Navy SEALS Missing in Iran Proxy Conflict, China Makes A More Deadly COVID--On Purpose, Why Iowa Primary's Real Story is the Youth Vote (The Five for 01/17/24)
Plus, EV adoption is plummeting...and the media calls a primary way too soon.
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[one]
Two American serviceman are presumed dead after a conflict with Iranian proxy forces.
American military personnel recovered Iranian-made missile warheads and related components during a ship-boarding mission near Somalia last week that disrupted the weapons resupply of militants in Yemen but left two elite Navy SEALs lost at sea, U.S. defense officials said.
A massive search-and-rescue operation is ongoing in the Arabian Sea, where the incident occurred Thursday. The SEALs moved to board the vessel, described by officials as a dhow, a type of trading vessel sometimes used by smugglers to carry illicit weapons. The dhow lacked proper identification, raising suspicions that it was smuggling arms.
As rescue operations began, other troops carried out a search of the boat, which had a crew of 14, according to a Tuesday statement issued by U.S. Central Command. The statement draws a direct link to the weapons’ seizure and more than two dozen militant attacks emanating from Yemen since November, a spate of violence that has significantly disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea and prompted an aggressive response from the United States and other nations.
I’m no foreign policy expert…but it’s hard to imagine that we’re less likely to stumble into a war with Iran now that we’ve incurred the (presumed) deaths of two of America’s elite warriors.
Iran’s Houthi rebels, out of Yemen, continue to attack unarmed cargo ships in the Red Sea, a shipping lane that 12% of the world’s goods pass through. If this shipping route is shut down, we can expect to see the cost of some goods rise dramatically.
[two]
The Iowa Caucus (essentially) began and ended the GOP primary race, with Vivek Ramaswamy dropping out and Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis dramatically underperforming.
However, how quickly the race was called for Trump leaves some big questions about the media coverage.
Media outlets are defending their decisions to call the Iowa caucuses for former President Trump a little more than a half-hour after caucusing began — and while before the caucuses concluded.
The Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News all called the race at 8:31 p.m., citing projections from exit polling and early voting totals in a handful of precincts across the state.
The projections were the earliest in some time for the Iowa caucuses, and they immediately triggered criticism from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign.
“It is absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote,” said Andrew Romeo, a representative for DeSantis, late Monday night. “The media is in the tank for Trump, and this is the most egregious example yet.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper remarked live on air that it was the earliest he could remember the network making a race call.
CNN told The Hill it had enough information from entrance polls to make a projection as early as 8 p.m., once it was clear the race was going to have an overwhelming winner.
The AP said it does not declare a winner in traditional primaries until the last polls are scheduled to close in the contest.
But the Iowa caucuses are different, the AP explained, noting there is no fixed time when all voting ends and some caucus sites might complete their business in a few minutes, while others can take longer to determine the outcome.
On one hand, Trump was going to win this thing no matter what. On the other…it is bad journalism, and a practice that could sway the outcome of a closer election.
[three]
One more story out of Iowas that matters…Vivek Ramaswamy, a Conservative, Millennial, vegan CEO (crazy to think all those descriptors go together for one person) rallied an impressive number of 18-30-year-old voters.
On the eve of the caucus, famous YouTuber turned professional boxer Jake Paul was set to fly into Iowa in an effort to rally young caucus-goers. But because of the weather, a spokesperson told WIRED, Paul was unable to fly out. So instead of stumping for Ramaswamy in-person, the pair held a joint Instagram livestream Sunday evening, leveraging Paul’s more than 25 million followers on the platform.
“There’s a bigger purpose than being cold sometimes, and that’s what I think about in the ice bath every morning,” Paul said on the livestream, trying to convince voters to go outside.
Paul had already endorsed Ramaswamy, or at least appeared to, in a video posted to Paul’s TikTok account in September. In the video, the pair jerk from side to side to the underlying music, with the caption, “How come more politicians don’t connect with the younger generation with social media posts?” After the video went up, Ramaswamy attended at least one of Paul’s boxing matches where he sat front row—another opportunity for content.
“Super proud of Vivek for taking the political world by storm and shaking up the broken system,” Paul wrote on X shortly after Ramaswamy suspended his campaign. “As the youngest and sharpest out there, I know this is just the start of his story.”
But influencers can only do so much. After failing to qualify for the last debate ahead of the caucus, Ramaswamy streamed with Tim Pool, the right-wing podcaster, for an hourslong conversation on his show, Timcast, while DeSantis and Haley took to the CNN debate stage. Their conversation has nearly one million views on YouTube.
Vivek’s internet-first campaign didn’t produce results this time, but it’s hard to imagine this won’t be the blueprint as Millennials and Gen-Z become a larger part of the voting block.
[four]
Insert facepalm emoji.
China is making more Coronaviruses. On purpose. This one could kill every infected person.
The Daily Mail reports:
Chinese scientists have been experimenting with a mutant coronavirus strain that is 100 percent lethal in mice — despite concerns such research could spark another pandemic.
Scientists in Beijing — who are linked to the Chinese military — cloned a Covid-like virus found in pangolins, known as GX_P2V, and used it to infect mice.
The mice had been 'humanized', meaning they were engineered to express a protein found in people, with the goal being to assess how the virus might react in humans.
The team were also surprised to find high levels of viral load in the mice's brains and eyes - suggesting the virus, despite being related to Covid, multiplies and spreads through the body in a unique way.
Writing in a scientific paper that has not yet been published, they warned the finding 'underscores a spillover risk of GX_P2V into humans'.
You know, maybe if we stopped screwing around with biology, we might have less pandemics that kill millions of people worldwide.
[five]
Electric vehicles hit an unfortunate PR moment in Chicago during the winter storm when Tesla’s stopped charging in Oak Brook, IL, which may have a factor as to why EV’s are dipping in popularity.
"Nothing. No juice. Still on zero percent," said Tyler Beard, who has been trying to recharge his Tesla at an Oak Brook Tesla supercharging station since Sunday afternoon. "And this is like three hours being out here after being out here three hours yesterday."
Beard was among the dozens of Tesla owners trying desperately to power up their cars at the Tesla supercharging station in Oak Brook. It was a scene mirrored with long lines and abandoned cars at scores of other charging stations around the Chicago area.
"This is crazy. It’s a disaster. Seriously," said Tesla owner Chalis Mizelle.
Mizelle was forced to abandon her car and get a ride from a friend when it wouldn’t charge.
Another man summed up the situation succinctly: "We got a bunch of dead robots out here."
To be fair, I have several friends with Tesla’s in Chiago…who drove as normal this week.
However, the local-turned-national story may have some influence on polls like this one from Rathmusen, who found significant apprehension in consumers for EV adoption.
Despite the hype around electric vehicles, fewer Americans expect their next auto purchase will be an EV.
‘The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 29% of American Adults say it’s likely that their next automobile purchase will be an electric car, including 10% who say it’s Very Likely. Sixty-five percent (65%) don’t think they’re likely to make an EV their next automobile purchase, including 37% who say it’s Not At All Likely. The number who expect to buy an EV is down from last April, when 40% said it was at least somewhat likely their next auto purchase would be an electric car. (To see survey question wording, click here.
It’s currently unclear as to what caused the dramatic drop in consumer confidence in EV’s, but a 10% drop in planned EV adoption is significant.
Until the next one,
-sth