Welcome to Cheddars news wrap it is thursday March 10th 2022 I'm ken,
buffalo new york city, Hannah has a night off, but I am glad you're here with me.
So, coming up the house passes a $1.5 trillion spending plan
will explain what made the cut and what
did not also an expiring condition of federal covid
aid could leave millions of Children hungry And a bit
later while top diplomats meet to discuss the Ukraine crisis,
we're taking a look at the situation on the ground as Russia keeps on its attacks.
That's all ahead here on Cheddars news wrap all right.
First up politics, the latest on the war in Ukraine.
The first high level diplomatic talks with representatives
from both sides took place today in Turkey
and Putin has ramped up the Russian misinformation campaign
as this military makes incremental gains. So Megan tell us more about this.
Absolutely Kent.
Now look, we know that these high level talks,
these are a big deal because this brings people from both Ukraine and
Russia at a high level official designation to the table in Turkey.
But unsurprisingly not a whole lot came out of those talks,
especially in the incredibly crucial areas of humanitarian corridors,
right safe passage for civilians.
We know that these civilian passageways that were
previously thought to be safe have been proven not to be that many
of those have received shelling and we know that there have been major,
major attacks on such population centers and major human sort
of cost areas as hospitals including one particular Children's hospital
in Mariupol in the southern part of the country
right there along the coast of the Black Sea.
This is particularly notable because we are going to talk a little bit
today about misinformation and disinformation and how
that's working for the Russian government.
You see here images of that hospital landscape after that shelling,
just so we're very clear this is a bombing that was sort of placed the blame for
the bombing was placed on the Russian military as
they are the aggressors in this particular conflict.
And Russia has said that they have nothing to do with it.
That in fact Ukraine bombed its own hospital.
Oh, and by the way, ken if they had bombed the hospital,
they only would have done so because it was
completely overrun with militants and there were no civilians
present.
We know that more than a dozen people were injured, three of those have since died.
So the situation is really, really dire
another area where you're seeing this type of misinformation,
not just an individual sort of attack narratives,
but also in sort of the bigger picture narrative,
Russia has told its citizens and it has been parodied by their friends in china,
that the US is using Ukraine as a biological warfare laboratory,
essentially this is something that US has warned is going
to be an opportunity for Russia by repeating this falsehood
to then launch a chemical or biological weapons attack
on Ukraine as sort of a preemptive strike.
This is something that will sort of generate them support within their country.
The regular sort of rank and file of Russia have yet to turn on their government.
And this is one of the ways that Putin and
his government are trying to keep that from happening,
ken this type of disinformation is not new.
What is particularly knew about it is we haven't seen it used in this
kind of high profile war conflict with the access to information that people have
particularly in europe before. And this is really I think startling, right?
We've seen it in elections. We've seen it in sort of times of peace. If you will.
We have not seen it in this way before.
And it does go to show the impact that hearing from your government.
Something that is or is not true can make a huge difference. Can
now turning to here at home. The House of Representatives
passed a long term budget deal but it is missing a key biden priority
Covid relief. So how will that impact the White House's plan to stop Covid?
If you ask the White House, their plan to stop Covid is basically D. O. A. It is
dead in the water. They cannot do anything else to stop the spread of Covid.
They're completely tapped out of money.
The $15 billion that was allocated as something that the by
administration has been asking for for actually quite some time they spent
a lot of money on those rapid tests and all of
the testing centers that were needed during that massive omicron surge.
Well, a lot of those testing needs have diminished.
But also all the money has run out. Right.
So there isn't going to be according to the White House,
the scale and scope of testing available tests will take
longer to process because the federal government will not be able
to sort of subsidize a lot of that testing.
That's something that the by administration warns could have a real impact,
especially because they're planning to take $7 billion that was
allocated for states previously to cover these areas of concern.
This is also key as
the CDC has said that they would like to see everyone over the age of five,
fully vaccinated for Covid 19.
We know that vaccinations and Children under the age of 12
have been slow in Children over the age of 12,
12 to 16 or so have also been slower than their adult counterparts.
