Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Monday, August 9, 2021:
'CODE RED FOR HUMANITY'
The Earth’s climate is probably going to blow past the level of warming that scientists had hoped to prevent sometime in the 2030s, according to a landmark climate report from the UN. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, based on 14,000 scientific studies and approved by 195 countries, found that the planet has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius in the last century and a half and 1.5C of warming is already locked in, even if the world’s top polluters started drastically cutting emissions right now. Humanity can still prevent the worst-case scenarios if countries are able to stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2050. NY TIMES
THE TORCH PASSES
The strange 2020 Tokyo Olympics are in the books, and the 2024 Paris Games are just 1,088 days away. The Games ended pretty much as they started, inside a nearly empty stadium that served as a reminder of the pandemic raging outside. Still, these Olympics can be considered a success if for no other reason than they didn’t appear to serve as a superspreader event. If your Olympic fever is still going strong, the Beijing Winter Games are less than six months away. NBC NEWS
OLYMPIC HERSTORY
For the seventh Olympics in a row, Team USA came out on top in the medal count, with 39 golds and 113 overall. China was second with 38 and 88, respectively. U.S. women dominated the podium this year, bringing home 66 medals or 58.4 percent of the country's total haul -- including golds in track cycling, basketball and indoor volleyball on the last day of competition. Team USA’s biggest disappointment was the men’s track team, which leaves Tokyo without a single solo gold for the first time in modern history. USA TODAY
DELTA LATEST
U.S. COVID deaths are back above 500 a day for the first time in months as the Delta wave shows no signs of peaking yet. Pediatric hospitals in Florida are reporting shortages of ICU beds. Austin, Tex. activated its emergency alert system to warn that the situation has turned “dire,” with six ICU beds left for a city of 2.4 million people. Dr. Fauci says he is hopeful the FDA will grant full approval to at least one of the vaccines by the end of the month, which he expects will spur a wave of vaccine mandates at businesses and schools. AXIOS
WILDFIRES
U.S.: The Dixie Fire is now the second-biggest in California history, closing in on 500,000 acres burned and counting. The conditions on the ground are not expected to improve anytime soon. The smoke from the 107 fires burning across 15 states led to an air-quality reading in Denver of 167 over the weekend, making it the worst of any major city in the world. CNN
GREECE: Wildfires have been raging out of control in Greece for a week, forcing residents from their homes and leading to the evacuation of the entire island of Evia. The fires are so intense that they’re causing the water from hoses and airplanes to evaporate before reaching the inferno. The heat wave broiling southern Europe is expected to be the worst in decades. AFP
TALIBAN OFFENSIVE
Afghanistan is now firmly in the process of falling to the Taliban after the militant group seized a handful of northern provincial capital cities over the weekend, including the strategic hub of Kunduz on Sunday. The U.S. military withdrawal is more or less complete, but American warplanes are still conducting airstrikes in support of the Afghan government. Those are set to end on Aug. 31 on President Biden’s orders. AL JAZEERA
IN MEMORIAM: BOBBY BOWDEN
Bobby Bowden, the legendary college football coach who turned FSU into a powerhouse on the gridiron, died over the weekend. He was 91. Bowden transformed Florida State into one of the most dominant teams of the 1990s with nine straight conference titles and a pair of national championships. He was the second-winningest coach in NCAA history with 357 wins, behind the late Joe Paterno. OBIT
JAZZ FEST CALLED
New Orleans’ famous Jazz Fest has been cancelled again, and will now take place next spring. The event was called off last year, then bumped to the fall this year, and will revert to its normal spring slot in 2022 after missing two years. Louisiana is the fifth-least vaccinated state and is currently leading the country in terms of new COVID cases. NOLA.COM
SPOTTED...
…Former President Barack Obama, dancing at his "downsized" 60th birthday bash in Martha’s Vineyard. Attendees included John Legend, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Gayle King, Bradley Cooper and Tom Hanks: SEE PICS
LEFTOVERS: O.J. ON L.A.
O.J. Simpson says he won’t ever return to Los Angeles because he fears he could run into the people who killed his ex-wife. In a typically tone deaf interview with The Athletic, Simpson said: “I have trouble with L.A...I might be sitting next to whoever did it. I really don’t know who did this.” The disgraced former football player also revealed that he had a severe case of COVID last year and he thought he may die. He didn’t, and remains in Las Vegas where lives off his SAG and NFL pensions and plays golf “four or five times a week.” PFT
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