answers live on abc seven. we ask questions everyday at 3:00 to get answers in real time. breaking news justin, elon musk is backing out of his $44 billion deal to buy twitter. in a filing this afternoon, the team claims twitter was in material breach of their agreement and had made false and misleading statements during negotiations. ceo struck the deal to buy the social media giant back in april. in may, he declared it was on

hold while he looked into twitter's accounting of how many users are not real people but automated lots -- bots. the two sides had been sharing information but there were hints for those watching closely that musk was sending the signal that he might want to back out. in the meantime, the world is reacting today over shock and sadness. over the assassination of prime minister shinzo abe. >> japan is a very stable ally and i do not believe it will have a destabilizing impact.

>> they say impacted the relationship and security of our nations. joining us is an expert in chinese and japanese history at cal state east bay. at dr. park, thank you for your time today. the killing of any world leader is shocking but why is it 100 times or 1000 times more so because it is japan? dr. park: the most striking aspect of this was that it was a gun killing that happens almost never in japan. the statistic that many news outlets are quoting is that last year there was only one gun death in all of japan. larry: -- >> unlike the u.s. that has gotten a little numb with many thousands each year, we are talking about counting on

two hands how much they have had since 2019 because who can get a gun in japan? you don't just buy one if you are a citizen. dr. park: the only way to get a gun in japan is if you are a hunter and you go through a twelve-step program, take a background check, take a safety class, the police come to your home to see how they are storing guns. and a doctor has to sign off on your physical and mental health. that is only if you want to be a hunter. 1 this alleged -- >> this alleged gunman may have made his. do we know anything about the motive? dr. park: as far as i am hearing, the motive is unclear. it was definitely named at him but not for political reasons.

the killer felt he was affiliated with an unnamed group that the killer disliked. but the investigation is continuing and i think we will be finding more in the days to come. >> it is puzzling because abe wasn't even prime minister anymore. he was stumping on behalf of another candidate of his party. i want to talk about his legacy on the world stage. we all called him shinzo abe in the west, but in 2019, the japanese government requested a change flipping the order of the given name and the surname not just for him but all japanese officials. give us the superquick 15-second version of why. dr. park: abe is the family name and she and so is his given name. -- shinzo is his given name. it is a sense of creating a japanese way of saying things.

unlike english speakers that put the family name second, the japanese put it first and i think he wanted to uphold japanese traditions. >> you mentioned ultra nationalism. we tend to have one meaning that we assigned to it but in this case in japan, what does that mean? dr. park: nationalism in japan is a type of patriotism but often associated with world war ii. world war ii japan was a loser as we know after the dropping of the two bombs. after that, the americans came in with other allies and imposed constitution and demilitarization and democratization. some of the ultranationalist feel that japan should be more independent.

>> he wanted japan to have its own military, something banned under the constitution. did he get it? >> he did not. he was not able to revise the constitution. there were two main elements. one was that japan could never go to war. he did succeed being able to have a military that would participate in certain work with allies, sending the japanese to oversee combat missions. that was in the face of a lot of domestic pressure. >> something else that is controversial with regard to how other asian nations feel about it, and that is how he wanted

japan's role in world war ii presented or represented. talk about that. dr. park: that is also part of this ultranationalist trend that he had. many japanese wanted to move past their wartime legacy. they felt like it was time for japan to be treated as a nation among equals and not this former aggressor. and he stepped up patriotic education in japanese schools and what that sometimes meant was changing the textbooks to downplay the effects of japanese aggression. and as you can imagine, that riled the people of north and south korea and china and other places that have been the victims of japanese aggression. >> abe is gone but his party is

still there so what are the competing versions of japan that i am fighting or -- that they are fighting for? whoever wins out i imagine will impact us. >> it will impact us. even after he resigned which was on his own terms, he played the role of elder statesman. the men that replaced him with his former right hand man and a form -- oil supporter for decades. -- loyal supporter for decades. the people in power are still the people on the same wavelength as he is. he was not popular with all japanese, but i think that he did usher in a period of political stability and i think that will continue. as far as the future, the immediate future there will be the parliamentary elections scheduled for tomorrow and they will go forward. the current prime minister has

vowed to hold a free and fair election despite yesterday's tragedy. japan will continue in the short term the way it has. 1 th >> thank you for your insight. when a truck hit my car, the insurance company wasn't fair. i didn't know what my case was worth. so i called the barnes firm. i was hit by a car and needed help. i called the barnes firm, that was the best call i could've made. i'm rich barnes.

