Accusations are flying between U.S. and Chinese officials over how each country is handling the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Wednesday that the Chinese Communist Party has a "responsibility to tell the world how this pandemic got out of China and all across the world, causing such global economic devastation.”
The comments came after China Central Television's top evening news program questioned the accuracy of U.S. data tracking of COVID-19 infections, singling out Pompeo for “turning himself into the common enemy of mankind.”
Underlying the heated exchange is an effort by the U.S. State Department to better understand the origins of the outbreak in Wuhan.
"It's not even about the blame game," Morgan Ortagus, a spokesperson for the department, told Cheddar. "It's about us not being able to answer fundamental questions about this pandemic."
She said the agency is focused on "making sure the world has the data and the transparency that it needs, not only from the Chinese Communist Party but also from Iran, North Korea, other places."
Specifically, the department wants to confirm China's claim that the virus originated in a Wuhan wet market by sending in independent scientists to assess the data. Ortagus compared the process to the common practice of getting studies peer-reviewed by a credible source.
"It doesn't matter if it's Americans, by the way," Ortagus said. "We're happy if it's Germans, or French, or British scientists that want to go in, but no one is being allowed to go into Wuhan to investigate."
Other global leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, have called on China to allow an international investigation into the source of coronavirus.
In addition, the State Department is doing a 60 to 90-day review of the World Health Organization to determine "what information they have and don't have," she said.
"Everything that we're doing right now boils down to this: how do we prevent a pandemic of this scale from ever happening again?" Ortagus said. "We know that we can't answer that question until we get the live virus samples, until we have independent, credible scientists and doctors who are able to go into the Wuhan, into the wet markets, into the laboratories, to understand what caused this pandemic."
U.S. intelligence agencies also revealed that they are following up on speculation amplified by the White House that the pandemic may have spread from a lab accident in Wuhan, while also acknowledging that the virus appeared "not manmade or genetically modified."
After the Chicago teachers union voted to work remotely due to what they say is a lack of safety protocols amid the COVID-19 surge, the school system canceled classes on Wednesday, citing harm that remote learning has done to the city's children. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined Cheddar to discuss the issues surrounding the latest dispute between educators and schools. She said that the return to in-person learning would likely be halted until more COVID tests could be provided for districts. "This is a terrible situation for everybody, and we need the testing, and we need the masks," she said. "It's the omicron surge that has created this disruption, and we are trying to do the best we can. And this is the only school district that has this kind of action right now." The teachers might not be returning to their schools for at least two weeks amid the ongoing tensions.
Illinois State Senator Robert Martwick joins Cheddar News to discuss the new bill he co-sponsored allowing students in the state to take 5 mental health days without a doctor's note.
On Monday, President Biden announced his new plan to take on inflation by taking down the big meat monopolies - turning to the federal government's antitrust authorities to investigate the major meatpackers that control a significant share of the market. The White House plans to devote one billion dollars to aiding independent meat and poultry producers in an effort to undercut the few powerful meat producers that have control of the sector. Austin Frerick, deputy director of Thurman Arnold Project at Yale, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
As the pandemic drags on, so does the widespread great resignation. In November alone, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, marking a new record high, and showing a 9 percent jump from the month prior. On the flip side, the number of people filing tax paperwork to start new businesses is surging, with over 430,000 new businesses launching in November. Rhett Buttle, the founder of Public Private Strategies and national business advisor to the Biden for President campaign, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up a civil investigation into The Trump Organization. The AG's office has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. They have refused to comply with the subpoenas. Bradley Moss, national security attorney, joins Cheddar News to discuss the next steps in this investigation.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has officially reduced the 110-year prison sentence of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to 10 years, calling the initial lengthy sentence “unjust.” Dan Gilleon, constitutional attorney at Gilleon Law Firm APC, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was sworn in as the newest Mayor of New York City. Adams is now expected to work on a number of issues such as crime and coronavirus. Erin Durkin,, reporter at PoliticoNY, joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
California's new composting law will affect what residents do in their kitchens. As of this week, Californians will have to recycle excess food in an effort to reduce emissions caused by food waste. Cities and counties will turn recycled food into compost or use it as a renewable energy source. California's new law is the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the country. Rachel Wagoner, Director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery called the law 'the biggest change to trash' since recycling started in the 1980s. She joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
As the U.S. comes up on the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.,A.C. Thompson, investigative reporter at ProPublica, joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to discuss updates to American Insurrection by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. The documentary investigates the attack on the Capitol touched off by the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump but with new information gleaned since the event including interviews with lawmakers and law enforcement and the evolution of groups like the Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys behind the attack. "In some ways those groups that were kind of the vanguard of January 6 are maybe no longer relevant because their message is everywhere," he said.
