half million people could die, possibly more.

"Recently, the deputy director of China CDC, Xiaofeng Liang, who' s a good friend of mine, was announcing through the public media that the first COVID wave may, in fact, infect around 60% of the population," says Xi Chen, who's a global health researcher at Yale University and an expert on China's health-care system.

That means about 10% of the planet's population may become infected over the course of the next 90 days.

Epidemiologist Ben Cowling agrees with this prediction. "This surge is going to come very fast, unfortunately. That's the worst thing," says Cowling, who's at the University of Hong Kong. "If it was slower, China would have time to prepare. But this is so fast. In Beijing, there's already a load of cases and [in] other major cities because it's spreading so fast.

More...

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been charged with fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the US and violate campaign finance laws.

The eight criminal charges filed by the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York on Tuesday follow civil charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accusing the 30-year-old former billionaire of defrauding investors by building a company that was a “house of cards”.

“This is one of the biggest financial frauds in American history,” said Damian Williams, United States attorney for the southern district of New York. He said that while only Bankman-Fried had been charged so far: “We are not done.”

On Monday, police in the Bahamas arrested Bankman-Fried after receiving formal notification from the US of criminal charges against him.

More...

A Qatari photojournalist covering the World Cup in Qatar has died, according to local reports, bringing the number of journalist fatalities at the contest to two, following the death of US sports journalist Grant Wahl last Friday.

English-language Qatari news service Gulf News reported on Saturday the death of Khalid al-Misslam, citing the Qatari TV news outlet he worked for, Al Kass TV.

Few detail, such as when and how al-Misslam died, have been released, and Qatar's Ministry of Health was unavailable for comment when contacted at time of publication.

According to Gulf News, al-Misslam died "suddenly while covering the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022."

More...

Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a pioneering Black feminist, child welfare advocate and lifelong community activist who toured the country speaking with Gloria Steinem in the 1970s and appears with her in one of the most iconic photos of the second-wave feminist movement, has died. She was 84.

The US Senate has passed the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation to protect same-sex unions that Democrats are hurrying to get to Joe Biden to be signed into law before Republicans take over the House next year.

The House must now pass the bill, a step the majority leader, Steny Hoyer, said could come as soon as Tuesday 6 December. Nearly 50 House Republicans supported the measure earlier this year. In the Senate, support from 12 Republicans was enough to override the filibuster and advance the bill to Tuesday’s majority vote, which ended 61-36.

Although the Respect for Marriage Act would not codify Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 supreme court decision which made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, it would require states to recognise all marriages that were legal when performed, including in other states. Interracial marriages would also be protected, with states required to recognise legal marriage regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin”.

More...

When Brown University's baseball season starts in February, one of the players taking the field will make history. Olivia Pichardo, a first-year student from Queens, N.Y., will be first woman on the roster of a Division I college baseball team in the U.S.

"It's kind of crazy to know that I'm living out my dream right now and my ideal college experience that I've always wanted, so that's really cool," Pichardo said in a media release. She said being named to the team is surreal, as it has been her goal since eighth grade to continue playing baseball in college.

Pichardo walked on to Brown's team following tryouts and a grueling assessment process – during which she immediately impressed the head coach, demonstrating her abilities as an infielder, outfielder and pitcher.

"It's a workout common for baseball and allows us to evaluate athleticism and arm strength, as well as both offensive and defensive skills," said Brown baseball head coach Grant Achilles. "Olivia put together the most complete walk-on tryout I have seen from a player since becoming a head coach."

More...

Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched Feb. 24, will pass the nine-month mark this week. Areas of control in Ukraine mapped out by security analysts continue to shift. After Russia pulled out of Kherson this month, analysts say Russian forces may ramp up their operations elsewhere, in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Monday is the anniversary of the start of Ukraine's Euromaidan protests in 2013, sparked by the government backing out of a deal with the European Union. Now Ukraine is on a path toward EU membership.

On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd, China's Defense Minister Wei Fenghe and a host of other countries' defense chiefs are due to participate in a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

On Thursday, Ukraine's finance minister is scheduled to speak at the London School of Economics and outline the country's path to recovery.

More...

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Saturday strenuously denied any involvement in leaking the outcome of a 2014 ruling in a lengthy statement issued in response to a New York Times report.

The Times story said that former anti-abortion campaigner Rev. Rob Schenck found out about the outcome of the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby ruling before the decision was issued in June 2014. The 5-4 ruling in a case closely watched by conservatives allowed privately-held companies to object on religious grounds to a provision of the Obamacare law that requires employers to provide health insurance that includes contraception coverage.

Schenck told the Times that he learned about the outcome soon after a couple he knew had dinner with Alito, who authored the Hobby Lobby ruling, and his wife, Martha-Ann.

More...