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Friday 08.06.21

A venomous West African banded cobra has been missing in a Texas neighborhood since Tuesday. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On With Your Day.
 

By Dominic Rech

A health care worker holds Covid-19 swab tests at a drive-thru testing site this week in Houston. 

Coronavirus

Fully vaccinated people who get Covid-19 can transmit the virus, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. Vaccines "continue to work well for Delta, with regard to severe illness and death -- they prevent it," she told CNN. "But what they can't do anymore is prevent transmission." Experts have warned that while breakthrough infections of vaccinated people are expected, it is the unvaccinated who are most at risk. "The unvaccinated continue to be the big highway of transmission," Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center said. Meanwhile, the tit-for-tat and search into the origins of the pandemic continue. No smoking gun has emerged to support any lab leak theory, and many scientists continue to believe the virus is more likely to have jumped naturally from animals to humans. 

Climate

President Biden unveiled another piece of his administration's plan to fight the climate crisis, announcing a new target that half of vehicles sold in the US by 2030 will be battery electric, fuel-cell electric or plug-in hybrid. Biden said the future of American car manufacturing "is electric and there's no turning back." While reps of Ford, GM and Stellantis joined Biden at the White House for the announcement, Tesla was snubbed. The news comes as the climate crisis makes destructive wildfires increasingly common. The Dixie wildfire just wiped out much of the Greenville community in Northern California. Meantime, the coming months could be a wild ride for many if NOAA's fresh prediction of a more active Atlantic hurricane season proves true.

Capitol riot

Biden signed a bill to award Congressional Gold Medals to the police forces that responded to the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6. The award is Congress' "highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions." Twenty-one House Republicans voted against awarding the medals. Biden thanked the officers  "for protecting our Capitol, and maybe more importantly, for protecting our Constitution, and saving the lives of duly elected members of the Senate, in the House, and our staffs." The awards come as we continue to learn the full picture of ex-President Trump's lies and further details about his pernicious efforts to poison the US political system from within, writes CNN's Zachary B. Wolf. 

Myanmar 

A Myanmar militia force fighting the army in a central part of the country has found at least 40 bodies in jungle areas in recent weeks, including some showing signs of torture, said a militia member and Myanmar's UN envoy. Since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, hundreds have been killed as the army violently quelled protests. The bodies were found in several locations around the town of Kani, which has seen fierce fighting in recent months between the army and the militia groups set up by opponents of military rule. Myanmar's UN envoy, who represents the elected civilian government, described the incidents as "clearly amounting to crimes against humanity." 

Soccer 

It's been a whirlwind few days in the world of soccer. British police have arrested 11 people across the UK in connection with episodes of racist abuse of England football players on social media following the team's Euro 2020 final loss. The barrage was aimed at England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after they missed penalties in the shootout against Italy. Meanwhile, one of the greatest players ever, Lionel Messi, is leaving Barcelona "because of financial and structural obstacles," the club said. And English Premier League champion Manchester City completed the signing of England international Jack Grealish on a six-year contract. British media outlets have reported that City had made an offer worth $139 million.

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Expensive whiskey goes missing 
A $5,800 bottle of Japanese whiskey that was given to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has gone missing, agency filings say. 

Cave lion cub found frozen in Siberia is 28,000 years old
The cat is "probably the best preserved Ice Age animal ever found." Even its whiskers are intact. 

Viewers baffled by Olympic divers 
Taking a shower between dives? Are they not already wet?! However, there is method to the (perceived) madness. 

Virgin Galactic reopens ticket sales 
It will cost you $450,000 per seat. 

Olympics update

The International Olympic Committee has revoked the accreditation of two Belarusian coaches allegedly involved in trying to force sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya to return home against her will. The Olympic body said it decided to remove the coaches to safeguard "the wellbeing of the athletes of the NOC of Belarus who are still in Tokyo and as a provisional measure."

17,000

That's about how many artifacts the US has returned to Iraq this year, the country's foreign minister said. The items, some that date back 4,000 years, include statues and carvings from ancient Mesopotamia. It is the largest ever repatriation of artifacts to Iraq, which has seen huge swathes of its cultural heritage looted and sold since the US invasion in 2003.

 There would have been a totally different outcome if there had been 14 Black teenagers (playing that day) and a White teen had died.

Dorothea Jones is codirector of the Monitoring Group, an anti-racism charity whose leader has called the death of Christopher Kapessa, a 13-year-old Black boy, a homicide. Police and prosecutors in Wales have been accused of apathy after Christopher was pushed into a river and drowned in 2019.

BTS answers the web's most searched questions
K-pop superstars BTS answer the internet's most searched questions about themselves. (And yes, they do eat McDonald's.) (Click here to view.)