lale akoner.oming up on the program, beijing is asking covid patients with mild symptoms not to call the medical emergency hotline. this is bloomberg. ♪ manus: it is daybreak europe. let's get to hong kong. the first word headlines. >> covid is rapidly spreading through chinese households and offices after pandemic rules were unexpectedly unwound last week with hospital struggling to deal with a surge in cases. anecdotal evidence suggests the caseload is many times the governments tally as a top medical advisor is quoted as saying the fidelity rate from the omicron variant is similar to the flu. the u.k. is readying military staff and civil servants a cover for striking workers at seaports as the u.k. braces for disruption. strikes are planned for almost every day this month with nurses, ambulance staff, rail and postal workers among those walking out overpay. u.s. will send a delegation to china in the coming days following on president biden's meeting with president xi last month. the state depa

original gerrymander in essex county but gerry himself was not even responsible for the plan that laled to his everlasting historical infamy. that led to his most lasting legacy being the portmanteau of gerry and salamander which the district was said to resemble that became attached to this emkind of unseemly practice of manipulating districts for political gain. gerry had, if you believe his biographer most of the contemporary historical accounts that i uncover all suggested that gerry himself was not t especially keen on the plan. he thought it was overly partisan. he thought that it was untoward and nefarious but he kind of went along with it because more than that he wanted to get stuff done he had been elected to do. and getting that done and controlling the state legislature . so while the original gerrymander was created by the massachusetts state legislature it was gerry's name that became attached to it. if there's one thing i hope this book does is that it at least to some extent mitigates the historical led legacy of elbridge gerry who is remembered chiefly for this even tho