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>> we get a chance to talk with dr. bob walker, ucsf chief of medicine. a lot has happened including the latest threat warning us that things are not looking so rosy with the a5. thanks for coming on. before we get into what is going on, how is your dear wonderful

wife? she was still battling long covid. what's going on. dr. walker: better. not perfect. she is still very tired at the end of a long day. but not absolutely physically exhausted. she is still a lot smarter than i am. >> but only a little bit. it was a bigger gap. you were so polite to wish everybody happy fourth of july but you did say i wish i had a happier analysis. ba.5 is yet another covid curveball. why is the news not so great? dr. walker: in the way that it is like what we have gotten used

to. every time you have a new form of omicron, it's a little bit more infectious than the last one. ba.5 is better at its job than the prior subvariants. it's also more infectious like the other ones, but better at evading immunity. and even the immunity from the infection you had a month or two ago doesn't account for nearly as much as it used to. we are seeing reinfection from people who have had recent infections in immunity from vaccines and boosters. so works quite well in terms of preventing you from getting super sick and dying. >> if it is really good at evading immunity and causing reinfection's, can we at least say hopefully these reinfection's are less serious and the symptoms are not as bad? that you're less likely to have long covid? dr. walker: no, can't say any of those things.

we can say that there's no evidence that it is more serious than the prior variants. we are seeing an increase in hospitalizations around the country and here at ucsf. but it's about at the same proportion as the increase in cases. it's about the same level of severity as the prior variant. we're still not seeing a ton of people in isu -- not a ton of people dying. we don't know anything about long covid. it's just too soon to see if the rate of long covid is different from prior variance. it appears to be a little bit lower than with prior viruses. >> i will take that as a sign of hope. i am hearing our test positivity is really high and that we're

pretty under tested? >> i think people may be fatigued and not paying that much attention. i have heard about a ton of friends and family who have been covid free for two and a half years and got a than the last couple of weeks. the number of cases. the one i love to use is the a symptom attic test positivity rate at ucsf, people coming in for heart surgery or hernia surgery. 7.5% are now testing positive. i would say one out of 13 or 14 or 15 people in san francisco who feel perfectly fine will come out positive. in a room with 50 people, it's almost a certainty that someone has covid in that room. when you look at the case counts

reported by the county, multiply that somewhere between five and 10 to get the true case count because of all the home testing. if you're going to indoor restaurants, crowded planes, and you're not wearing a good mask, you are going to come -- confront someone with covid and you will probably get it at some point. >> i take it you are masking indoors? dr. walker: i'm sitting by myself in the room in the hospital but yes. when i'm indoors with other people, i'm wearing a kn95. i'm dining but only outdoor dining. if i'm on an airplane or other public transit i'm wearing a good mask. there's too much covid around and i still don't want to get it. >> are we making the investment in better air? if these are going to keep on going for a while, we will be

living with covid and it seems like an investment that institutions should be making. >> if we knew that this is our life for the next several years, you would look at indoor spaces, workrooms, conference rooms, and you would be putting in much better ventilation for the kind you have on airplanes. i know some businesses are doing it but i don't think it's a major trend. i think it is something we should be spending more money and attention on. >> i am hearing in l.a. they are setting the stage and warning the people that the mask mandate could be making a comeback in a few weeks. talk about that. i think a lot of people wondered if that could happen here or if our situation is different? >> public health meets politics

and it's a tough one. i have been ok with no mandates for the last several months because the evidence that mandates work is not that great. there is some evidence they work and some evidence they don't work. you can kind of choose your own on paper to look at. it makes sense if hospitals like mine are getting overwhelmed. we have to do something to lower the amount of infection because we are just getting overwhelmed. today, we are not. at ucsf, we have 50 or 60 covid patients. at the height, we had 150. we've had 10 in the icu and things were really terrible. there were 50. if those numbers start getting huge, mandates are appropriate. for now, there is no mandate but i think you should be wearing a good mask when you go to a crowded indoor space. i don't think we've reached the point where we need mandates just yet.