So
if there's no money to vaccinate these people, it's going to make it a lot harder
to roll out that vaccine effort.
Plus this is happening as a lot of places are taken off
the masks right there trying to get back to life as usual.
So Covid is not gone.
And I think that's what the government is warning that being said,
we are taking off the masks, right?
And that's the argument that republicans are making certainly can.
Covid is not as big of a threat as it's been before.
And so we need to stop throwing money at it as though we're going to
continue to be able to sort of spend our way out of the problem.
Lots of finger pointing back and forth.
But I will say speaker of the house nancy Pelosi,
she is prepared to bring forth a covid funding bill separate from this.
Omnibus funding kin
interesting now, meanwhile, in florida,
the republican controlled government has established a new police force.
But voting rights advocates are saying that the new
force could have a scary effect on election.
So what does this new police force do?
You kind of alluded to it there? But it's probably not what you're expecting.
This is the election police.
These are the people who are going to
patrol election facilities in the 2022 elections both
primary,
which Florida has coming up later this year and then general on November eight.
And they will make sure that the laws that were enacted
by the Florida legislature and signed by florida's republican governor,
Rhonda Santis are being put into effect appropriately,
that there's a limit on who's allowed in polling stations,
that the hours of polling stations are being observed, that people are showing I.
D that no one is trying to vote twice.
This is also about optics ken,
we know that republicans in particular continue to discuss the
election as though it was a massive sort of concerted effort
to steal democracy from the american people when we know
demonstrably and with facts that that is not the case.
But facts as we say,
sometimes don't care about your feelings and people feel
like this election was fraudulent when it was not.
And so republicans have really capitalized on that feeling within their,
within their constituency and they have enacted these Election measures.
So this is a $3 million dollar initiative.
So it's a lot of money right to put these law
enforcement officials in place with the power of law enforcement.
So they're able to make arrests and detainments
to basically make elections safer, whether that's necessary or not,
it's kind of a matter of opinion.
But I will remind you can before I let you go
That the 2020 election was according to officials who are Republicans, Democrats,
independents. Everything in between up and down the coast across the country agree
that 2020 was the safest and most secure election in American history.
So keep that in mind as we talk about some of these elections
stories that will definitely ramp up in this incredibly important election year.
Yeah, facts are a stubborn thing. Megan prats in Washington.
Thank you as always for that report.
Now air travelers can't say goodbye to masks just yet. The U. S.
Is extending its airline mask mandate until april 18th.
The federal mandate,
which also apply to trains and other forms of public
transportation were originally set to expire on March 19th.
The CDC says it will use the extra month
to work with government agencies to decide when and where
masks should be worn when it comes to public transportation. In the future,
the CDC has recently updated away.
It measures covid risk focusing instead on factors
like hospitalizations rather than overall positive cases.
And Moderna's hybrid booster shot trial is underway
with the first participant dosed in phase two,
which targets the omicron variant.
The study will involve about 375 adults who have received both initial
Moderna doses and the Moderna booster at least three months ago.
The omicron cases have recently been plummeting across the country,
but some health experts are debating whether we
will need a second booster in the future.
Fizer
is also studying a hybrid vaccine
and you may have already noticed it at checkout or at
least anywhere you go where you have to protect your wallet.
But prices continue to jump for goods
as inflation hits its highest level and wait for it.
40 years,
40
The government is reporting today that the consumer
price index rose almost 8% last month.
That's up from January's annual pace of 7.5%.
So inflation has now reached new 40 year highs for four months in a row
and for most Americans it's running far ahead of the pay raises received last year.
Soon it will become harder to afford basic necessities like, you know, food
gas, rent,
Gas prices have already reached a record high of $4.32 per gallon today.
And it all depends on where you are because near me, it's like 489.
All right. Put some good news here. Baseball fans, it's for you.
Major League Baseball and the players association have reached a new labor deal,
putting an end to the 99 day lockout.
The deal puts an end to the second longest work stoppage in the game's history.
After months of negotiations.
Now,
spring training could begin as early as tomorrow
And opening day is set for April seven,
a little more than a week behind the original date
Of March 31.