Recap 8/27/2020

1. Our food supply is under all out attack. WA and MI have followed CA in mandating COVID-19 testing for farmworkers, which, as we have seen in Ontario, presages their shutting down farms where workers test positive.

2. Premier Daniel Andrews has announced Victoria’s state of emergency will be extended for 12 months beyond the scheduled September 13 finish date. Mr Andrews said a decision was yet to be made as to when the Victorian Parliament would sit to pass the bill but it would be made “available at the appropriate time”. He said they had to assume a vaccine would not be available before next year and had to correspondingly extend the lockdown measures beyond the normal six-month legal limit.

3. Hurricane Laura makes landfall in Lake Charles, Louisiana. US President Donald Trump: "Hurricane Laura is a very dangerous and rapidly intensifying hurricane. My Administration remains fully engaged with state & local emergency managers to continue preparing and assisting the great people Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Listen to local officials. We are with you!"

4. There is a chemical fire in the Westlake/Moss Bluff/Sulphur area. Residents are advised to shelter in place until further notice and close your doors and windows. Follow the directions of local officials. If you are in the Westlake/Moss Bluff/Sulphur area, shelter in place, close your windows and doors and TURN OFF YOUR AIR CONDITIONING UNITS. There is a chemical fire. Stay inside and wait for additional direction from local officials.

5. Structural biology reveals new target to neutralize COVID-19. An international team of researchers have discovered a new and highly conserved site on the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can be neutralized by a specific antibody.

6. Christchurch gunman Brenton Tarrant has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole for the mass murder of 51 people at two city mosques in March of 2019. It’s the longest prison sentence handed out in New Zealand’s legal history, and a penalty never before used in the country.

7. Turkey blocks NATO over UN arms embargo against Libya. The NATO member state Turkey is blocking a decision by the military alliance to support the EU Sea-Guardian mission. This is not by chance, because the EU mission is supposed to control the UN arms.

8. Greece and its EU allies held war games in the Mediterranean on Wednesday while Turkey conducted drills with the US navy nearby. Tensions rose further on Thursday when Turkey announced it was extending its mission for an extra five days. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he was “personally regularly in contact with Ankara and Athens.” After failed shuttle diplomacy, Berlin, late on Wednesday, criticized the naval exercises as “not helpful.”

9. 50-meter yacht Lady MM, worth several hundred million dollars, burned and sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sardinia. Coast Guard rescued 17 people from the ship, 8 tourists from Kazakhstan and 9 crew members.

10. The US State Department has decided to approve the possible sale of 32 upgraded AIM-120C-8 (AMRAAM) missiles to Japan, worth an estimated $63 million.

11. Former Navy TOPGUN instructor says the AI that defeated a human pilot in a simulated dogfight would have “crashed and burned” in the real world. However, he added that a dogfighting AI-driven aircraft may be here "sooner than we ever imagined."

12. US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Bigan left Kiev, where he had discussed the situation in Donbass and events in Belarus with Ukrainian President Zelensky. The parties agreed on the need for a peaceful settlement of the situation.