>> if someone had covid two weeks to three weeks ago, are they protected from reinfection for a amount of time? dr. walker: i wish the answer was yes and two months ago i would have said yes but the problem is if you had an infection a couple weeks ago, there's a chance it was not ba.5 and ba.5 is not as respectful of the immunity from a prior infection as we have been used to. chances are lower than they would be otherwise. if you had a recent infection i think you're in pretty good shape but it is not a get out of jail free card anymore. there is a chance of reinfection one month after prior infection. >> my sister is fully vaccinated and still keeps catching it. it's not a question but some people go, that means i should not get the vaccine because it doesn't work anyway and other people say i should just keep getting the booster.

>> it's obviously confusing. we say the vaccines in the boosters don't work as well as they used to at preventing infection so people say maybe i don't need it. they work incredibly well at keeping you from needing to go to the hospital and dying. they are not the kind of protection against infection that they used to be. i am fully vaccinated with two boosters and i'm still very careful because i could still very easily get infected that i feel very good about the chances that i will get super sick and die is low because i have been vaccinated and boosted. the evidence that boosters help is tremendously strong. the evidence the second booster helps is tremendously strong. you should get one and you should get one today. not so much that it will prevent infection but because it will prevent you from having a really nasty infection.

>> people want the omicron specific and may be ba significant booster in the fall? dr. walker: i want that but i don't think it should get in the way of you getting a booster now. we're talking about a huge amount of covid in the air now. you're leaving yourself onerous for three or four months. if there is a really better booster that is available in the fall and you have gotten your second boost today, you will be able to get another booster in the fall if it turns out to be far better than the one now. >> always great talking with you. give our best to katie. dr. walker: nice to see you.

>> an inquiry is underway that will determine if money voters approved to go to schools

actually went to battle over controversial murals. an oversight committee think the answer is yes and says it has the receipts. joining us life is >> ridgeway -- rex ridgeway, from the bond oversight committee. there was an audit and tell us what the finding was. >> i am interim chair of the citizens bond oversight committee. not chair. i came into that after and simmers was appointed to the board of commissioners. i was the vice chair so now i am interim chair. just wanted to make the correction. the question is, again? >> what did the audit find and what was the finding with regard to prop a money and what did the board spend it on? >> the main issue was, did the

bond program department spend money to pay lawyers? and was it a proper use of prop eight money? the 2016 bond issued in 2016. and in 2020, 2019, the board of education voted to cover and remove warpaint over the murals at george washington high school. and when they did that, the alumni association sued to prevent that. to make a long story short, it was a two-year lawsuit that was finalized two months ago after the appeal and proposition a money that is specifically set aside for construction, rehabilitation, and money was used to pay the lawyers. we have the receipts.

i filed a freedom of information act with the california public records act. i received it back last friday as a matter of fact. and it showed $345,000 was paid to the plaintiff's lawyer out of prop a money. the freedom of information act request that they gave us was the actual cashiers check from bank of america showing the payment of 300 $45,000 as well as the voucher stating clearly it was prop a money. >> i think this is important. we did reach out to the board members who voted to approve this use of money and none have responded so far. in the past, the district has defended spending money this way with general counsel saying the mural is part of the school

building and caused psychological harm to students and prevents -- presents a health and safety risk and so therefore it is proper usage. is that where the argument is? >> yes. that is ridiculous. if you want to say health and safety of children inside the school, look at horace mann. the physical dangers and electrical problems there, the ceilings and what have you. we are talking about psychological harm which she is referring to, people walking past those murals. >> let's take the rest of this conversation over onto facebook live. live. we do have to take a short break

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opportunity. thank you so much. >> thinks are joining us on getting answers today, we wit. alright. it might wobble, but we can do it. let's not get cocky now, kate. oh, no, i won't. [ creaking ] oh, i see something cracking! remember, the team who knocks the stack over or is the last to touch the stack before it falls is out. just yank it right out. $10,000 on the line. i feel like all the banners are gonna come down. be careful, kate, 'cause that could be bad. yeah! okay. alright. alright, kate. you can be happy about it, kate. whew! i'm so nervous. kate is traumatized. alright. alright, what's a picnic without its bread? emergency teams air-lifting him to the hospital. news about the gunman's alleged. the former prime minister respected by leaders around the world. president biden calling him his friend, signing a condolence book, ordering flags at the white house to half staff. new details coming in at this